It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. You can either agree or disagree with this statement, but there is always a new twist to an old adage.

Because we are essentially 3D orientated and looking for shapes, we should  be looking at all areas of craft for images that have been handed down to us.

Consider wine bottle shapes since the early 1600's. John Lee has kindly passed on the fruits of his knowledge in wine production and points out that nothing is new in bottle shapes. But history hands down a series of changes that are fascinating and worthy of a closer look at bottle profiles from the early "Shaft & Globe" era of the 1650's until today's modern cylindrical shape.

Note that the shapes evolved with different glass houses over a period of time. Free blown English wine shapes are normally pre 1820 and range in colour from dark olive to dark amber- hence the words ‘black glass". Some come in mid green, but only a few are aqua.

Diagram eleven shows the first step towards the modern day shape. Diagram thirteen is a moulded bottle in a three piece mould. Around this point in time moulded bottles came into general use-the three piece was followed by the two piece mould, both having hand applied tops. The turn mould bottle is mainly of European origin and was in use throughout the 19th and early 20th. Century.