Looking through my long past I've taken part in some dangerous sports or activities. I've mention night car rallies, but can also add big yacht racing in Scottish waters and abseiling down rock faces, the biggest was 300 feet. It is often said that you really need some bottle to do these things.
In this case we have a very old bottle with a ship inside; this has been handed down from my family’s history on my Mother’s side. The first time I saw this it was in the cupboard in my grannies cottage in Sidmouth in Devon. She comes from a big fishing family that was in a very small village called Branscombe just a bit further along the Jurassic Coast.
Whether it was made by her brother, Father or Grandfather, the bottle is well over 100 years old and you can see this by the air bubbles in the glass. The story goes that whoever made this in my family, it took months of hard complicated work and on the day it was finished he put the cork stopper in to hard and broke the bowsprit, that’s the rod sticking out the front of the ship on the right.
It is still a wonderful artifact from my families past and after my Granny passed on it came down to my Mother and is now on one of my shelves.
This is a great item! I never understood how these are made, but I don't even want to (like in a magic trick, i don't want to spoil the mystery).
Really lovely! And the fact that your family took care of it so well, is astonishing.
What an amazing piece of your family history to have. A shame that the cork got pushed too hard & broke the bowsprit, but still it's an absolute treasure.
November 3rd, 2021
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Really lovely! And the fact that your family took care of it so well, is astonishing.