Wine labels, used to embellish and identify the contents of a
decanter or bottle, first came into use about 1730 and are still
made today but their heyday was 1770-1860.
These labels, also used for sauces, were typically made of
silver or silver plate with materials such as enamel, pottery,
porcelain, ivory, bone or mother-of pearl also in common use.
What they are not are the paper labels designed to be stuck on
to bottles - that represents a quite separate field of
collecting.
There are many approaches to the study of wine labels. Some
collectors concentrate on the great variety of designs, others on
the multiplicity of names on labels, on the silversmiths and other
makers, or on the place of manufacture.
Typically labels are grouped according to form, be they shells,
crescents, ovals, scrolls, rectangles etc. One of the attractions
of labels is that they accurately reflect changing taste seen in
larger items of silver, from the whimsy of the rococo and the
elegance of neoclassicism to the muscular forms of the Regency.
Labels in the form of a single vine leaf were enormously popular
from the 1820s into the Victorian period, but by the 1860s
improvements in the production of wine enabled it to be served
direct from the bottle while legislation permitted the sale of
single bottles of wine with paper labels. Accordingly, most wine
labels from the second half of the 19th century are for sauces or
fortified wines and spirits which could stay in decanters on the
sideboard.
Above: a George II shaped oblong wine label with a curved
title area pierced Cyder, maker's mark only for Sandilands
Drinkwater, London c.1745 - £1050 at Woolley & Wallis in
October 2006.
Names can be as collectable as forms. They shed light on the
taste of their times. For example, gin occasionally appears as
'mother's ruin' or whisky as 'cream of the valley' - while
long-lost vintages such as the dessert Spanish white Paxarette, or
misspellings and variations, offer endless collecting
possibilities.
Over 2300 names of wines, spirits and liqueurs and over 500
names of sauces have been recorded on 'wine' labels. Others carry
the names of toilet waters and medicinal preparations.
More than 500 silversmiths are recorded as having made labels
during the century and a half during which they were fashionable.
Alongside the luxurious cast silver gilt versions from the great
London makers such as Paul Storr or Benjamin Smith, wine labels
were produced by the jobbing silversmiths of regional England,
Ireland and Scotland and in India and the Far East (a series of
Anglo-Chinese labels in the form of fruit bats are particularly
desirable).
As the winds of change in the silver market blow from the
functional to the collectable, the demand for small silver and for
wine-related antiques in particular has grown.
Wine labels have proved of great interest, not just to the
enthusiasts of The Wine Label Circle, but to those with a casual
interest in aspects of silver, wines and social history.
However, the entry level for collecting remains relatively
modest. The most commonly encountered examples are from the first
half of the 19th century and many are die-stamped rather than cast,
a technique that allowed large quantities of silver labels to the
made at a low cost.
Prices start at around £50 for relatively plain examples
carrying the name of a relatively common tipple.
However, prices can rise rapidly for scarcer forms, an unusual
name, a good maker, a provincial assay, or any combination of
these.
Novelties such as the famous die-stamped elephant label by
Edward Farrell are always desirable, while another highly
collectable subset comprises heraldic labels, made for a specific
family with their crest. An exceptional group of armorial labels
was offered as part of the Harvey's Wine Museum sale at Bonhams in
2003.
Some collectors focus on particular makers (the neoclassical
labels from the workshop of Hester Bateman are always a favourite),
while collectors of provincial silver provide the crossover
interest that guarantees a premium.
Plated labels or those in other materials are typically cheaper
than the silver versions but the transfer-printed and painted
labels produced in enamel at Battersea are both rare and
desirable.
Wine Labels 1730-2003. A Worldwide History, ed. John
Salter. ISBN-10: 1851494596
Sauce Labels 1750-1950 by John Salter. ISBN-10:
1851494316
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