A hot-water bottle is a bottle filled with hot water and sealed with a stopper used to provide warmth, typically while in bed. Hot water bottles or bed warmers were in use as early as the 16th century. The earliest versions contained hot coals from the dying embers of the fire. These bed warmers were used to warm the bed before getting into it and were made of a variety of materials, such as zinc, copper, brass, glass, earthenware or wood. Today, most hot water bottles are made of rubber.
This is a brown and cream coloured ceramic hot water bottle. It has a flat base so that it can stand upright easily, either in bed or on the floor of a coach or a train carriage for a comfortable journey. It opens on top.
mmr-00100 > Ceramic hot water bottle, Ceramic, 20th Century
You can see this exhibit up close, along with many others, in the 3rd-floor exhibition room of CVAR.
