Squat Bottle with Bonus

Here’s a rarity: a squat bottle with a handle! Note how cleverly the maker has left room for the string to pass under the handle.

One of its later owners obviously realized how rare it was, for when it broke he had it mended with staples. In general, squat bottles were so common as to be not worth repairing, in fact, I’ve never seen one with a stapled repair. So this one is doubly rare – handled and stapled. Has “very rare” passed into “unique” here? Quite possibly. Have any of you seen one like it?

Not quite as rare, but still very desirable, is its small size: at 4-3/4” tall, it’s about half the size of a regular bottle. I have heard collectors referring to these small bottles as “half-squats,” but that sounds like something painful you do in the gym.

The bottle was sold for $2,925 in October, 2011, by the Connecticut auctioneer, Norman C. Heckler & Co., www.hecklerauction.com where it was described: “Black glass handled wine bottle, England, 1680-1730. Squat, cylindrical wine with heavy applied solid handle, deep yellow olive, sheared mouth with string rim – pontil scar, ht. 4 3/4 inches, greatest dia. 5 1/4 inches. Severely cracked with a wonderful stapled repair. Ex Rowland collection.” Norm commented, “I suspect it may have frozen and cracked, but that’s just speculation,” and he thought that if it had been in perfect condition it would have brought four or five times what it did.

I’m sure he’s right, but I prefer it with the staples. Sometimes it pays to be a market contrarian: I might have been able to pay $3,000 for it, but certainly not $12,000 – 15,000.

Thanks to Norman Heckler for the photo. The sale of the bottle is covered in the New England Antiques Journal, Feb, 2012.