In the 17th and 18th centuries, England exported large quantities of tin-glazed earthenware to the American colonies. Wine bottles, such as the one, were made there from the early 1600s to the early 1700s for use in England and its colonies. It is suggested by Michael Archer that it is unlikely that these bottles were used at the table, since the quantity it held would be insufficient for one person’s meal, as judged by contemporary descriptions of the quantities drunk. It is more probable that dated bottles were given as a Christmas or New Year’s gift. Wine was relatively expensive and thus consumed only by those who could afford it. Colonial America’s affluent households often imported wines and spirits. For example, when Daniel Delaney died at his Annapolis, Maryland, home in 1753, the inventory of his personal possessions showed that his vault and cellars contained “153 bottles of claret,” among other bottles of alcoholic drinks.          

This wine bottle is inscribed and dated “CLARET / 1642.” The term claret was originally used for yellowish or light red wine imported from France, but by the time this bottle was made the term seems to have been used for red wine in general. Of the three primary names (claret, sack, and whit) on wine listed on 17th-century wine bottles, “claret” is the rarest with just under a one-quarter dated.