The Real Wood Furniture Company

Description

A wall of large green glass Cognac bottles. Each 19.25” high, 5” diameter bottle holds 7 pints (just under 4 litres).

They are ‘old stock’ bottles from the Rouyer Guillet Cognac distillery in Saintes, France, founded in 1801, which closed its doors 1992.  The bottles were bought at that time, by my brother, an antiques dealer living near Saintes.  

The bottles were apparently made in the mid / late 1930’s for export to the USA.  By law, between 1935 and 1964 all liquor containers produced for the American market had to be embossed with : “FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE”.  This law was enacted post the prohibition era to ensure that bottles were not refilled with lower quality products and to guarantee that taxes were paid on all alcohol sales.  Each bottle has this instruction embossed in the glass across the upper part of the bottle.  At the bottom, also embossed in the glass are the company details:

     “ROUYER GUILLET & Co

SAINTES near COGNAC, FRANCE”

Each bottle displays its own imperfections and air bubbles caused during the manufacturing process, visible side seams and deep dimple  / punt to the underside.

Displayed here on a forged steel stand to allow uplighting from underneath, 120 bottles fill a space 43”wide x 78” high (109cms x 198cms) to create a stunning room divider.
More bottles available, to create approx 135 sq ft of wall / divider
The Real Wood Furniture(Chris Baylis) has large showrooms in the Cotswolds, specialising in English Windsor chairs, but also stocking an eclectic mix of decorative and fine furniture, objects, garden pieces etc.
Open by appointment.