Description

Rare Antique Elegant Handcrafted Victorian Cranberry Glass Perfume Bottle / Tear Catcher / Lachrymatory Tear Bottle (15ml, 5”/13cm, 17g). Marvellous handmade item. Please browse all 12 sets of photographs attached for size, weight and condition as they are self explanatory. Tear catcher bottles hold perfumes, floral waters, smelling salts and scented vinegars. However, in the past they were made for a different purpose. Tears are a complex mix of proteins, antibodies and other substances, and have antibacterial and antiviral properties. If you could collect enough to drink, they would be more nutritious than water! According to historical facts, tear bottles, or lachrymatory, were common in ancient middle Eastern societies. Even today they are still produced in that region. Tear bottles were prevalent in ancient Roman times, when mourners filled small glass vials or cups with tears and placed them in burial tombs as symbols of love and respect. Sometimes women were even paid to cry into "cups", as they walked along the mourning procession. Those crying the loudest and producing the most tears received the most compensation, or so the legend goes. The more anguish and tears produced, the more important and valued the deceased person was perceived to be. During the 19th century, and especially in America during and after the Civil War, supposedly, tear catchers were used as a measure of grieving time. Once the tears cried into them had evaporated, the mourning period was over. In some American Civil War stories, women were said to have cried into tear bottles and saved them until their husbands returned. Their collected tears would show the men how much they were loved and missed. This Psalm says that every tear David has cried, God has placed in a bottle. It's this intimate imagery that God is near in our hurt. The God of the universe, hearing millions of prayers at any given time, is aware of every tear that leaves your eyes. In the Old Testament of the Bible, a reference to collecting tears in a bottle appears in Psalm 56:8 when David prays to God, "Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy Book?" David is referring to the belief that God keeps a record of human pain and suffering and always remembers. Today, lachrymatory tear bottles are given on many occasions - to show joy and delight upon the wedding of a friend or the birth of a new child. To convey love and admiration between a mother and daughter, representing the tears that have been shed between them. To express sympathy upon the loss of a loved one. Tear bottles communicate feelings that few other gifts can. And what's so wonderful is that unlike flowers, a tear bottle will last for years and be a precious and powerful reminder of your love. In current music and literature, tear bottles have once again been romanticized. References to the power of the tear bottle tradition occur in contemporary music videos, novels, and poetry.