For this blog I have decided to explore a different object. I have a acquired a set of vintage bitter bottles from my parents home on Long Island. To my knowledge these bottles were purchased and owned by my mother however, I am not completely certain about this fact. These bottles are pretty iconic for me. They lived on the mantle above my staircase for quite a while. Going up and down the stairs I was so enamored by the teal, pink, purple, brown colored bottles. I always thought of them as bottles I could hold different magical potions in.  I could absolutely never touch them as my mother though I would break them. The bottles eventually made their way into my basement and for what they thought was going to be their final resting place–forgotten and collecting dust. Fast forward to last spring. I was getting ready to move into another apartment and while I was preparing and packing I was looking around my parents house to see if they had any furnishing I could take along with me. While rummaging downstairs I came across these bottles once again and after 22 years of being told to keep my distance with these objects, I finally picked them up. I finally got to feel the smooth texture of each bottle, their lightness, and I could finally get close enough to read what was engraved on the bottles.

These set of bottles I am currently exploring for my thesis project. While analyzing these bottles, I questioned why these bottles were fashioned in a set to be collected as a decorative object. The set has never held any liquids just merely for show. When I began researching, I found that collecting antique bitter bottles was a hobby of what seems like a pretty large community of people.

James H. Thompson in 1947 wrote the first book on bitters. Bitters being alcohol disguised as medicine. According to this book bitter bottles are one of the older bottle collecting categories. Bottles in this category must be embossed with the word “Bitters” or have a label which has the word “Bitters” printed as part of the trade name. Today, bitters bottles may sell anywhere from a few dollars for common clear or aqua examples to over ten thousand dollars for unusually colored figural varieties. These bottles meant a lot to me already but, to find out that they might be precious and valuable aside from the inscribed memories was exciting. However, this excitement did not last that long. While going through the process of identifying the traits that prove the bottles authenticity, I came across an engraving on the bottom of the bottle that said “made in Taiwan.” This only devalued these bottles monetary amount– in many ways the bottles are priceless to me.

Although these bottles are not originals, I do want to share some history about them. I never really used bitters and knew much about them until just a couple months ago. As I said earlier they used bitters to disguise alcohol as medicine. The practice of adding a small amount of herbal bitters to gin was so that it might be sold without taxation under the guise of medicinal liquor .This practice originated in England and became popular from 1850-1870, when laws which taxed liquor, the popularity of various temperance movements, and local restrictions on the liquor trade made bitters very appealing and highly valued. Additionally, the civilized man of the 1870’s could sate his desire for strong drink being condemned by the temperance union or from his neighbor for wasting his family’s money by taking his libations in the form of bitters. At this time everyone knew that a dose a day of “Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters” was not only respectable but would keep one in good health as well.

I am pretty amazed at the amount of information I did not know about these bottles until very recently. I would love to come across authentic bitter bottles from this time. I only own a replicate set of them and I think they are so beautiful but I could only imagine what it would be like to have an original.