Tag Archives: Gramps

Australian Wine Advertising Decanters

Once popular on sideboards and behind bars across Australia, decanters were a prime way to advertise alcoholic beverages of all kinds. Most large Australian wine companies from the 1890s to the 1930s produced this kind of advertising glassware with a few still producing these items into the second half of the twentieth century.

Seppelts Port & Sherry Decanters. c1900s
Seppelts Port & Sherry Decanters. Enamelled Print. c1900s

The style of manufacture suggest most of these decanters were produced in England or France. It is likely however that the advertising was then added locally usually in one of three styles: Acid etched, engraved or as applied enamel lettering.

Hans Irvine Australian Sherry Decanter. Gilt lettering. c1900
Hans Irvine Australian Sherry Decanter. Engraved decoration with gilt lettering. c1900

To highlight the advertising many of the engraved or etched decanters had gold or red paint added to the lettering. While the enamelled decanters usually just have white lettering other colours are also sometimes seen such as red, black and blue.

Gramps Orlando Wines Decanter. Enamelled decoration. c1920s.
Gramps Orlando Wines Decanter. Enamelled decoration. c1920s.

As you might expect one of the difficulties of collecting decanters is finding examples with their original (or at least fitting) stoppers. On the plus side the price of these rarely exceeds a good modern decanter and with a bit of a clean can make a great talking point the next time you serve a nice old wine!

Penfolds Port Decanter. Engraved with gilt lettering. c1940s-1950s.
Penfolds Port Decanter. Engraved with gilt lettering. c1940s-1950s.