tinpan
Silver Member
"FOUR PENNY BLACK THE STORY OF A BOTTLE"
Hi everyone,Sometime ago i found a bottle called an English Black [1850-1870] These bottles are common finds all over the world and most hunter will have one and have not much value.All most black in colour and are 3 piece mould.The bottle i found was brought to Australia sometime in the first gold rush from 1851 to 1857.England is a long way from here.These bottles have a special name around here ,we call them a "Four Penny Dark"At the time of the gold rush not everyone had a taste for dirt and picks .They used their skills and ingenuity to set up all sorts of ways to get their share of the gold and one of the best ways was to set up illegal inns and bars and sell alcohol to the goldminers.Life was hard in the first years of the goldrush and most only found enough gold to keep going.Often at the end of a hard day on their claims the miners would go to the local inn and spend their little gold -dust on alcohol.The inner keepers to avoid the law would often aquire the alcohol from illegal means and mix it with the good alcohol which they paided a heavy tax on.Mostly dark red wine and different types of home made gut-rot
Drinking this wine was not good for one health but the miners didn,t seem to care.Beening dark in colour and coming in reused english black bottle and costing four English pennies,is how its got its name."Four Penny Dark" The price of the wine was 3 pennies and a one penny deposit if the bottle was returned.
The bottle i found ,was in a creek bed of a place called Ironbark Gully and the name Ironbark comes from the thick brown rusty bark from BOX IRONBARK GUM TREE. Ironbark is a well recorded piece of Australian history and has been written about many times by numerous writters.
I had forgotten this history for sometime and only remembered it the other night while sitting down trying to work out a few different relics which i have found in the past few days.Everytime i find something i stop for a minute and think back to a time long past and try to picture it in my mind.This just my way,as i love the history of these places i hunt.thanks for reading and heres a pic of a few of the best bottles i have found this year and the Four Penny Dark is in the back row.
tinpan
Hi everyone,Sometime ago i found a bottle called an English Black [1850-1870] These bottles are common finds all over the world and most hunter will have one and have not much value.All most black in colour and are 3 piece mould.The bottle i found was brought to Australia sometime in the first gold rush from 1851 to 1857.England is a long way from here.These bottles have a special name around here ,we call them a "Four Penny Dark"At the time of the gold rush not everyone had a taste for dirt and picks .They used their skills and ingenuity to set up all sorts of ways to get their share of the gold and one of the best ways was to set up illegal inns and bars and sell alcohol to the goldminers.Life was hard in the first years of the goldrush and most only found enough gold to keep going.Often at the end of a hard day on their claims the miners would go to the local inn and spend their little gold -dust on alcohol.The inner keepers to avoid the law would often aquire the alcohol from illegal means and mix it with the good alcohol which they paided a heavy tax on.Mostly dark red wine and different types of home made gut-rot
Drinking this wine was not good for one health but the miners didn,t seem to care.Beening dark in colour and coming in reused english black bottle and costing four English pennies,is how its got its name."Four Penny Dark" The price of the wine was 3 pennies and a one penny deposit if the bottle was returned.
The bottle i found ,was in a creek bed of a place called Ironbark Gully and the name Ironbark comes from the thick brown rusty bark from BOX IRONBARK GUM TREE. Ironbark is a well recorded piece of Australian history and has been written about many times by numerous writters.
I had forgotten this history for sometime and only remembered it the other night while sitting down trying to work out a few different relics which i have found in the past few days.Everytime i find something i stop for a minute and think back to a time long past and try to picture it in my mind.This just my way,as i love the history of these places i hunt.thanks for reading and heres a pic of a few of the best bottles i have found this year and the Four Penny Dark is in the back row.
tinpan
