Set includes:

• Certificate of Authenticity
• National Geographic's Civil War Gold DVD
• Museum style display case with acrylic cover
• Copy of Bottles from the Deep book

Bottle Height: 19.00 cm

The cathedral-patterned bottle was an American invention. Typically, three sides had fancy arches framing ornately embossed panels. The fourth side was left smooth for a product label. By selling their products in elaborate bottles, American merchants hoped to convince the consumer that their preserved goods were superior to imported English brands in plainer bottles. The SS Republic carried an impressive cargo of what collectors today call “Cathedral Pickle” bottles. Pickles were not the only fare preserved in such bottles, but pickled vegetables were a key staple in the 1800s, the equivalent to our modern salad. Over 150 of these utilitarian bottles were recovered from the shipwreck site.

Many are in subtle shades of aquamarine, while others exhibit deeper hues, such as apple or forest green. Some of these containers hold the eroded remnants of their original cork stoppers, which may at one time have been covered with coal tar and a plain foil seal. The bottles were made in two-piece molds, and were found on the wreck site in four sizes. Cathedral Pickle bottles were often made of relatively thin glass, making their survival from the ship’s two-day battle with a hurricane and their subsequent descent to the deep-sea floor remarkable.