DUPRS_0034 - Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Bottle and Stopper

DUPRS_0034 - Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Bottle and Stopper

An American Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Bottle.

An American Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Bottle. The initials ‘JDS’ on the bottom of the bottle stand for ‘John Duncan Sons’ – the original importer of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, located in New York. If the mold seam continues straight through to the top of the bottle, it was made after 1890. If the mold seam stops just before the finish, the bottle was made prior to 1890.

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce by Salem Glass Works

Selective Surface collection, east Stanley Park, Historic Chatham Township (modern Summit, New Jersey)

Drew University, Department of Anthropology, Drew University Passaic River Survey

Circa 1870.

Aisha Arain

Glass

The ‘JDS’ bottle for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce was first made in 1876 by the Salem Glass Works, Salem New Jersey. Prior to that full bottles were imported from England. The lettering on the bottle guaranteed the customer of the original and genuine Worcestershire sauce. Often copied but never duplicated, it was widely imitated in the 19th century.
In the beginning, John Duncan had a license for importing Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce into America. He had his own bottles made in England, filled there, and then shipped to America. Later Duncan obtained a new license, and began bottling L&P Worcestershire in America. The first bottles manufactured in America were made in 1876 by the Salem Glass Works in Salem, NJ. Numerals shown on the bottom of the bottle are not part of the trademark, but the numbers are the serial number of the mold that made the bottle. The number will differ because different molds were use. The green color of the bottle is a result of an impurity (iron) in the sand that was used to make the glass. The L&P bottle is a reflection of life at the site. The site may have been a community or a place where people lived.