Antique French Early 1900's Armagnac Bottle in Original Case - Rare

Antique French Early 1900's Armagnac Bottle in Original Case - Rare Spirit Vacuum Flask - Antique Glass Flask - C243

A highly Collectable object for Armagnac and Cognac lovers or Bottle Collectors; this original antique French Vacuum Flask is in remarkably good condition.  This is a most unusual way of bottling any spirit and was probably a test in the very early days of flask making after its inception by a Scotsman James Dewar.

This flask was made after 1892 (see notes below); it is silvered on the outside and stoppered with a cork bung. The original packaging is included with a Crested paper label showing the original Chateau du Saumont as it was before the Rench Revolution. The paper label is entitled "Armangnac of the King" and below "Reserved for the Court of Henry IV". Both the flask and the case are in excellent antique condition, save that the flask has a small chip on the glass of the small protruding 'foot' at the flask base; this does mean that it can be clearly seen that it is a real vacuum flask - this is where the air would have been extracted, to form the vacuum.

Our research has led us to the town, the original Chateau and the connection to King Henry IV of France. Hence the name Cognac du Roy or Royal Cognac.  The original French vintner family, A. Duprat Duchesse & Co. of the Chateau du Saumont in Nérac in the Pays d'Albret, are no longer in business and we cannot find any other examples of this very early type of object to give exact details.

The Pays d'Albret is synonymous with good living and is marked by the history of the future Henri IV.
In the historic setting of the town of Nérac, a castle was built in the 15th century by Alain d'Albret the Great, the great-great grandfather of Henri IV.  This was the main residence of the future Henri IV and his wife Queen Margot from 1577 to 1582, and bears witness to the flourishing Albret family and the Nérac Court during the Renaissance.

At that time, the castle consisted of four wings flanked by four corner towers (as can be seen on the label ).
A drawbridge gave access to the main entrance of the castle and opened onto an interior courtyard with a passageway, then forming a vast ensemble with the Jardins du Roy (pleasure gardens of the King) and the Parc Royal de la Garenne.

The castle was largely dismantled during the Revolution and today only the remarkable north wing and its interior tower remain.  On the first floor of the castle, an exhibition presents the Albret family and Henri de Navarre, future Henri IV, through collections from the 19th century.  On the ground floor, the archeology section presents the remains discovered in Albret from the Neolithic to the Gallo-Roman era.

Scotsman James Dewar had developed a vacuum insulated goblet in 1872 in collaboration with Peter Tait in Edinburgh in order to keep substances warm. Twenty years later he took a similar idea to create a vacuum- jacketed flask. The flask, with its narrower neck, was designed especially to keep substances very cool. This initial design was later improved by narrowing the neck even further and putting a silvered coating on the outside to minimise heat loss. The flask was exhibited at the Royal Institute  for the first time on Christmas Day 1892.

The idea of this was probably to try to keep the contents at a constant temperature when not stored in a cellar or 'Cave' as the French would say. We are sure it would be effective but would probably not be cost effective and very fragile. Hence the uniqueness of the one we have here.
This Glass Flask has the obvious blowing rod cut off and the outer packaging is a marvel of engineering in the way the tube has been constructed to give it strength and rigidity.

The tube is 9.75" or 245mm high by 3" or 75mm diameter and has a weight of 300grms or 0.66lb.

It would make a superb gift for any collector..........

Your purchase will be very carefully packaged with recycled materials where possible and despatched via the Irish An Post postal service.

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