This bottle was produced from pressed clear glass at the Kosterevs' factory in 1890. The factory enjoyed particular success with its bottles in the form of sleeping Turks, a balalaika player, the Eiffel Tower, and busts of the poet Pushkin and the successful 19th-century General Mikhail Skobelev. Such bottles were intended for city-dwellers of unpretentious tastes who, while enjoying the contents, could use the containers to decorate their homes. The choice of subject matter was evidently often prompted by current events such as the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's birth in 1899 or the unveiling of a monument to Skobelev in 1912. The Turk and the balalaika-player, on the other hand, are among the favourite personages of the Russian lubok (popular print).