In the days before perma-press, the process of getting wrinkles out of laundered clothing involved first sprinkling each piece with water, rolling it tightly to distribute the moisture and packing it all down in a laundry basket until ironing day. Thank goodness, those days are over!
To sprinkle the water around, you could simply dip your fingers in a basin and ‘fling’ the water around, or you could take a plain old bottle with a screw on cap, pierce the cap a few times, and be in business. Figural ceramic bottles were first introduced in the late 1920's and are found in the forms of a variety of subjects ranging from cute animals to people who actually did the ironing. Maybe these figural bottles were made to add a little cheer to this dreary job. Anyway, since no one irons any more, today they simply represent a little bit of history, and collectors now take an interest in them.
