Patented in 1814, some of the first Hamilton bottles were made in stoneware rather than glass. Pottery bottles impressed with the names of companies in London, St Ives (Huntingdonshire), Chesterfield, and Sheffield, among other towns are known although all are considered rarities.
The Stocker’s stoneware ginger beer Hamilton is known in several types, with different logos and with and without a return address.
The example offered by Adam Partridge (25% buyer’s premium) in West Ruislip on June 11 was impressed for the Royal Aeriated Water Works, 13 Thomas Street, Stamford Street, Blackfriars and to the reverse for Stocker’s Ginger Beer.
The rarest of the known variants, it was estimated at £1500-2000 but sold at £5000.
Evidence that the top end of British bottle collecting is enjoying a purple patch, this is seemingly an auction record for a stoneware Hamilton. The previous high was for another well-preserved example impressed for the Soda Water Manufactory Futteghur (India) sold in April 2022 by specialist BBR in Elsecar, South Yorkshire, for £4000.
Both prices are set to be eclipsed by the imminent sale of a giant amber glass hybrid bottle (one that combines the Hamilton torpedo form with the neck of a Codd bottle) recently found in the subcontinent.
This bottle, previously known only from fragments, is embossed for Rogers, Rock & Co, London and The Nazam’s Government, Hyderabad. It will have an estimate of £12,000-15,000 when offered at BBR on July 6-7.
