Mary,
Sort of. Rotterdam was a major source of distilled beverages
at this time. Alcohol for sea voyages (absolutely necessary
because no one wanted to drink water and it was partially
for medicinal use, of course!) was obtained from the
Netherlands by the companies involved in exploration and
travel in the square sided bottles packed in cases. In the
earliest years, most of Jamestown's supply is coming from
London, with some things picked up in Plymouth.
Bly

Beverly A. (Bly) Straube, FSA
Senior Archaeological Curator
Jamestown Rediscovery
1365 Colonial Parkway
Jamestown, VA 23081
757 229-4997 x103

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Mary C. Beaudry
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 1:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Case Bottle & Pewter Screw Cap Refs?

Bly,

If none of the pewter screw caps for case bottles have been
found in English
contexts, are you positing that the abundance of them at
Jamestown had
something to do with the way the project was
supplied/outfitted (e.g.,
purchases from Amsterdam warehouses or the like?)?

Mary

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 2:26 PM, Bly Straube <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Mo,
> Those pewter screw caps (called 'vices' in the C17) are a
> Dutch phenomenon. Hugh Willmott (Early post-medieval
vessel
> glass in England c. 1500-1670, CBA Research Report 132,
> 2002) claims that not one has been found in England. We
have
> lots of them from our excavations of James Fort,
established
> by the English in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia.
> Bly
>
> Beverly A. (Bly) Straube, FSA
> Senior Archaeological Curator
> Jamestown Rediscovery
> 1365 Colonial Parkway
> Jamestown, VA 23081
> 757 229-4997 x103
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Maureen Brown
> Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:52 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Case Bottle & Pewter Screw Cap Refs?
>
> Hello everyone,
>
>
>
> Since my companion, Marybeth, had such a great response to
> her request
> for faience references from everyone, I thought I'd make a
> small request
> to the group as well.
>
>
>
> I'm researching glass from the La Belle shipwreck, which
was
> one of the
> La Salle's, the French explorer's vessels that wrecked on
> the Texas
> coast in 1686. The majority of glass recovered includes
> three sizes of
> case bottles and associated pewter screw caps, similar to
> the ones found
> on several VOC (Dutch East Indiamen) merchant vessels. In
> addition,
> there were a few onion bottles and hour glasses/sand
clocks
> found as
> well. I'm interested in references, information, and/or
> comparative
> underwater and terrestrial sites that have found 17th -
18th
> century
> case bottles and/or pewter screw caps/tops.
>
>
>
> Thanks a bunch and hope everyone is cooler than us in
> Austin!
>
> Mo
>
>
>
> Maureen Brown
>
> Collections Manager/Archeologist III
>
> Archeology Division
>
> Texas Historical Commission
>
> P.O. Box 12276
>
> Austin, TX 78701-2276
>
> (512) 927-7876 office
>
> (512) 927-9797 fax
>
> [log in to unmask]
>