The Demijohn Page page 2

ETYMOLOGY OF THE TERM "DEMIJOHN"

The origins of the terms "demijohn" and "carboy" are interesting as they shed light on the historical details of the bottles' manufacture and use.

McKearin and Wilson, in their book AMERICAN BOTTLES & FLASKS AND THEIR ANCESTRY, provide this account:

Sometime about the middle of the 18th century, two new names entered the language to designate large glass bottles, usually wickered and used for transport of liquids. They were "demijohn" and "carboy," which were used sporadically by merchants and bottle manufacturers before the 19th century. "Carboy" was used far less often than "demijohn," at least in advertisements. Also, it would seem, neither was admitted to a dictionary until well into the 19th century.

According to accepted derivation, "carboy" was a corruption of the Persian "garabah"; "demijohn" of the old French "dame jeanne," as large bottles were called. Though the spelling of "carboy" apparently was consistent, that of "demijohn," perhaps because it was spelled mainly from its sound when spoken, was most unsettled before 1815; "demi-john," "demi jeanne," "Dame John," "dime-john," "Demie-John," "Demi John," "Demy John," "dimijohn," and "demijohn." "Demijohn," which became official, occurred most frequently.

In the newspaper advertisements covered, the name was not found until 1762, but in 1753 "wickered bottles that will hold 5 gallon" were advertised -- demijohns, of course -- which suggests that "demijohn," however spelled, was unfamiliar before the 1760s. In fact, THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (1933) gives 1769 as the date of its first appearance in print, and for "carboy," 1753, fourteen years before it was found in the advertisements.

In 1767, carboys ranging from a quart to seven gallons in size were offered to the public, and in 1792 demijohns of eight and nine gallons containing spirits of turpentine. The two names, it would seem, were used interchangeably in the eighteenth century, and for the same sizes of bottle. Afterward, the majority of demijohns were bottles from a quart to five gallons in capacity, a few up to ten gallons; carboys were principally a gallon to twenty gallons, with sizes from six gallons predominating.

And demijohns, wickered, were destined to contain non-corrosive and bland liquids, whereas carboys, set in very heavy wicker "tubs," were for acids and chemicals.

PAGE 2 - HISTORY

Demijohn 2, A square-shouldered or "flowerpot" shape in bright yellow-green glass, 17.5 inches tall, about 10 inches in widest diameter (about 5 gallons). It has a sheared lip with an applied and tooled string. There is a 3.75-inch diameter pontil scar on the base. The mouth of the bottle has been fire-polished; but, despite the care taken in finishing the mouth and lip-string, the opening is irregular -- actually oval. The glass is full of micro-bubbles. Continental, latter half of the 19th Century.

Demijohn 3 - actually a Spanish carboy. Note the short, wide diameter neck. Free-blown, sheared lip, applied string, smooth base. This carboy was almost certainly used as a fermenter in making wine. Estimated volume is 50 liters or more.

Three one-gallon demijohns with pontil-scarred bases and applied lips. These three bottles illustrate changes in bottle-making technique from about 1780 to 1850.

(left to right)

A. Freeblown, blowpipe (tubular) pontil scar, applied lip not tooled. Circa 1780 - 1800.

B. Dip-mold blown, solid iron bar pontil, applied and tooled lip. Circa 1830.

C. Three-piece mold blown, iron bar pontil (sometimes called a "sand pontil"), applied and tooled lip. Circa 1850.

< Typical wickered demijohns from the mid-1800s. These bottles are 16 inches tall (2 gallons) and 10.5 inches tall (1 quart). Both have pontil-scarred bases.

Demijohns 4 - Two common shapes in demijohns: a 'flattened apple' and a tapering cylinder. Both are about 12.5" tall (three liters), blown in 3-piece molds., with glass pontil scars. German, mid-19th Century >

According to McKearin & Wilson . . .
“It was in the middle of the 18th century that large bottles, normally wickered, for shipping and storage of liquids were first called demijohns and carboys by some manufacturers. They had long been blown and often were covered with leather or wicker, but probably in comparatively in small numbers before their commercial use in shipping became prevalent. Botae -- that is, bonbonnes (demijohns) -- were being blown in France by the beginning of the 14th century. . . By the middle of the 18th century imported bottles of four to twenty gallons were advertised occasionally in American newspapers, among them “wickered bottles that will hold up to 5 gallons.”

That is not to say that all demijohns were produced abroad. McKearin & Wilson goes on to list a number of American glasshouses which advertised demijohns in the 1700s. Those ads used the term “demijohn” sporadically, sometimes using “dime’johns” (1788) or “demie johns” (1790). The earliest use of the term the authors could find was in a 1762 advertisement of arrack (alcoholic beverage) in “demy johns.” Earliest use of carboy was in a 1767 offer of “wickered bottles or carboys from 1 quart to 7 gallons.”

These early bottles were typically “big-bellied, globular or ovoid in form. Occasionally, they might have what we call now a “flowerpot” shape. By the end of the 18th century, they might have an oval (or laterally compressed) shape. Big cylindrical bottles were more common in the ninteenth century.

“After about 1810 or 1820, the common lip finish was a thick, deep, and flat sloping collar. Prior to that time, demijohns and carboys usually had either a narrow flat collar or a heavy string ring laid on below a plain lip, or sometimes -- in the case of large size -- a rough lip, neither fire-polished nor tooled.”

Based on advertisements and price lists from the early years of the 19th century, it is apparent that demijohns and carboys became steadily more important products of the USA glassworks. “Even so, that the demand was not satisfied seems implicit in the continued importation of demijohns, which were frequently advertised in Atlantic seaboard newspapers as arriving in lots of a thousand or more. Because of importation, because of widespread domestic production, and because ... the bottles were not marked with a manufacturer’s or glassworks’ name, it is virtually impossible to attribute an individual specimen to a particular glassworks.”

AMERICAN BOTTLES AND THEIR ANCESTRY; Helen Mckearin & Kenneth M. Wilson; Crown Publishers, New York; 1978.

ETYMOLOGY OF THE TERM "DEMIJOHN"

The origins of the terms "demijohn" and "carboy" are interesting as they shed light on the historical details of the bottles' manufacture and use.

McKearin and Wilson, in their book AMERICAN BOTTLES & FLASKS AND THEIR ANCESTRY, provide this account:

Sometime about the middle of the 18th century, two new names entered the language to designate large glass bottles, usually wickered and used for transport of liquids. They were "demijohn" and "carboy," which were used sporadically by merchants and bottle manufacturers before the 19th century. "Carboy" was used far less often than "demijohn," at least in advertisements. Also, it would seem, neither was admitted to a dictionary until well into the 19th century.

According to accepted derivation, "carboy" was a corruption of the Persian "garabah"; "demijohn" of the old French "dame jeanne," as large bottles were called. Though the spelling of "carboy" apparently was consistent, that of "demijohn," perhaps because it was spelled mainly from its sound when spoken, was most unsettled before 1815; "demi-john," "demi jeanne," "Dame John," "dime-john," "Demie-John," "Demi John," "Demy John," "dimijohn," and "demijohn." "Demijohn," which became official, occurred most frequently.

In the newspaper advertisements covered, the name was not found until 1762, but in 1753 "wickered bottles that will hold 5 gallon" were advertised -- demijohns, of course -- which suggests that "demijohn," however spelled, was unfamiliar before the 1760s. In fact, THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (1933) gives 1769 as the date of its first appearance in print, and for "carboy," 1753, fourteen years before it was found in the advertisements.

In 1767, carboys ranging from a quart to seven gallons in size were offered to the public, and in 1792 demijohns of eight and nine gallons containing spirits of turpentine. The two names, it would seem, were used interchangeably in the eighteenth century, and for the same sizes of bottle. Afterward, the majority of demijohns were bottles from a quart to five gallons in capacity, a few up to ten gallons; carboys were principally a gallon to twenty gallons, with sizes from six gallons predominating.

And demijohns, wickered, were destined to contain non-corrosive and bland liquids, whereas carboys, set in very heavy wicker "tubs," were for acids and chemicals.