Paul Doolin has a most interesting and unique hobby, collecting antique bottles. Paul moved from Donnybrook some four years ago and now lives in Rathcoole where he started collecting old bottles, stoneware, ‘Breweriana’ (old pub relics), jars, lids and ceramics. The artefacts are sourced from all over the world.

Paul showed me a rare bottle that was dug up at Bury in England, called a Codd bottle. This is a type that was patented by an English Engineer by the name of Hiram Codd in 1872. His bottle had a marble in the neck which, under gas pressure, pushed against a rubber washer at the top creating a seal.

Paul explained that this had advantages over corking because the cork in a mineral bottle would dry out and not hold the pressure. These bottles are rare because so many were broken by children who just wanted to get out the marble.

One had to get a ‘Codd Opener’ to open a Codd bottle. This was a wooden device that pushed down the marble ball, releasing the drink. He also has a very rare dark green Codd bottle type called a Murphy’s from Clonmel.
In July this year Paul won ‘Best in Category’ and ‘Best in Show’ at the International Antique Bottle Collectors Fair in the Elsecar Antiques Centre near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Amongst his display were such artefacts as a lid from a toothpaste jar titled ‘Bewley’s and Draper, Chemists, 23 Mary Street, Dublin, Price 1 Shilling, Chemists to the Queen’, the Queen at the time being Victoria.

Other jars and ceramic lids are those that had contained ‘Bear’s Grease’ which was applied to the head to prevent baldness, although as Paul says it had no effect. He has both English and Irish types of this jar– all again are very rare.

Another type of bottle that Paul showed me was one with a flat side patented by Richard Grainger Nash, born on 25th January 1860, at Finnstown near Lucan, where the house still stands.

Richard was a keen inventor, and took out numerous patents during his life. Paul has done some worthy research on the bottle designs by R. G. Nash and has contributed to the web pagewww.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_houses/hist_hse_finnstown.htm where there is a photo of the original ‘Nash of Lucan bottle’ and among the many patents he took out was one for a ‘Bottle Washing Machine’.

Paul also has a number of old ink bottles from all over the world going back to the day of the quill, and a number of poison bottles. These bottles had a roughened surface because in times past when we didn’t have the advantage of modern lighting a person searching in the cabinet for a drink in the dark would be able to tell a poison bottle by its feel.

He has some stoneware whiskey jars, including two types from Locke’s of Kilbeggan, one brought out for the Irish market with a bare-chested lady drawn on the jar, but when it was sent to America the lady had to be drawn covered up due to complaints.

There are also soda bottles from Thwaite’s, the oldest soda makers known. Paul told me a fishy story that in 1936 the Irish Sweepstakes was publicised by turning out thousands of bottles shaped as fish with the message ‘Irish Sweep– Good Luck’ in raised letters on the glass.

These were dropped into the coastal waters around Britain and inside they had notices in three languages saying that the finder was ‘entitled to a bottle of whatever drink he or she chooses at the local hostelry and an invitation to drink to good luck in the Irish Sweepstakes’.

A large batch turned up on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall and brought out crowds of hopeful beachcombers. Two years later, one landed on a beach near New York and the finder claimed a bottle of whiskey from Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant at number 61 Second Avenue.

There are a number of websites covering this fascinating hobby such as such as www.bottledigging.org.uk, ‘Codd & Cure Oholics’ at www.codds.3.forumer.com, also www.antique-bottles.net and a few quarterly magazines from the UK, such as BBR, which is online at www.antique-bottles-and-glass.co.uk and the ABC (Associated Bottle Collectors), who can be found at www.abc-ukmag.co.uk

Paul Doolin asked that anyone interested in the subject of bottle collecting or who has some antique bottles or other breweriana that they might be willing to exchange or sell to contact him at paulpd07@gmail.com or call him on 086 8666523.