This comes from one of the writing exercises in Writing The Paranormal Novel by Steven Harper.  Basically, you create a magical object, complete with it’s history, it’s benefits and drawbacks, etc.

 

A slender bottle, like one that might hold liquor or olive oil. Smooth, dark amber green glass, a cylinder topped with a cylinder, and a cork to seal in its contents. It was created in the 1890’s by a pharmacist’s wish. He wanted to dispense his medicines endlessly, reaping endless profit. He was gifted an impressive bottle of scotch which replaced the medicine. One night his son, a young man, was challenged by a young woman to drink the entire bottle. He drank himself to death and when the pharmacist came home and realized this, he went into a rage and threw the bottle in the ocean, hoping to break it on the rocks and lose the pieces in the violent surf. It didn’t work, and it was picked up in the late 1930’s, assumed to be part of a bootlegger’s stash and kept as a curio until its power was discovered (when they tried to empty it to clean it and it wouldn’t empty). When the owner of the bar went into debt he sold it at a high price to someone who was poisoned by it and it was open when the owner and bottle both went into a river. A nurse found it in the woods while lost and it saved her life, not running out of water while she found her way back to the nursery to the infants she helped care for. She kept it for good luck and eventually used it to store formula for the babies, saving the nursery a lot of money over time. It was lost when a baby was taken from the nursery along with some supplies to care for the baby. No one knows where it is now…

The bottle will refill itself when it is turned upright and its contents can be replaced by adding the desired liquid.

It is made of glass and can eventually break.