Choose Your Pendant - Scottish Cobalt Blue Medicine Bottle Sea Glass Tiny Pendants In Sterling Silver (With 18 inch Sterling Silver Wave Chain)

Treasures from history - these tiny classic cobalt blues would have come from Victorian medicine bottles where the more vibrant the glass, the greater the warning. Medicinal bottles from dispensaries circa the entirety of the Victorian period often had the words "NOT TO BE TAKEN" super imposed on the sides so that the vials could be read even in the dark. From the pharmacist to the sea! 

The colouring comes from the element Cobalt (Co) which was powdered and mixed with molten glass to colorise it. However, cobalt makes glass quite brittle (in comparison to typical white or green glass) which is why finding a substantial chunk is quite rare and typically why only smaller pieces are found on Scottish beaches. It is highly likely that these bottles contained arsenic or mercury in pharmaceutical dispensaries. 

All these pieces are from my Edinburgh Collection - collected from North & South Queensferry and Portobello. 

(Top) From left to right: 

1. Victorian Healer
2. Winter Mercury
3. Cold Blue
4. Rockpool Finder

(Bottom) From left to right: 

1. Hex Bottle
2. Navy Embrace
3. Ocean Trapped
4. Edinburgh Dispensary

Each little pendant comes on one of our signature chains with our sea glass information card detailing where your little sea glass piece came from, its history, rarity, the history of sea glass in Scotland and a silver polishing cloth.

All sterling silver and pure silver