posted 07-09-2007 09:37 AM            

Hello!

This may sound like a strange question, but has anyone ever heard of a bottle or some such that was used to collect tears? I thought I had read about such a thing but for the life of me cannot recall where I read it, or if it was just my imagination.

Thank you as always for your time.

Jersey

posted 07-11-2007 08:24 AM            

Etymology: "Lachrymatory" comes to us from Middle French or Medieval Latin "lacrymal" from Medieval Latin "lacrimalis," the adjective from Latin lacrima "tear." This noun descended from an older Latin "dacrima," related to Greek dakry "tear," a distant cousin to Old High German zahar "tear" which produced modern German Zähre "tear" and Old English tæhher which is today, "tear."

National Maritime Museum, London
Date made: 1st century BC or 1st century AD
A small Roman pottery flask, known as a tear bottle or lachrimatory, found by amateur divers near the entrance to Lulworth Cove in Dorset, in the vicinity of a stone anchor. Lachrimatories were small glass or earthen vessels used to hold the tears of mourners. They were buried with urns containing the ashes of the deceased. The bottle is conical with a flattened, slightly indented base and a small hole at the top.

During the Victorian period, those mourning the loss of loved ones would collect their tears in lachrymatory bottles with special stoppers that allowed the tears to evaporate. When the tears had evaporated, the mourning period would end.

In some American Civil War stories, women were said to have cried into tear bottles and saved them until their husbands returned from battle. Their collected tears would show the men how much they were adored and missed.

Tear bottles are still made and marketed today, often with silver mounts. They are given to symbolize joy and love for other's important rites of passage. Births, adoptions, graduations, and weddings or during times of sadness, such as illness or death and some choose to give the lachrymatory or tear bottles as purely symbolic gifts.

posted 07-11-2007 03:28 PM            

To all of you who took the time to respond..Dale, Scott, Clive, Argentum.. I am overwhelmed. What wonderful stories to explain the use of such an item. Also, I now know I am not imagining things, and my kids don't have to put me away just yet! I have also increased my vocabulary with the wonderful word lachrymatory.....that is right up there with Mascarons & Okefenokee on my favorite fun words list.

Just another question please. Did they always have, or have to have stoppers?

Thanks again for your generous sharing of information & expertise.

Hopefully none of us will ever have to need one!
Enjoy the day!
Jersey

posted 02-21-2008 11:21 PM            

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There was a question on another forum but since I am a new member I will answer here. Sylvan Bros., a jewelry store in Columbia, SC, had an exhibit of antique items. (recovered from shipwrecks? I forget) One item was a bottle to hold tears. When a family member died the family hired a professional mourner for the funeral who was paid by the amount of tears, hence a bottle so the tears could be measured.

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