Three 19th-century English Antique Country House Bin Labels / Wine Labels - Port, Claret and Sherry

Before the decanter came the cellar, and before the cellar could be trusted it had to be labelled. This trio of glazed earthenware bin labels once hung from nails or hooks above the racked bottles of an English country house or merchant's vault, naming what lay beneath for the butler, the cellarman, or a guest sent down with a candle. Each is cut to the characteristic "coathanger" profile: a domed suspension lug rising from rounded, sloping shoulders, with the name printed in black Roman capitals across the lower field.

The three are best understood as companions rather than a factory set. That makes them a more faithful record of how a working cellar was actually equipped, with labels bought, broken and replaced over decades. PORT is the most venerable in appearance. Its lettering is transfer-printed in finely hatched, engraved capitals, its glaze is crazed throughout and warmly toned at the margins, and its suspension aperture is arched rather than drilled round. CLARET shares the same engraved, hatched letterform but is crisper in its glaze. SHERRY is impressed COPELAND to the reverse, the mark of the great Stoke-upon-Trent firm that succeeded Spode, used after the dissolution of the Copeland & Garrett partnership in 1847. Its solid, unhatched black printing is consistent with that later date. Both Sherry and Claret have neatly pierced circular apertures.

Such labels were supplied in quantity by the Staffordshire potteries, among them Copeland and Wedgwood, and by specialist London cellar outfitters, most famously Farrow & Jackson. Examples survive in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass. They remain among the most legible and quietly evocative relics of the Georgian and Victorian domestic economy. Port, Sherry and Claret are the holy trinity of the English gentleman's table, and they are as at home today in a wine room, larder or kitchen dresser as they once were in the cellar.

Provenance: England. 19th-Century.

Material: Cream-glazed earthenware (creamware type), transfer-printed in black; the Sherry impressed COPELAND.

Condition: Commensurate with age and use as an assembled group.

PORT: Overall crazing with associated surface discolouration, heaviest to the margins. There is a shallow chip to the lower left front corner and an isolated iron spot to the field.

CLARET: Good, with fine surface scratching and minor kiln specks.

SHERRY: Light glaze wear and surface scratching, with minor rubbing to the printed lettering, notably to the 'E' and first 'R'. Scattered kiln specks.

Verso: Fully glazed, with small firing blemishes and glaze skips consistent with manufacture.

No restoration observed.

Dimensions: Each approx. [W × H × D in] ([cm]) –