Lot 401: Maugham. Snelling (Adelaide). Ribbon Patent Carrara Water. Green. (South Australia)

Very Good. (7.6). Untouched, as it came out the ground decades ago. It has since been sitting in a drawer in a shed with the owner not realising the extreme significance of this previously unrecorded Adelaide bottle! It is stained throughout, there is a bit of swirled surface etching, this is not in any way deep! A few tiny nicks around lip edge. Outer lip has a few fine surface lines, these are making surface splits and exceedingly minor. There is some chunky rust in places which will need to be soaked off, the main patch is around the ARA of Carrara. Immediately below the Sneliing and across the base edge an A has been crudely chipped into the glass, this was done at the time of making and has been seen on a range of other maughams in South Australia. To the right of this another mark has been chipped in across the base edge, I can't tell what it is meant to be, at times it looks like an X, but could be a + or even a 4 - or potentially a range of other letters? There are some scratches and scuffs, nothing that looks overly deep though. The embossing is great, it is very strong! There is a little high point wear in places, but this is really minor as well! There is a really minor sliver to one of the A of Carrara. Quite dirty internally, as mentioned earlier, this is exactly how it came out the ground without any intervention whatsoever, that includes even having a bottle brush inside! What an amazing item, the only complete example known from this early Adelaide company from the 1840s, historically this is one of the most important pieces in Australia and is most definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!. Estimate: $10000-15000