Seltzer water bottle
Seltzer water bottle is a technical term for special stoneware jugs that have been manufactured and used as containers for the trade of mineral water ( seltzer water ) since the 17th century at the latest . Although they are bottles in shape, they are sometimes also referred to as mineral water jugs (or Selters water jugs), as the term jug was used for these vessels in written sources from the 18th and 19th centuries.
development
Molding and manufacturing
Early specimens have an egg-shaped body and a so-called wave base. In the course of the 18th century the jugs became slimmer, in the 19th century the vessel body was smooth and cylindrical. First of all, the jugs were pottery and glazed on the disc . According to a travelogue from the late 18th century, a potter could make around 150 to 175 pieces in a day. In fact, very large quantities of these vessels were needed: it is recorded from the Heilbrunnen in Schwalheim that 11,000 jugs were sold in 1782 and 30,000 in the following year. In 1879, with the introduction of the jug press, production became much more efficient; one press could produce 1500 raw cylinders for the vessel bodies per day.
Labelling
Initially, the mugs had a brand painted on them. The stamps with the name of the well, which are characteristic of later times, appear for the first time around the middle of the 18th century. These stamps were important as proof of the origin of the water from a certain healing spring, which is why the Trier electors in the 18th century, for example, issued a ban on exporting unfilled containers with brands so that they would not be filled with "ordinary" water by fraudsters on a large scale and this could then be sold as healing water. Some jugs also have additional characters or letters painted on them, which served as a mark of origin from a particular pottery company.
Replacement by glass bottles
In the last quarter of the 19th century, mineral water bottles made of glass became increasingly important. Shortly after 1900, the stoneware bottles were hardly of any importance for some fountains.
Manufacturing areas
Stoneware water bottles were made in different regions. One center was in Kannenbäckerland in the Westerwald . The mineral water wells in the Eifel were supplied by pottery from the South West Eifel . Other places of manufacture were in the production area of Rhenish stoneware , in Frechen and in Adendorf near Meckenheim.
Usage locations
Even if the name is derived from the particularly prominent bottling location Selters , similar vessels were used in different well locations. In the Rhineland , mineral water dispatch in stoneware bottles is documented for numerous places, some of which are still known today for their sources (e.g. Aachen , Gerolstein , Heppingen , Hönningen , Roisdorf , Sinzig or Tönisstein ). The filling locations can be distinguished by the stamp. Since the seltzer water bottles were often thrown away after use (and often a second use, e.g. as a canteen or for storing self-made beverages), archaeological finds can point to trade routes and distance sales of mineral water and thus provide important information on economic history.
literature
- Bernd Brinkmann: On the dating of mineral water bottles made of stoneware. Keramos 98, 1982, pp. 7-36.
- Bernd Brinkmann: The mineral water delivery in stoneware bottles. In: Der Mineralbrunnen 3.1984. P. 98f.
- Bernd Brinkmann: Stoneware bottles for shipping mineral fountains in the Rhineland. In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Rheinisches Museumamt (ed.). Lust for water. Mineral springs and medicinal baths in the Rhineland . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1991, pp. 82-103.
- U. Gross: On the history of the oldest stoneware seltzer water bottles. Archaeological News from Baden 67, 2003, 42–48.
- Heinz Nienhaus: Old clay jugs with well seals and manufacturer's mark for historical mineral water shipping. In: Der Mineralbrunnen 9,1982. P. 276.
- Heinz Nienhaus: Selter water jugs with relief editions. Keramos 111, 1986,
- Heinz Nienhaus: Selters water jugs - possibilities and limits of age determination. Keramos 123, 1989, 71-84.
- Hans-Peter Pracht: The mineral water jugs and bottles made from clay are being developed. In: Hans-Peter Pracht: Volcanoes, Sources and Gods of the Eifel. Helios, Aachen 2000. pp. 61-64.
- Konrad Schneider: The shipping of mineral water and its container production in the Rhine-Hessian area from the 17th to the end of the 19th century. Koblenz 2000.
- Ulf Wielandt: Where do the mineral water jugs come from? In: Der Mineralbrunnen 9,1981. P. 272.