Drunkards' Heads & Harem
Please, click on the pictures for larger images and more information.
Series description
Drunkards' Heads and Harem were published simultaneously in 1993. They
were the very first ceramic mini bottles in the Czech Republic after the
divorce of the former Czechoslovakia on the 1 January 1993. The Drunkards'
Heads series included five figurines in 4 colours (green, blue, rusty-brown
and dark-brown). The Harem series consisted of a Favourite Girl and two
Eunuchs figurines. They also appeared in the four colour variations (i.
e. green, blue, rusty-brown and dark-brown). All together there were 32
different ceramic mini bottles. Hill's Liqueurs distillery designed them
specially for collectors of miniatures. The limited edition counted 500
pieces a sort. These days both series are still attainable, however, only
in rusty-brown.
The Bottles
The design was proposed and realized by Olomouc artistic ceramist Vladimir
Kovarik. "In the Drunkards' Heads series I tried to express my view of
picturesque characters that you meet in back saloons of cheap pubs. I depicted
five real types of people from suburb pubs." explains the artist. Hard
to believe...
Well, the Heads bottles sculpt faces of drunkard characters. They are accompanied by the two Eunuchs (a very thin one with a long nose and his contrary) that serve to a big (and nice) Favourite Girl. Every bottle has handle on the left-hand side. A thread holding a booklet passes through the handle. The booklet summarizes in a gold script the series name, the edition limit and the distillery logo. On the front of each figurine a name of alcohol and a volume is coined. On the back the relievo reads the producer logo and the country of origin (Czech Republic). The bottom of the bottles displays the sign of Mr. Kovarik's workshop.The bottles are plugged with corks and sealed by a sealing wax. The heights of the heads are around 9 cm (~3.5 inches), Eunuchs reach 10 and 10.5 cm ( ~3.9 - 4.1 in) and the Favourite Girl is nearly 15 cm (~5.9 in) high.
Hill's Liqueurs Distillery
Hill's Liqueurs Jindrichuv Hradec distillery that produced the two
series was founded in 1920. After the fall of communism it returned to
Mr. Radomil Hill, the ancestors of the former founder of the firm. In 1993
Mr. Hill dispatched 42 different sorts of alcoholic drinks. For the advertisement
purposes the firm issued all the production in glass mini bottles and after
that it published the ceramics for mini bottle collectors.
| Parts of Drunkards' Heads Series | Parts of Harem Series |
Czech Ceramic Mini Bottle Home
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by Jaroslav Kuba, Luzicka 14/83, 779 00 Olomouc, Czech
Republic.
J.Kuba@czechminis.com.