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this & that

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This year sees the 100 anniversary of the start of World War I (A few words for our American
readers: It did not start in 1917!). This bottle commemorates the second day of action for the British
soldiers, which saw their first real battle of WW1 and their first retreat – NOT a good start!

nd
A small skirmish occurred on the 22 but on August 23, 1914, in their first real confrontation on
European soil since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, four divisions of the British Expeditionary Force
struggled with the German 1st Army over the 60-foot-wide Mons-Conde Canal in Belgium, just north
of the French border. They appeared to be holding their own but, mysteriously to the troops, the
order was given late in the day to retreat. It later came out that the French, who were on the British
th
flank, were planning to retreat on 24 , a fact known to the British generals.

The cover bottle is one of many commemorative/souvenir bottles produced by a number of English
china companies, mainly in the 1920’s & 30’s. This one was made by Savoy China of, where else,
Stoke on Trent (At one time 90% of the pottery exported around the world was made in Stoke on
Trent!). Most of these were never filled with anything but some were filled locally, usually with Scotch,
and given away, similar to the German give-aways so popular in the US prior to WW1. This one sold
on Ebay for £24.00

There are very few miniatures that directly ‘speak’ of WW1 but I have found a couple for you. The
German helmets are
from Helmet Rye of
the USA. There are a
number of variations
of these in both
ceramic and glass
(see MBL for more).
My thanks to Seva for
sending me photos of
the two glass ones
shown here. Note the
difference in the eagle
emblem on the third
helmet.

The two tanks (glaze
colour being the only
difference) are from
Manhattan, again a
US company. 1920’s?
They depict the
original tank – so
called because the
cover story was that
they were mobile
water tanks.

I am sure there are more minis that could be used to depict WW1 but I cannot currently think of any.
If you do know of any more please let me know and I will show them in a future miNiZ.

From the very old to the very new. Dutch airline KLM issued #95 in their series of Dutch buildings this
month (October 2014). As with all the later ones of these bottles this was made by Bols and contains
Genever. I will let the photos, including a photo of the leaflet, speak for themselves.

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