Stoneware bottle

Stoneware bottle created between 1846 and 1866. It has been refitted from multiple sherds and was found during excavation of the walled cnclosure behind the sutler's store at Historic Fort Snelling in 1969.

This bottle has a circular seal stamped just below the shoulder. On it the word "SELTERS" surrounds the image of a crowned lion standing on its hind legs. Stamped below this are the words "HERZOGTHUM NASSAU." These marks identify the former contents as mineral water from the Niederselters spring in the Duchy of Nassau, located in the modern state of Hesse Germany. The spring produced naturally carbonated water, and by the late eighteenth century, it was bottled and exported worldwide. By the nineteenth century it was so well known that one of our generic terms for carbonated water—seltzer—derives from Selters. During this period, mineral water was widely regarded as an effective cure for a host of ailments.