History: Brilliant Beverages from The Saracen's Head?

To Brewers, Retailers of Beer, Ale, Cider, &c.

A BRILLIANT ARTICLE IN A FEW HOURS.

THE ADVERTISER has invented FININGS that will cause the article of Beer, Ale, Cider, &c., to become immediately transparent, without violating the law or injury to the article.

The RECIPE is for sale or contract for a supply. A Sample Bottle will be sent to any address, made from this Recipe, on the receipt of 2s 6d, or, in powder, at 8s per cannister, with proper directions for use.

Address - ANDREW WOOD, 5, Snow Hill, London.

(The Carlow Sentinel -  November 1847)

As Isinglass had been around for a long time, was this is a new product? Or at least a new process? With the recipe available too, it must have been made from a raw material that was relatively freely available ... gelatin based perhaps?

There's also an interesting footnote in the fact that the given address was The Saracen's Head Inn, a quite famous establishment in Snow Hill, London that was demolished in 1868 and is now the site of a police station. One assumes that Mr. Wood had lodgings there? Or perhaps it was used as we use PO boxes today...

So not hugely interesting or exciting but ... lots of questions and very few answers!

Liam

[With thanks once again to the local history room in Carlow library]