Thanks for the reply...look forward to future posts.  I just
double-checked the OED and no answers there...will be interested to see
what you turn up!  Good luck!
 
VivianLea Stevens
 
RCL wrote:
>
> Nothing to date.  Advert was for a German surnamed liquor distributer,
> mineral water was a German brand.  I'd not thought of the bottles
> themselves being basket-wrapped.  I've always placed those further south,
> around the Med, but...  That's why I wrote!  I've no clue!
>
> RCL
>
> At 08:21 PM 12/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
> >...could this refer to the European custom of wrapping bottles in a
> >wicker-like covering, like a basket?  Did you ever find an answer?  I've
> >kept this in my inbox because I'm curious!
> >
> >VivianLea Stevens
> >
> >RCL wrote:
> >>
> >> I've run across an advert for bottled mineral water from 1870.  It offers
> >> "...200 baskets - quarts and pints - ..."  Can anyone explain "baskets" in
> >> this sense?  I'd infer that it's used as we would use "cases".  But were
> >> they really "baskets" as we know them?  And is there any way to tell how
> >> MANY quarts or pints to the "basket"?
> >>
> >> Robert C. Leavitt
> >