EARLY BERKSHIRE GINGER BEER BOTTLES

Poulton & Co - Reading

The Poulton & Co ginger beer bottle from Reading is a very interesting bottle as it relates to quite an interesting name i.e. Samuel Poulton who was a chemist in Reading.

Please see pictures below.  In the first picture, the Poulton & Co. ginger beer is the brown central one and in the second it is towards the left being dark brown.

From Pigot & Co.'s Directory of Berks, Bucks ... , 1844:

 From Kelly's Berkshire Directory, 1848:

 From the PO Directory of Berkshire, 1854:

Quite interestingly we can see from below that the chemist at 1-2 London Street, Reading does not exist in 1874 as it has been replaced by a Police Station and Samuel Poulton does not seem to exist anywhere in Reading at this time.

When I research Samuel Poulton further though it appears that there was an important Samuel Poulton known as a photographer who produced many famous photographs of people during the 1860's onwards like his one of Charles Dickins in 1866-1868, etc.  Whether this is the same Samuel Poulton is unknown as yet although I have asked a few questions in a few places on a few websites!  Time will surely tell.

Interestingly if you google Samuel E. Poulton & Co. as a photographer/stereoscopic artist then there is a picture of St. James's Church, Reading that he took which suggests a link to Reading.  So, did Samuel Poulton give up the chemist for his love of photography and the chemical processes involved in developing pictures?  Is it the same Samuel Edward Poulton?

So now I am also wondering if the link between being a chemist and photography as a longstanding link started in the 1850's with the development of photographical processes.  For how many years did we go to chemists to get our photos developed?

So, does this suggest that Samuel Poulton's ginger beer bottles date prior to 1856 when his photographic career took off?  Looking at the shape of them I would say that this is certainly possilbe.

From Webster's Reading Directory, 1874: