Seems like hip flasks take their name from being placed in the hip pocket of the person carrying them and lots of versions are curved to fit around the hip. While the curved idea still prevails, there are plenty of other styles around, one of which we have here in the collection. It’s a simple glass bottle, without a curve, in a fine basket weave. We are calling it a hip flask, though it could be from an old picnic set. There’s a good example of similar basket weave bottles in the picnic set illustrated above. In both cases the weave is to stop breakages in transit.

However, we know for sure that this particular ‘bottle’ was used as a hip flask by Archie Boyle, who was a shepherd in Glen Roy, Scotland, and toted it around the glen on his various journeys, taking the odd sip – most likely of whiskey – and no doubt sharing it with his fellow herdsmen. We are not sure if it’s the original, but the stopper is made by WRC & Co Ltd, which stands for Watney, Combe and Reid, who eventually became just Watney’s, producing lots of beer. The stopper dates from the 1930s, and maybe the hip flask does too.