Ti-toki Liqueur Bottles

 What's the story?

(Photo courtesy of Warren Roberts)

On the last weekend of September, I attended the 46th Annual Bottle Show at Hamilton. It was fantastic and I highly recommend that you go along next time it's in your part of town. Oh yes, did I mention the Kiwi Auctions were there, and the sales tables of antiques and collectibles too? I had a wonderful chat with a couple of guys who'd set up the Ti-toki Liqueur bottle display. I certainly learnt a lot from chatting with them. I'm bummed I didn't get their names. Hopefully they'll see my post and get in touch with me.

Glass Ti-toki bottle used in the mid 1970s

It was in the late 1970s Diane Balich, managing director of wine company based in Swanson, contacted Orzel Industries about commissioning them to make a tekoteko crock for their Ti-toki liqueur. Up until then they'd been using a bulbous shaped glass bottle. The photo above is an empty bottle I rescued from my parent's house when I was a child. I loved running my hands over the embossed koru pattern. 

Orzel's master mould maker Hemara Hemara made the original Ti-toki model, with the tekoteko bottles in production between 1979 - 1984. They came in a number of glaze combinations, with some having their eyes highlighted in contrasting glazes. The brown glazed version is the most common. As each bottle is individually glazed there's always variations. 


You can find out the date and number of Orzel made bottles by checking the base. There will be a year scratched into the glaze. Mine are from 1980 and 1983. If your bottle has no letter at the start or end of the big number, your bottle is from the first batch of 10,000 made. The letter A signifies the 2nd 10,000 made B is for the 3rd 10,000, and so on. 

 

If you're wondering, there were quite a few number 'one' made. The liqueur bottles were labelled with stickers on their corks and sides, as well as having a swing tag. There was also a small production run, made by Orzel, of the Ti-toki bottle toppers which were stuck to the top of the cork. They came in green and brown to match the glazes. The face image was on the front and reverse of the topper.

 
Photos courtesy of Brian Ronson

It was a huge production job for Orzel over a number of years. Most of the time everything went smoothly but occasionally there'd be a hiccup. These bottles collapsed in the kiln when it wasn't turned off after the glaze firings. The whole batch of bottles were destroyed except for these four which were kept by Cam Jnr and Beverley Brown.

 
Cam and Beverly's drunken Ti-toki bottles

They also made a smaller sized crock of the bigger version. It was made for Air New Zealand's inaugural flight to London in 1982. The smaller bottles aren't numbered or dated on the base. Both versions have a cork opening as Orzel never had a threaded neck. Something to keep in mind when purchasing. 

Small Orzel Ti-toki bottles - Cam Jnr & Bev Brown

After 1984 other pottery companies took over the Ti-toki contract for various amounts of time, including Crown Lynn who made two sizes, both with screw tops. The Crown Lynn threads are unglazed. 
 
From L to R - Small Orzel, Big Crown Lynn, Big Orzel (small Crown Lynn version is missing) 
Sorry about the crappy picture. 


Words of Warning.

I've recently become aware that there are Ti-Toki bottles which aren't as they are purported to be. What I'd like to clarify is that neither of the Orzel versions were made with a screw top. On the two Crown Lynn versions the thread was never glazed.


                                     Glazed Orzel neck                            Unglazed Crown Lynn thread

I've had a couple of weeks off from writing but it's nice to be back. My hope is that you'll learn something from my posts and if you've got some information or photos you'd like to share please get in touch. Below are some links that you may find interesting.

Happy days,
Louise

©Louise de Varga 2022 - Content and pictures in this blog 

Ti Toki | Product of Aotearoa (ti-toki.com)

lifeleisure-article-sept-oct-07.pdf (ti-toki.com)


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