REDUCED Reserve D'Elite Champagne Flask Decanter

Collectibles : Bottles

 

An unusual pale blue decanter designed to look like an old, side stitched flask or water bottle meant to be worn over the shoulder with a strap attached to the 2 metal rectangular pieces that are threaded into holes created in the pottery on each side of the flask.Perhaps a strap was part of the bottle when it was new? The bottle is mainly a luscious light blue covered by a thick glaze. It's at least 40+ years old. The bottom is marked, "Sarreguemines" and "France" in raised letters that were part of the mold. There are 2 openings, one about 1" in diameter, the other a small 3/8" in diameter - each containing a cork. Rims around each opening are white as is the "lacing" used for "closing" the flask. The bottle stands about 6 3/4" from base to the top rim of the larger opening and about 6 1/2" across at its widest. The base is 2" across. One side of the flask has white raised letters - "Reserve D'Elite" and "Fine Champagne." There is an original label between these two phrases which says, "Cuvee" and "Number 14 Cognac." The center of this label has a square darkened by age. I can feel raised numbers under the label but can only guess it is a year starting with "19." The opposite side also has original labels, "Rene Briand - Reserve D;Elite Cuvee number 14, Over 20 years old, fine Champagne, Cognac" and a second label beneath the first repeats some of the information as well as - "3/4 quart, 80 Proof, Produced and Bottled by Rene Briand, Cognac, France, Produce of France, Imported by Foreign Vintages, Inc. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. The flask is in excellent condition with no chips, crazing or hairline cracks. There are 3 or 4 light lines that may be scratch marks on the first side I described, between the word, "Elite" and the small opening. They are faint and barely show in the blue glaze.

Item ID: MK-97