Many thousand dozens of wines are sold in the course of the year in London as old wines, under names which have scarcely any other title to the appellation of wine than similarity of colour. “A particular friend of mine,” says a correspondent to the Monthly Gazette of Health, “purchased at a public sale by the hammer, a quantity of ‘super-excellent’ claret, at the rate of 50s. per dozen, which, on delivery, his butler discovered to be the same wine he had exchanged with a wine merchant at the rate of 20s. per dozen, being what is termed pricked. The worthy Baronet complained of the imposition, but the auctioneer would not listen to him. He had tasted it previously to bidding for it, and that was enough for him.”
Another source of great profit to the cheap dealers, the gin-shop keepers, and the advertizing wine-men, arises from the size of the bottles in which they vend their compounds and mixtures, ycleped “wine.”
In the bottle-trade six various sizes are sold, namely:
The full quart, of which twelve contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The thirteens, of which there must be thirteen to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The fourteens, of which there must be fourteen to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The small fourteens, of which there must be fourteen and a half, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The fifteens, of which there must be fifteen, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The sixteens, of which there must be sixteen, to contain three gallons of liquid, old measure.
The two last sizes are those sold to the gin-shops and cheap wine venders.