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This
piece of glass was found 14 years ago in the inside of the front wall
of a house in Cross Street, Caerleon. The house was undergoing extensive
renovation and the plaque was found just below ground level. The owners
of the house took it to Caerleon Museum. They were told that sometimes
such plaques were built into house walls to date the buildings. The date
seems right - a map of Caerleon in 1752 shows no house on the spot, whereas
a map dated 1801 has a building there.
The diameter of the disc is 4 cm and it would seem that at some time in
the past it was attached to the outside of a glass bottle. (There is a
different kind of glass on the back which curves in one direction.)
What do the letters I.B.C. stand for? Well, they could have already been
on the glass - the disc being used solely because the date fitted. In
this case the bottle could have been sold by "I. B. of Caerleon"
On the other hand, if the letters and date were added after the disc was
removed from the bottle, the letters could be the initials of the first
owners of the house.
If you have a similar item or can tell us anything about this object please email us. |
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We've
had some interesting feedback from Steve Wilmot. He wrote:
"I
am fairly certain that this is a Wine Bottle Seal and that the initials
are those of the owner rather than those of a retailer.
Gentlemen had their bottles marked in this way to ensure that they received
the right ones back from the wine merchant after filling.
The bottles (and their contents) would not have been cheap and so this
tells us that 'I.B. of Caerleon' was a person of some standing within
the community.
As the letter ' I ' was sometimes used, in the 18th. Century, where today
we might use the letter ' J ', the bottle could well have been the property
of, 'J.B. of Caerleon'.
This would then lead us to John Butler, Esquire, 1733-1808 and the owner
of the Caerleon Tin Works." |
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John Butler owned
Caerleon House, in High Street, not far from where the glass disc was
found. If our object is
a wine bottle seal, then another possible 'owner' is John Charles who
was innkeeper of the Hanbury Arms - see our 1791
Caerleon Directory |
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