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
>