A very rare sealed ‘Squat Cylinder’ wine bottle, dated 1783

Of dark olive-amber tint, the wide straight-sided body with rounded shoulders, the tapering neck with a tooled lip and string rim, applied to the side with a seal inscribed ‘I.T./ 1783’, with a deep basal ‘kick-up’, 23.7cm high

A sealed bottle with the same initials and date is recorded by David Burton, Antique Sealed Bottles (2015), p.779 but the ‘I’ is crossed, so the seal on the present lot is unrecorded. It is not possible to identify the individual to whom the initials relate

In amazing original condition a fabulous early bottle it has a small hairline at the shoulder very minor and could be a fracture and air bubble from the time of manufacture now sealed and stable