Impossible bottle

Last updated
A US penny in a small bottle. Small-penny-in-bottle.png
A US penny in a small bottle.

An impossible bottle is a bottle containing an object that appears too large to fit through the bottle's mouth.

Contents

The ship model in a bottle is a traditional and the most iconic type of impossible bottle. Other common objects include fruits, matchboxes, decks of cards, tennis balls, racketballs, Rubik's Cubes, padlocks, knots, and scissors. These may be placed inside the bottle using various mechanisms, including constructing an object inside the bottle from smaller parts, using a small object that expands or grows inside the bottle, or molding the glass around the object.

Ship in a bottle

Ship in a bottle Buddelschiff 2012 PD 06.JPG
Ship in a bottle

There are two ways to place a model ship inside a bottle. The simpler way is to rig the masts of the ship and raise it up when the ship is inside the bottle. Masts, spars, and sails are built separately and then attached to the hull of the ship with strings and hinges so the masts can lie flat against the deck. The ship is then placed inside the bottle and the masts are pulled up using the strings attached to the masts. [1] [2] The hull of the ship must still be able to fit through the opening. [3] Bottles with minor distortions and soft tints are often chosen to hide the small details of the ship such as hinges on the masts. Alternatively, with specialized long-handled tools, it is possible to build the entire ship inside the bottle.

The oldest surviving ships in a bottle were crafted by Giovanni Biondo at the end of the eighteenth century; two, at least, reproduce Venetian ships of the line. These are quite large and expensive models: the bottles (intended to be displayed upside down, with the neck resting on a small pedestal) measure about 45 cm. The oldest (1784) is in a museum in Lübeck; another (1786) is held by a private collector; the third (1792), that apparently reproduces the heavy frigate PN Fama, is in the Navy Museum in Lisbon. [4] Another old model (1795), from an unknown builder, is kept in a museum in Rotterdam. [5]

Ships in bottles became more popular as folk art in the second half of the nineteenth century, [6] after the introduction of cheap, mass-produced bottles made with clear glass. [6]

A significant collection of ships in bottles is the Dashwood-Howard collection held by the Merseyside Maritime Museum. [6]

God-in-a-bottle

God-in-a-bottle made by an Irish WWI soldier in a German POW camp. John O'Neill POW camp photographs and crafts, item 1.jpg
God-in-a-bottle made by an Irish WWI soldier in a German POW camp.

God-in-a-bottle, or God-in-the-Bottle, is a symbolisation of the crucifixion of Jesus through the placing in a bottle of carved wooden items, including a cross and often others such as a ladder and spear [of Longinus]. [7] The crossbeam of the cross is attached to the vertical beam after both are in the bottle. [7] The bottles were often filled with liquid, latterly sometimes with particles akin to a snow globe. [7] Such bottles were used in 19th-century Irish Catholicism as devotional objects or as talismans akin to witch bottles. [8] [7] They were found elsewhere in Catholic Europe, and are related to older "Passion Bottles", made by glassblowers in their spare time, where a large variety of small glass symbols of the Passion of Jesus were inserted into a bottle. [6] [7] [9] The making of Gods-in-bottles was exported through Irish diaspora, notably to mining communities in Northern England, where scenes with mining tools sometimes replaced the crucifixion. [10] [11] Examples are in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life [12] the Irish Agricultural Museum, [7] Enniscorthy Castle museum, [7] and the Beamish Museum in County Durham. [13] [14] Later makers were often Irish Travellers, whose craftworks often recycle discarded objects. [7] [15] Richard Power's 1964 novel The Land of Youth, set in a fictional version of the Aran Islands, [16] mentions an outcast who uses driftwood for what is "known to generations of children as God-in-a-bottle." [17] Although the Offaly Independent says that in the 1970s "almost every pub in Tullamore" displayed a bottle, [18] by the 21st century they were largely unknown in Ireland. [19] A 2023 episode of Nationwide reported on two men in the Irish midlands still practising the tradition. [18]

Small objects that expand naturally

A prisonniere
Poire Williams Williams Christ Obstbrand.JPG
A prisonnière Poire Williams

One variation of the impossible bottle takes advantage of pine cones opening as they dry out. In constructing the display, a closed, green cone of suitable size is inserted into a narrow-mouthed bottle and then allowed to dry inside the bottle. [20]

Fruits and vegetables inside bottles are grown by placing a bottle around the blossom or young fruit and securing it to the plant. The fruit then grows to full size inside the bottle. [21] This technique is used to put pears into bottles of pear brandy (most famously the French eau de vie Poire Williams). [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tate Modern</span> Modern art gallery in London, England

Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art. It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is located in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beamish Museum</span> Open-air museum in County Durham, England

Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Craig-Martin</span> Irish contemporary conceptual artist and painter

Sir Michael Craig-Martin is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is an emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. His memoir and advice for the aspiring artist, On Being An Artist, was published by London-based publisher Art / Books in April 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch ball</span> Glass sphere said to ward off evil

A witch ball is a hollow sphere of glass. Witch balls were hung in cottage windows in 17th- and 18th-century England to ward off evil spirits, witches, evil spells, ill fortune and bad spirits.

<i>The Kiss</i> (Rodin sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Kiss is an 1882 marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everhart Museum</span> Art and natural history museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art is a non-profit art and natural history museum located in Nay Aug Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1908 by Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart, a local medical doctor and skilled taxidermist. Many of the specimens in the museum's extensive ornithological collection came from Dr. Everhart's personal collection.

<i>The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living</i> Artwork by Damien Hirst

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is an artwork created in 1991 by Damien Hirst, an English artist and a leading member of the "Young British Artists". It consists of a preserved tiger shark submerged in formalin in a glass-panel display case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lycurgus Cup</span> Roman glass cup

The Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass 4th-century cage cup made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it: red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front. It is the only complete Roman glass object made from this type of glass, and the one exhibiting the most impressive change in colour; it has been described as "the most spectacular glass of the period, fittingly decorated, which we know to have existed".

<i>For the Love of God</i> 2007 sculpture by Damien Hirst

For the Love of God is a sculpture by artist Damien Hirst produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead that is known as the Skull Star Diamond. The skull's teeth are original, and were purchased by Hirst in London. The artwork is a memento mori, or reminder of the mortality of the viewer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princeton University Art Museum</span> Art museum in New Jersey, US

The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works of art ranging from antiquity to the contemporary period. The Princeton University Art Museum dedicates itself to supporting and enhancing the university's goals of teaching, research, and service in fields of art and culture, as well as to serving regional communities and visitors from around the world. Its collections concentrate on the Mediterranean region, Western Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America.

<i>An Oak Tree</i> Conceptual artwork by Michael Craig-Martin

An Oak Tree is a conceptual work of art created by Michael Craig-Martin in 1973. The piece, described as an oak tree, is installed in two units – a pristine installation of a glass of water on a glass shelf on metal brackets 253 centimetres above the ground, and a text mounted on the wall. When first exhibited, the text was given as a handout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Dion</span> American conceptual artist

Mark Dion is an American conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. His work examines the manner in which prevalent ideologies and institutions influence our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. The job of the artist, according to him, is to "go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention". By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Dion questions the objectivity and authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society, tracking how pseudo-science, social agendas and ideology creep into public discourse and knowledge production. Some of his well known works include Neukom Vivarium (2006), a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass art</span> Art, substantially or wholly made of glass

Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry and tableware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic brooch</span> Ring-and-pin clothing fastener

The Celtic brooch, more properly called the penannular brooch, and its closely related type, the pseudo-penannular brooch, are types of brooch clothes fasteners, often rather large; penannular means formed as an incomplete ring. They are especially associated with the beginning of the Early Medieval period in Ireland and Britain, although they are found in other times and places—for example, forming part of traditional female dress in areas in modern North Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology</span> National museum in Dublin, Ireland

The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland located on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland, that specialises in Irish and other antiquities dating from the Stone Age to the Late Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waddesdon Bequest</span> Collection of Renaissance art in the British Museum

In 1898, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed to the British Museum as the Waddesdon Bequest the contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of a wide-ranging collection of almost 300 objets d'art et de vertu, which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica. One of the earlier objects is the outstanding Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry. The collection is in the tradition of a schatzkammer, or treasure house, such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe; indeed, the majority of the objects are from late Renaissance Europe, although there are several important medieval pieces, and outliers from classical antiquity and medieval Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese art by medium and technique</span>

Much traditional Chinese art was made for the imperial court, often to be then redistributed as gifts. As well as Chinese painting, sculpture and Chinese calligraphy, there are a great range of what may be called decorative or applied arts. Chinese fine art is distinguished from Chinese folk art, which differs in its style and purpose. This article gives an overview of the many different applied arts of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enamelled glass</span> Glass which has been decorated with vitreous enamel

Enamelled glass or painted glass is glass which has been decorated with vitreous enamel and then fired to fuse the glasses. It can produce brilliant and long-lasting colours, and be translucent or opaque. Unlike most methods of decorating glass, it allows painting using several colours, and along with glass engraving, has historically been the main technique used to create the full range of image types on glass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insular crozier</span> Type of processional bishops staff

An Insular crozier is a type of processional bishop's staff (crozier) produced in Ireland and Scotland between 800 and 1200. Such items can be distinguished from mainland European types by their curved and open crooks, and drop. By the end of the 12th century, production of Irish croziers had largely ended, but examples continued to be reworked and added to throughout the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Although many of the croziers are associated with 5th- and 6th-century saints, the objects were not made until long after the saints had died. A majority originate from around the 9th century, with a number further embellished between the 11th and 13th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clonmacnoise Crozier</span> 11th-century Irish crozier

The Clonmacnoise Crozier is a late-11th-century Insular crozier that would have been used as a ceremonial staff for bishops and mitred abbots. Its origins and medieval provenance are unknown. It was likely discovered in the late 18th or early 19th century in the monastery of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly, Ireland. The crozier has two main parts: a long shaft and a curved crook. Its style reflects elements of Viking art, especially the snake-like animals in figure-of-eight patterns running on the sides of the body of the crook, and the ribbon of dog-like animals in openwork that form the crest at its top. Apart from a shortening to the staff length and the loss of some inserted gems, it is largely intact and is one of the best-preserved surviving pieces of Insular metalwork.

References

  1. Lardas, Mark. "September 2006 Boys' Life magazine". Boyslife.org. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  2. "how to section". Shipbottle.ru. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  3. "How is a ship in a bottle made?". Answers.com. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  4. "Folk Art In Bottles - Giovanni Biondo - 1st Ship in Bottle Builder". www.folkartinbottles.com. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  5. "Ships in Bottles -- A Bit of the History and Lore". Old Salt Blog. 2016-01-10. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Stammers, Michael (1 March 2013). "Ships in Bottles and Their Origins in the Late Nineteenth Century". The Mariner's Mirror. 99 (1): 92–94. doi:10.1080/00253359.2013.767629. S2CID   161283281.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kinmonth, Claudia (2020). Irish country furniture and furnishings 1700–2000. Cork University Press. pp. 415–417. ISBN   978-1782054054.
  8. Healy, Ben (2020). "God-out-of-the-Bottle". Sligo Field Club Journal. 6.
  9. Bruhn, Jutta-Annette (1994). "A Passion Bottle by Alexandre Soudart". Journal of Glass Studies. 36: 135–139. ISSN   0075-4250. JSTOR   24190062.
    • Kenny, Ruth (10 June 2014). "God-in-a-Bottle". In Kenny, Ruth; Myrone, Martin; McMillan, Jeff (eds.). British folk art: [on the occasion of the exhibition British Folk Art, Tate Britain, 10 June - 31 August 2014; Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 27 September - 14 December 2014]. London: Tate Publishing. pp. 72–73. ISBN   978-1849762649.
    • cited in Mc Hugh, Christopher (7 July 2018). "Vitrified memory: a contemporary archaeology of glass ships in bottles". Vessels of Memory: Glass Ships in Bottles. Cornerhouse Publications. pp. 61–66. ISBN   978-1-906832-34-6.
  10. National Museum of Ireland [@NMIreland] (6 October 2016). "Passion Bottle or 'God in a Bottle' contain wooden objects usually a crucifix symbolising the Passion of Christ, on display NMI-CountryLife" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  11. "God in a bottle". People's Collection. Beamish Museum.
  12. Gascoigne, Laura (1 June 2014). "Folk tales". Apollo. 179 (621): 88.
  13. Burke, Mary (28 July 2022). "Irish Travellers, the Environment, and Literature". A History of Irish Literature and the Environment. pp. 206–226. doi:10.1017/9781108780322.011.
  14. Doyle, Carmel (October 2009). "Power, Richard (Dick) (de Paor, Risteard)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.007465.v1 . Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  15. Power, Richard (1964). The Land of Youth. New York: Dial Press. p. 6.
  16. 1 2 Grennan, Geraldine (3 February 2023). "Keeping the 'God in the Bottle' craft tradition alive". Offaly Independent. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
    • Manning, Conleth (2021). "Archaeology in Ireland's journals 2020". Archaeology Ireland. 35 (1): 51. ISSN   0790-892X. JSTOR   27075193. while most people are familiar with ships in bottles, few will have heard of putting a small wooden cross and symbols of the Passion into a bottle ... called 'God in a bottle'
    • McNally, Frank (12 April 2024). "Glass act". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  17. "Pine Cone in the Bottle Display". Instructables. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  18. Science Fair Project Ideas: Grow Apples or Tomatoes in Bottles
  19. "How do you get a full-grown pear inside a Brandy bottle?". 2014-10-03.