Bourne Stoneware Bottle

Q: I bought an old stoneware bottle for $2 at an auction. Later I found a picture of the same bottle in a book. The bottle in the book was found by a scuba diver in Lake George in upstate New York. The author wondered if the bottle dates from the Revolutionary War era. The brown bottle is about 9 inches tall and has a pouring lip. It’s embossed ‘Vitreous Stone Bottle, J. Bourne & Son, Patentees, Denby Pottery near Derby ? P. & J. Arnold, London, England.’ What did the bottle hold and how old is it?

A: Bourne’s Pottery in Denby, Derbyshire, England, dates back to 1809, but the ‘J. Bourne & Son’ mark was not used until about 1850. Your bottle is a master ink bottle, the kind used to fill inkwells in school desks. Bourne made large quantities of the bottles for P. & J. Arnold, a London shop, in the late 1800s. Marked bottles can be found in sizes ranging from about 5 to 9 inches tall. They are not rare, even in the United States, but you paid a bargain price. A 9-inch bottle usually sells for $15 to $30.