– Frank McNally on the folk art of ‘God in a Bottle’

The “God in a bottle” art form is a variation on the ship-in-a-bottle theme, except with religious rather than maritime fittings. Photograph: Adam’s Auctioneers

There are even two “milking stools”, a four-legged and deluxe five-legged model, the likes of which I probably sat on as a child. But if “God in a Bottle” was part of the Irish vernacular back then too, we mustn’t have spoken that precise dialect where I grew up.

The auctioneers there suggested that “these bottles were traditionally associated with the Irish living within mining communities”. Mind you, their cross had been inscribed by its creator “To Miss M Bryant from T Prisk”: not famously Hibernian names. It was a big, old flagon bottle, more than 30cm tall. And it didn’t have the usual crucifixion scene but featured instead both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the maker’s name on a card: “Peter Coleman of Adelaide.”

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Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »