Wine bottle

This hand blown wine bottle from around the 1730s has an applied seal with ‘W.W.Lasynys’ impressed on it. It probably came from the house Y Lasynys (or Lasynys Fawr) near Harlech, the birth place of Ellis Wynne (1671 – 1734), clergyman and author of the notable Welsh prose classic Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (‘The Visions of the Sleeping Bard’), first printed in London in 1703. Ellis Wynne’s second son was called William Wynn (1704–1761). He was also a cleric. The initials W.W. could indicate that the wine bottle belonged to him.

Wine bottles like this were first made in Britain in 1660. They were hand blown and the wide thick bottom with the recessed ‘kick’ made them stable and strong. The thin neck was reinforced at the top with a narrow rim of applied glass that allowed the cork to be secured with thread or wire. The applied seal with the owner’s name or initials personalised the bottle. This type of shape is the easiest one for a glass blower to produce – a bubble of glass with a thin neck. At the beginning of the 19th century wine bottles began to be stored on their sides and narrower cylindrically sided wine bottles were used.

The bottle was donated to the Museum by Brigadier J.M.J. Evans, C.B.E., M.C. Broom Hall, Chwilog in 1946.