Thought it might be worth starting a thread dedicated to Daffy's, since it is one of the all time classic British bottles.

Here are four of mine. The three on the left are pontiled, the one on the right is an early smooth base (probably about 1860s). I also have a very late smooth base, probably about 1890 - 1900, not in the picture. Difficult to date the two olive ones, but I suspect that the order in the picture, left to right, is their age order, earliest on the left. Far left is bare iron pontil (1810s - 40s), second left is a circular glass chip pontil (1820s - 40s), third is lightly glass chip pontiled (1840s - 50s).

I think that the second left is one of the thirty or more found in a wall in the SW in the late 1970s. It is very heavily whittled, with heavy but indistinct / whittled looking embossing. There are several around that are just about identical to this one, and one of those is known to have been a part of that hoard. I've got the edition of the old ABC that told the story in about 1978. I'll scan it and put it up later.



There's a major difference in the embossing between earlier and later types, that seems to coincide pretty closely with the end of pontil marks. Next photo shows it. Top pair are both pontiled, bottom pair are smooth base. I reckon that the change in embossing happened around 1845 to 1855. I have to re-read Guy Burch's BBR article to see what he says about it.



I know several of the forum members have very different Daffy's bottles (such as a self-dug very dark half size ....!). Anyone want to show one or two??

Jerry

Thought I'd add pics of the fantastic 'early' Daffy's to this thread:

First, the early one next to an 'ordinary' pontiled aqua bottle, for shape and size comparison.


Here's the lip. Flared, and folded down at about 45 degrees.


Here's the base, complete with huge kick up and jagged pontil:


And this shows the position of the pretty weak embossing, scrunched down into the bottom 2/3 of the bottle.


A really great and genuinely important bottle, that came from a small town North Yorkshire chemists shop clear-out many, many years ago (1960s!).
Jerry

BTW, not very nice but a fact of life: these pics are not to be lifted and published elsewhere without prior agreement. The owner of the bottle will be extremely pissed off if that happens without their advance agreement.

Here is one i dug many moons ago, alongside a much later one for size comparison.

Wow. Bl***y brilliant bottle to dig yourself. Thanks for showing.
J

Love these bottles, never had a sniff of one yet. But it's very high on my list of things I must take to bed.........

Thanks for the great pics!

Jerry,

I love that early daffys The color of the glass reminds me more of some of the late 18th century utility viles we sometimes find. Everything about that bottle says late 18th century.

Chris

I think you're right Chris. It's a great bottle. My jaw hit the floor when I first saw it. The present owner had no idea it was anything particularly special until I started babbling. It's probably the earliest embossed, standard shape Daffy's (as opposed to the round / globular type, some of which which may also be 18th century) known to date. Unless someone here can say otherwise.
J

... and here's the magazine article, from Vol 4, No 10, of Antique Bottle Collecting, October 1978. Most of the information in it is out of date now, but the 'Secret Daffy's Drinker' story at the end, about the hoard of bottles, is a bit mouth-watering.





J

Fascinating story and some great info on the bottles.... I wonder what happened to the Dr A Daffys version that appeared on ebay last year ?

The really early one is mindblowing, i wonder what the maker thought of it (he must have taken pride in that lip)

Here are a couple more pics of the small green one.

That's a great little bottle Groby. All that wear on the base suggests it was in use for many, many years before it found it's way into the ground.

So far as I know, the 'Doct A Daffy' bottle eventually sold, off eBay, relatively cheaply (if what I've heard is correct, it was substantially less than even I had planned to bid for it!!). Have since discovered that there are several others very similar out there, but all seem to be in very stable collections, and unlikely to move for many years.

That bottle was certainly not anything to do with the original Daffy, who died in the late 17th century, at least 100 years before the bottle was manufactured. It's possibly a great-great-grandnephew of the original Rev'd Daffy, but equally likely to have been an out-and-out lying fraudster just trying to cash in on the name.

Here are a couple of pics of the eBay example. Bu**er. I f*****g hate it when an auction for an item I'm chasing is ended early without giving people a fair bash at something.



J

A pic of the base that the seller sent me before it dissappeared from ebay

Hi.

The small green Daffy's of Robs is a super little bottle.
I know where one is identicle to Robs! It has the same lip and the same small size and it is very pale aqua to almost clear,but it has a tiny little minute hole in the bottom corner about twice the size of a pin head! if i can remember rightly.
I can buy it for £300, well thats if its still for sale after 4 years.
Do you think this is a good buy or should i leave it alone?
Cheers Wayne.

A late (non-ponitlled) one with a small chip went for £10 at Elsecar on saturday

What a bargain....!

Here's my darker Daffy's.

This bottle is 4 1/2" inches high and it seems to be between the smaller and the larger ones in size.




And here's a picture with a strong spot light shining through it,so you can see the depth of colour.




Daffy's have always been one of my favourite pontilled Cure's and i could never have enough of them!

Also going back to the subject of Daffy's Elixir copies. Was'nt their a Jacksons Daffy's Elixir bottle around years ago?
Wayne.

thanks for the positive comments on the Daffys that i dug (it now resides in an American collection after 12 years in my posession)....

I had the good fortune today of handling a half size Daffys belonging to John Ault. I must say that the two bottles are TOTALLY different, Johns being from a far superior mould. I can now fully relate to the past comments on the weak embossing on mine. Although it is a very rare bottle and everybody seemed to want it, the embossing let it down.... Also the pontil is very mild in comparison to others that i have seen (including JAs). The major plus points for mine apart from its size and nice colour, are the lip and for me the fact that i dug it... Had the embossing been stronger i certainly wouldnt have had it very long.....