Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

Artifacts of Play

Sun, Oct 12, 2025 12:00PM EDT
Lot 67

Whimsey Bottle with Spinning Wheel and Carved Stopper. Hand...

Estimate: $200 - $300

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
Whimsey Bottle with Spinning Wheel and Carved Stopper.?Hand dated December 13, 1875 and signed ?Jonesbro Locher" on the peg securing the stopper. With a carved bone spinning wheel impossibly placed inside the blown glass bottle, and a bone peg holding the carved walnut stopper in place. One leg of the spinning wheel's table is loose in the bottle. Height 8 ?". Very good condition overall. Long before the impossible bottles of Harry Eng and his acolytes became popular, Whimsey Bottles were created ? most often as miniature religious shrines, with icons and other carved items of a sanctified nature inside ? and then became a common pastime with creators devising many novel and articulated wooden and bone objects as their improbable contents, like the carved spinning wheel offered here.