water bottle (bottle (food service))

26.279

This water bottle from Finland, made of basketry in the 19th century, is locally referred to as a tuohi pullo. Tuohi means the bark of a birch tree, and pullo means bottle. The lower part of the bottle is square and flat and is connected to the round, long neck which has a round cork attached to it with a string. Both the bottle and cork are woven from strips of birch bark, which go diagonally over and across the bottle. The bottle and its cork are brown. The bottle is accompanied by a loose label, handwritten by its donor, Mrs Alec Tweedie. It reads ‘A water bottle made of plaited strips of the birch bark - used by the peasants of East Finland, whose shoes, cow forns, bags (and even coats) are made of birch bark.' Mrs Alec Tweedie, previously Ethel Brailliana/Brilliana Harley (c1867- 1940), was the British author of the travel books A Girl's Ride in Iceland (1889), A Winter Jaunt to Norway (1894), Through Finland in Carts (1897), Mexico as I Saw it (1901), Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life (1912) and America as I Saw it; or, America Revisited (1913), amongst others. She was one of the first professional women travel writers and donated this water bottle to the Museum in 1926.

Collection Information

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