These are beer bottles. They are both of about 3/4 pint size and are of a size referred to as “glass porters” by bottle collectors. Beer bottles usually come in three sizes: half pint sizes, porter size and pint size with pint bottles becoming more predominant after about 1920. These bottles are usually black but come in a range of ambers and greens too.

In terms of the companies, W A Wilkinson had the biggest mineral water and beer bottling business in North Tyneside and was in business from the 1870s right through ’til after the second world war. His closest competitor was probably Matthew Knott whose business on 52, 53, and 54 Nile Street ran from the 1870s until some time in the 1920s. Both companies were smaller than some of the Newcastle or Sunderland companies such as Newcastle Breweries or Vaux but traded mainly in North Tyneside (as it is now) and around Blyth/Bedlington and not so much in Newcastle.

WA Wilkinson used two trade marks on his bottles, a codd bottle (a type of pop bottle patented in 1872 and popular until about 1910 with a marble stopper) and a unicorn both at the same time. Around about 1910 he dropped the codd bottle and just used the unicorn. I have attached a photograph of the 4 W A Wilkinson glass porter bottles I have – the embossing is a little hard to read and doesn’t photograph particularly well – the two in the centre are particularly well embossed examples, the main difference between them is that one is a cork stopper and the other has an internal screw stopper. The one on the end has had a transfer sand blasted onto it of the unicorn whereas the others all have codd bottles.