Three Colours Blue(bottle)

Well, sort of anyway. In rendering them, one was pure blue, one blue mixed with red, the other blue blended with yellow.

10 years ago whilst building our house, I pulled dozens of old bottles out of the excavations.

Despite adding to the clutter of my studio, and with many of them in boxes under the desk, I can’t bring myself to get rid of them. One man’s trash is another(future) man’s treasure. Well if not treasure, as least a great subject for a Sunday afternoon watercolour sketch.
In studying them this afternoon, my interest was piqued so I did a bit of digging, so to speak.

The unmarked cobalt bluebottle was the standard issue from the pharmacy. Who knows, possibly containing a cure for a sting from a Portuguese Man-o-war, a different sort of vessel commonly known by the same name and colour as the subject in question!
The little green bottle is stamped around its shoulder with DR JCB SIEGERT & SONS, and was an Angostura Aromatic Bitters bottle.

The Amethyst bottle is stamped with THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF DYASON’S PROPY LTD. Dyason’s were a Melbourne company that produced cordials, sauces and chutneys. From what I could find, I suspect this vessel contained sauce, but not one to let the truth get in the way of a good story, I am claiming it held cordial!

To wit, THE MEDICINE WAS BITTER SWEET.

Oh, and Mr Dyason, your bottle is sitting in my studio collecting dust and taking up space. Feel free to drop by anytime and collect it!