Summary

A bottle stopper with a screw thread used as a closure for a bottle. This type of closure was patented by Frederic George Riley in England, July 7 1885. It was a common closure for aerated or non-aerated soft drinks in England and the colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This example of bottle closure relates to the local Melbourne soft drink manufacturing industry which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with several companies operating. Aerated waters were a strongly promoted alternative to alcoholic drinks, for health reasons and particularly by those who followed the Temperance Movement.

By 1896, Frankston Springs Co. (formerly Goulburn Valley Co) were advertised as manufacturers of aerated waters, cordials and brewers of tonic ales, and operated from Islington St, Collingwood, Melbourne.

Physical Description

Black coloured, wood or vulcanised rubber with screw thread and flat finger hold at top. Has a degraded, orange/red rubber seal.

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