A bottle is a container, most often made of glass, for holding liquids. Bottles come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, though the most common are cylindrical with straight sides and a narrow top. They may have a cork to seal the opening. Bottles are used for a wide variety of products, from drinks and milk to medicines, perfumes, cosmetics, and more. Some bottles are used for transporting chemicals or liquids such as fuels, cleaning agents, and pesticides.
Historically, bottles have been made in a great variety of shapes and sizes. The Bottle Typing (Typology)/Diagnostic Shapes complex of webpages is an on-line “type collection” of the major types and styles of bottles manufactured during the covered era. This collection is constantly being added to as more bottles are identified and photographed. These pages are not designed to be “complete” in any way since the number and variety of different bottles produced is vast. This is especially true of liquor bottles – which is the focus of this section of the site.
While the morphology of a particular bottle will vary, there are certain patterns in the way these bottles were formed that are easily identifiable and help to identify a bottle’s type. For example, a bottle with straight side and neck profiles is likely to be a whiskey bottle whereas a squat round bottle is more likely to have been used for beer or ale.
Another very useful indicator is the rim of a bottle – the extreme upper surface where the bore begins. This is sometimes called the lip or collar, and it may also be referred to as the ring or wedding band if it is narrow and rounded. This is a transition zone between two other major portions of the bottle – the shoulder and base of the neck.
The base of the neck is another important piece of information to determine a bottle’s type. Generally, the base of the neck is thicker than the rest of the body and may be very squat in shape. This may be due to a need for extra strength to hold the contents, or to provide an area that can be embossed with labels and other graphics.
A final key indicator is the neck. The neck of a bottle is typically much thinner than the shoulders and body, making it easier to grab when grabbing the bottle from a shelf or other surface. The neck is also where the bottle may be twisted to open and close the bottle. The term bottle also refers to a device fitted with a teat for giving milk to babies and young children, or other liquids to young animals. This type of bottle is also called a suck-bottle or a feeding bottle. The term suck-bottle is derived from the fact that a baby or young animal tends to suck on a bottle rather than using its mouth to drink. The suck-bottle is also the more common name for a bottle used to administer medicine or other liquids to an infant or young child.