British blue-enameled water bottle—WD marked ?

[JMB1943]

Where & how, if at all, was this piece of equipment marked to indicate inspection & property of the government?

Was the cobalt blue color alone sufficient to denote ownership?

Regards,

JMB

[thetrenchrat22]

Hi, 

 

do you have a photo of the water bottle and the markings 

[Andrew Upton]

Enamelled bottles are generally not marked in the period. I did however observe this original relic example listed on Ebay I think it was quite a number of years ago and saved the pictures for reference purposes. I have not seen another example marked like this since:

 

https://s9.postimg.org/kx6of1wxb/1915_waterbottle_1.jpg

 

 

https://s9.postimg.org/z3mfaafi7/1915_waterbottle_2.jpg

 

 

https://s9.postimg.org/neifmbw9b/1915_waterbottle_3.jpg

 

 

 

[Chasemuseum]

Ugly bottle but nicely marked. Agree, I am not used to seeing makers names and dates on enamel bottles. Possibly ink stamp or paint markings abraded off with the covers or during refurbishment after WW1. The felt covers are often marked, in particular the WW2 covers, but with an ink stamp inside the cover.  With WW1 bottles still with original covers, I have never taken a cover off to look for markings as this requires removal of the thread stitching the top of the cover down. I only have a very small number of WW1 bottles still with the original covers on and have never seen these in quantity.

 

Here in Oz, there are plenty of WW1 bottles but mostly with WW2 covers. When the Royal Navy pacific stores were sold off in Sydney in the late 1970s there were pallets of many thousands of bottles (both wars), all without covers and corks. As separate lots were crates of unissued WW2 felt covers and corks (with the little metal cap, metal  loop and string), again many thousands. These were bought by the disposal stores who put them together and on sold them as cheap water bottles. Many of the stores already had large quantities of P03 carriers with shoulder straps - both WW1 & WW2, also huge quantities of P37 water bottle carriers and shoulder straps. Hence WW1 bottles are still plentiful but often found in WW2 covers and WW2 dated carriers.

Cheers

Ross

[JMB1943]

Trenchrat22,

My bottle has no markings that I can see.

The question was prompted by knowing  that any attempt to stamp onto the blue enamel (fused glass) would probably shatter it.

 

Andrew,

Thank you for posting those photos; I would assume that the markings were applied to the flat base of the water bottle.

Have you been able to identify the maker, SAR/SAB ?

 

Ross,

Thank you for that informative post. I may have to see what is still available in Oz.

 

Finally, here is another question. Were the bottles tinned, at least on the interior surface ?

 

Regards,

JMB 

[Andrew Upton]

4 hours ago, JMB1943 said:

Andrew,

Thank you for posting those photos; I would assume that the markings were applied to the flat base of the water bottle.

Have you been able to identify the maker, SAR/SAB ?

 

I've always seen them as "S & B", but otherwise no idea.