The story of the "bottle tree" goes back to the late 1700's, along the southern
gulf-coast region of the US. Among the plantations of Mississippi, Lousiana, Alabama and Florida, the slave camps blended
African, Carribean and French/English cultures into a patchwork of religion and mysticism. Collecting the refuse from
thier masters, the black slaves would hang empty glass bottles in the trees around thier dwellings. They believed that
evil spirits would be attracted to the "glitter" they gave off in the moonlight, and enter the bottles, thus becoming
trapped. With the rising of the sun the next morning, the light would destroy the trapped spirits.
Our modern-day version of the Southern Plantation's Bottle Trees are made by Sarasota Artist and Metal-Worker,
Joel Illch.
