Bottle: full view |
Previous | 1 of 2 | Next |
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
|
This page
All
Subset |
Loading content ...
Object Description
| Brief description | Stoneware beer bottle used by the Gipfel Union Brewery, Milwaukee, mid-nineteenth century. |
| Object name | Bottle |
| Alternate object name | Beer bottle |
| Date | 1853-1892 |
| Dimensions | 7 1/2"H x 2 3/4" diam. |
| Materials and techniques | Salt-glazed stoneware |
| Marks | Impressed bottler's mark: "Chs. Gipfel/ Milwaukee" in shield with star at center. |
| Original location | Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin |
| Description | This salt-glazed stoneware bottle has a straight-sided cylindrical lip and bands of cobalt blue glaze around the shoulder. The serpentine wire bail around the neck would have been used to secure a cork. |
| History |
This bottle once held beer from the Gipfel Union Brewery of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dating to 1853, Gipfel is Milwaukee's oldest surviving brewery building. In March 2007, developers relocated the structure to a new location one block from its original site. Before the widespread availability of inexpensive glass beverage bottles, beer and soda makers bottled their products in reusable stoneware bottles. These bottles were typically fabricated by local potters and were stamped with the names and emblems of the beverage makers, not the bottle makers. The cobalt bands on Gipfel bottles served as "case markers"--distinctive and easily visible markings that "enabled a bottler to spot his bottles from among others in a case without pulling them out to read the name." |
| Sources | For more on the Gipfel Union brewery, see Margaret Foster, "Milwaukee's Oldest Brewery Moves" Preservation, March 19, 2007 (available online from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed July 25, 2007): http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2007/todays-news-2007/milwaukees-oldest-brewery.html For more on stoneware beverage bottles, see Peter Maas, "History of Wisconsin Antique Stoneware Bottles" MrBottles.com (accessed July 25, 2007): http://www.mrbottles.com/newsDetail.asp?ID=36 |
| Related objects | Another stoneware bottle made for the Gipfel Brewery is among the collections of the Milwaukee County Historical Society (object # M1941.847.003): http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wda,666 |
| Owner | Milwaukee Public Museum |
| Object # | E40469/11524 |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the Milwaukee Public Museum. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.mpm.edu/collections/dept/history.php |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | MPM012 |
| Digital format | XML |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Ceramics; Pottery; Stoneware; Bottle; Vessel (container); Container (receptacle); Furnishings and equipment; Merchandising Tools and Equipment |
| Date digitized | 2007-07-02 |
| Date modified | 2009-03-10 |
Description
| Object name | Bottle: full view |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the Milwaukee Public Museum. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.mpm.edu/collections/dept/history.php |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | MPM012a |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Date digitized | 2007-07-02 |
| Date modified | 2009-02-02 |
