BOTTLE

A postmedieval dark green glass bottle seal. The item is circular in plan and bears the name 'Robert Berry' in the centre. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centurues it was fashionable for wealthy people to have bottles made bearing their name or crest. In his 1663 diary, Samuel Pepys refers to bottles bearing his own seal: 'Thence to Mr Rawlinson's, and saw some of my new bottles made, with my crest upon them, filled with wine, about five or six dozen.' (diary entry Friday 23rd October 1663).The seals were made by applying molten glass to the bottle and pressing it with a metal stamp (Hedges, AAC: 'Bottles and Bottle Collecting').

Research has shown that, during the early eighteenth century, a Robert Berry was living at the farm where the seal was discovered. Robert Berry made his last will and testament on 3rd March 1707, leaving his land and household goods to his wife and eventually to his grandson, Thomas Saltern (PROB 11/513/362). It is highly probable that this is the same Robert Berry mentioned on the seal, therefore the seal can be dated from the late seventeenth to the early eighteeth century.