Museum number
S474.16
Object
Rum
Description
Wine label. RumOblong, rounded ends, plain. Small
Materials
Silver
Inscription
IW (John Willis/John Warren)
On display?
Yes

Further description

Simple name
wine label
What's your poison? These late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century bottle tickets would have hung as labels around bottles and decanters. Unlike today, both white wine and red wines such as burgundy and frontiniac were usually drunk chilled. Sweet wine such as French sauterne and Portuguese calcavella and strong fortified wines were also popular. Alcohol was drunk in huge quantities. The Duke of Clarence, later William IV, was said to be remarkably abstemious because he only drank a pint of sherry during dinner! Sherry and tenerife imported from Spain and madeira, port and ruby port from Portugal were fortified with brandy. During dessert, sweet liqueurs such as ginger wine and maraschino were drunk while eating sugary sweetmeats. Ladies would then retire to take tea while the men would stay at the table to drink yet more alcohol. Punch, often made with rum was popular. Rhum was mixed with fruit juices and sugar to make shrub. During the 1730s gin was cheap and readily available. This led to a massive rise in consumption called the gin craze. It was said that in London the equivalent of two pints of gin were drunk per week for every single Londoner!

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