DV's FV's & CV's

Definitive, French & Czech Violin Bottles

 

I am including these three types together as they are similar. DV's are not as common as the LV's, SV's, EV's, or even possibly, the BV's. They are distinctly different from the previous styles though and are quite noticeable in a collection.

The DV's are labeled Definitive by the club because they are so different. They may be European products and resemble the French and Czech varieties closely. They are Definitive if they do not have a country embossed or etched on the base. They, of course, must meet the other class guidelines. DV glass is smooth and of a high quality with only an occasional bubble. They are two part diagonal mold products and have no pontil scars. Their necks are fairly straight and their lips are of the squared or slightly tapered collar variety. All DV's have a recessed sound hole which resembles a lower case "f" as opposed to the American "S" for the LV's etc.

There are three distinct sizes in DV's. The largest is the 9 1/2" tall and 5 1/2" wide and about 2" thick near the base. Their necks are about 2 1/2" long with a tapered lip collar. They are known to have been flashed, hand painted and fancy bracketed for wall hanging. Colours reported are shades of blue, green, amber and clear. The next size is the 7 1/2" high and 3 3/4" wide with a 1 1/2" thick base. Their 1/2" lips have barely tapered collars. They are often flashed with varying intensities of medium red to pink. Other colours include shades of blue, amber, green and clear. The last size is the smalled at 6" - 6 1'4" tall and corresponding thickness and girth. The colours are the same as the previous size though clear is scarce.

The FV's or French Violins are embossed on the base with "Made in France". Since the words are in English, it is believed they were made for export. There is a prominent "cinching" or indenting around the base of the neck in an FV, suggesting a better control for flow of liquid from the bottle. The DV's do not have this feature. There are four different sizes: 9 1/2", 7 1/2", 6 1/4" and 4 1/2" tall. FV's are uncommon and some are rare. The largest appear to only come in clear and sometimes have flowers painted on them. The next size is the most common and come in clear, light blue, green, and a very light peach. The next size are mostly clear. The smallest size can have a screw top and appears to only come in clear and is small enough to be called a miniature.

The last in this section are the CV's, Czechoslovakian Violins. These are by far the least common of the European style violins bottles. They are diagonal two part BIMALs. They are commonly mistaken for FV's or DV's, but have the two words "Czecho" and "Slovakia" very faintly etched on the base, one above the other. So far they are only known to exist in smooth crystal clear glass and only in two sizes: 7 3/4" tall by 3 3/4" wide and 1 1/4" deep, plus 6 1/8" tall by 3 1/8" wide and 1" deep. Their sound holes have a slightly different contour from those found on the DV's or FV's and the lower neck cinching is deeper and more pronounced than that on the FV.

The specific makers and ages of these bottles is not known at this time, nor if they had a specific content purpose. The smallest FV may have been a perfume bottle though.

LV's SV's EV's BV's OV's

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