A very rare sealed decanter bottle, circa 1700
Of 'Onion' form in dark olive-green glass, the squat bulbous body with a tapering neck trailed with a string ring just below the rim, the flattened loop handle with a pronounced thumbrest, the shoulder applied with a circular seal bearing an Earl's coronet, with a 'kick-up' base, 17.9cm high
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private British Collection

This important decanter bottle is unrecorded in the literature and the seal is not listed by David Burton in his catalogue, Antique Sealed Bottles (2015), although a number of different seals bearing Earl's coronets above initials are recorded. An onion decanter bottle with a seal of a phoenix issuant from an Earl's coronet, listed by Burton (2015), p.1570, would appear to be the closest parallel but only a drawing of it survives. A brass seal die of an Earl's coronet, but somewhat different to that on the seal on the present lot, is illustrated by Willy Van den Bossche, Antique Glass Bottles (2001), p.382, pl.319. Related bottle decanters are illustrated by Andy McConnell, The Decanter (2018), p.47, figs. 2, 4 and 7. A most unusual unsealed 'Onion' decanter bottle of related form with a Latin inscription in diamond-point was sold by Bonhams on 3 November 2016, lot 118.