Plumbata
Posts: 75
Joined: 12/4/2007
Status: offline
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Well hello to you all, I'm Stephen and I've been collecting coins, antiques, and in the case you care about, bottles since I was 5, when with my allowance money I bought my first 2, a cylinder medicine and a nice stoneware inkwell, for a dollar each back at a flea market in Baltimore, MD. The sellers told me that they dug them out of an old dumpsite where people used to deposit their garbage, and I still remember my visualization of myself watching them digging in mounded piles of dirt with rusty mattress springs and other anachronistic refuse populating the scene with the old bottles, a memory more vivid and lasting than anything I actually saw or anyone I interacted with at the market. I was young, and had never experienced or seen the things that those people had, but I Understood, and despite the naivete that permeated at that age, I took home the core message, which was that glass and stoneware bottles represented an intimate and crucial part of peoles lives over a hundred years before, and that they could be excavated intact from the ground! In 1995 I moved to Peoria, Illinois, and currently go to school at UIUC, which to be honest, is unfulfilling academically, lackluster historically, flat and boring geologically, harmful sociocognitively, not to mention the fact that the dump digging here SUCKS. The people here kinda suck too, hehehe.
Peoria, however, is pretty awesome because it is the reverse of Champaign, save for the dumps, which sucked for me for years because it was full of diggers in the 60s and 70s who dug almost all of the big dumps up, until I stumbled upon one completely untouched by diggers, dating from the 1895-1910, with a 1912ish layer above it. I had only found 1 unknown local bottle, when I was 10, in my years of bottle collecting before I hit this dump in May of 07. Then I found a dozen complete ones (shards of others), and an unknown jug, from May until now. Quite the boon, but it doesn't mean I'm somehow better than another digger who hasn't found their own trove yet. I get some crappy vibes from certain posters here, and for different reasons. Essentially, those elitist diggers amongst you are only serving to strangle a hobby which is getting harder to be successful in as time goes on, not to mention the fact that when all the diggers of the 60s and 70s who hunted and tamed the best bottle grounds pass away, then the hobby very well may go the way stamp collecting did back in the 70s. You don't want that do you? You want your precious bottles to maintain their precious prices, right? If so, then plant seeds, and not condescension or conflict. If I could trade lives with someone born in 1947 or 57 rather than 1987, then I would be a millionaire now (or perhaps worth it), and hindsight has nothing to do with it. It is opportunity. And since many of you have had more opportunities than others, you have amassed quite attractive collections, though ultimately it has less to do with your qualities than it does with what has randomly presented itself to you and how much of that you internalized. Please try to enrich the hobby, not compete for it. If it must be proven in front of others, then it shows how clear it is that you are in fact not special at all.
Anyway, none of you care about some young punk's rant, so how about the dump dig and the finds?
I usually dig alone because none of my 20 year old peers enjoy the hobby, though my dad gets out when he can and I've allowed one of his friends, a 60 year old hutch and milk bottle collector, to dig with us a couple times. Whatever, I dig best when I'm alone. My dad had a heart transplant in 2000 so he does not have the energy to efficiently displace the amount of dirt necessary to uncover the bottles that are 61/2 feet below him. That was my task. This is a partial view of the excavations, as of early October or so. That back wall is at a minimum 5 feet above the torn up ground, almost all of which has been churned like hell by me since May 07.
The same area now, minus a couple SS cokes.
Left of the detached peninsula, a different area is being excavated, the working area being a narrow and pretty deep trench along the exposed wall of earth. Yes, cave-ins occurred within close proximity of myself at various times, but I have spidey senses and can outrun them.
Note partially undermined orange layer. That is paydirt, and in this area I recently pulled out a clear, etched glass McMaster and Derges Peoria, Ill Seltzer water bottle right next to a Peoria pottery jug. I wish I had a digital camera when I first started digging, because I hit a beautiful refuse layer almost 3 feet thick in parts. I would be taking home 1 or 1 and a half crates of embossed bottles/crockery home every day I dug, for quite a while.
The same general area as above, about December 20th See how much overburden there is? and the layer gets deep and thicker closer to the creek. Spring will spell the end of this dump's production probably.
That is a lydia pinkham's and a local leisy beer showing
See that little medicine peeking out?
And the area above, now.
One of many piles that didn't get reburied, an unfortunate broken lightning mason. I got 2 complete Globes with caps and a Dandy, as well as a nice number of other nifty ones.
The two jugs that I pulled from 9 feet down, about a foot apart. The Arthur Lehman & Co. jug was previously unknown and a prime local collectible from ~1901 and the "The Cream of Old Scotch Whiskey Bonnie Castle" Whiskey jug is a turn of the century beauty, an identical piece obtaining over 560 dollars on Ebay in August! Neither the trasnsfer nor the glaze looked as nice as this one, for sure! I thought the Peoria jug was better but I am pleased to have been somewhat misled. Can any brits help me learn more about the Bonnie Castle jug? In the efforts to extract these, I undermined and toppled a 2 trees, whose root-ball(s) plugged up my trench. Out of almost 20 complete jugs, these 2 are the only (besides the western stonewares) that have stenciling. Several are stamped but not as nice as these!
Rare and previously unknown "The Red Cross Pharmacy Peoria, ILL" Citrate of Magnesia bottle, 7 1/2 inches tall, hand blown. above the boss plate it reads "Solution Citrate of Magnesia. Dose for Adults one half to one full bottle, Children in proportion to age"
Very rare and previously unknown "Dufner's Pharmacies Peoria, ILLS" with one of the most solid slug plates i've ever seen. It is a milk/citrate of magnesia bottle and is fecking awesome because the embossing sticks out so far. It is one of the first uniques I pulled, and it was laying right next to 3 other magnesias, the mass produced generic ones that you all have seen. It made my day, needless to say, and looks very nice next to the other unique magnesia from the red cross pharmacy.
Very Rare and previously unknown one pint "Roszell's Jersey Milk" Milk bottle from Roszell's dairy in Peoria, Machine made, 7 inches tall. Bottom embossed TMFG Co. which means it was produced by the Thatcher Manufacturing company of Elmira, NY.
Very Rare and desirable "The City Bottling Co. Berliner Weiss Beer Registered Peoria, ILL." Blob top beer bottle, 8 3/4 inches tall, hand blown. The porcelain stopper, which is very rare as well, reads "Berliner Weiss Beer The City Bottling Co. Peoria, ILL."
So far 2 have been unearthed in the dump, and the old timers seemed more excited that I had found one of these than about the dozen new discoveries I made. Wonder what it is worth...
Rare "McMaster & Derges IBW Peoria ILL." etched glass seltzer bottle, 11.25 inches tall, hand blown.
Very Rare and previously unknown 8 ounce graduated "Sutliff & Case Co. Peoria. ILL." Baby feeding milk bottle from the pharmacy which used to be in the building that One World now occupies, corner of Main and University, in Peoria. Hand blown, 7 inches tall.
Here are my 5 best looking SS cokes, 2 are the same and the most common of the HM Peoria cokes yet they demand some of the highest prices of the area SS cokes of that style. The "Arctic Brand" was made by the Peoria coca cola bottling co. and is the only ABM in the group, but that does not hurt its high local value and says nothing about its rarity. The aqua ones are the most common of the SS cokes, I saw someone post on this board that they had found one and were wondering about it. It is a 90-150 dollar bottle depending on condition and customer base.
My favorite is this green one, as it is made of better glass than the others, is embossed "this bottle not sold" on the reverse, and is more rare to boot. The best Peoria digger I know doesn't even have one, so...
Here is one of a little under 10 Mexican Amole Soap Co. Peoria ILL bottles that I dug, and before I got any I was told that they were decently rare and I should watch out for em. Probably not as rare now, lol. I like the shape and embossing on these guys.
Here are some of my neat smaller finds. There is a super small oyster jug thing, then a mini-stein that has "Mus*****utz" poorly stamped on the bottom and has a bust on either side of a sweet looking snow lodge, then a carved ivory pineapple vial, a mini jug of the exact same style as my Lehman jug (made by Western Stoneware, Monmouth, ILL) that popped out from under the water table hanging by its little handle off of one of the prongs of my 3-tined digging claw! I almost had a heart attack because I thought these things almost always have writing, but alas... Last is a neat glazed disc from "Maison Dorin 27 R. Grenier St Lazare Paris", and in the center top "Depose" and below "Fard De Toilette Marque de Fabrique"
"Clayton's Dog Remedies Chicago". Anyone ever heard of this thing? I bet dog medicine was pretty scarce.
Whats the value of this thing? 20 bucks? Nifty looking regardless.
Rock Island Route railroad paperweight. It is chipped but it doesn't harm the writing or the top surface, so it still looks good. Found it the same day as the first uber rare Berliner Weiss. T'was a good day.
This bottle has the best green color I have ever seen. It is a "Schroeder's B.W.B.Co. St Louis MO." blob and needs to be seen in daylight to be appreciated. Anyone know about this bottle?
It is seriously the best green i have ever seen in a bottle. I wish I could eat it, it looks like sour apple candy.
Here are some pix with it juxtaposed next to some more typical greens:
This is a "Rowcliffe's Pharmacy Peoria, ILL" that was never known to exist, but now it like the others will be included in the soon-to-be-printed 3rd edition Central Illinois bottle reference book!
Another unique.
Very Rare and previously unknown one pint "Roszell" Milk bottle from Roszell's dairy in Peoria, Machine made, 7 inches tall. This and the Jersey Milk predate the previously known oldest Roszell's bottles. I found a half-pint of this style that was embossed on the bottom "Empire Pat Aug 13, 01" also unknown but cracked.
Rare and desirable "Fisher's Quick Cure For Headache & Neuralgia Peoria, ILL." pain cure, 4 1/16th inches tall, hand blown. Only pulled one of these, and it was in the skimpier layer. A nice 1842 Thaler from Hanover is juxtaposed for size comparison/prop.
Flawless and previously undiscovered "Plattenburg & Co. Druggists Canton, Illinois" bottle that I found when I was 10, laying on the very top surface of the ground under the eaves next to an abandoned farmhouse. I dug in the dump there but nothing nearly as great as this. The peeling plaster inside the house revealed canton newspaper used as backing, dated 1905, so the bottle is probably from around then. This is the bottle that made me realize that I could discover things that had been completely forgotten and lost in the past, as well as discover things never known by any man before.
< Message edited by Plumbata -- 1/24/2008 2:51:31 PM >
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Any other 20 year old dump diggers out there? Here's wh... - 
.Just kidding,only 3/4 of it is a dump.But lackluster historically,I disagree.Peoria was a major river city in the mid 1800's and there is a ton of great bottles from there.Pontilled sodas,meds,bitters,endless druggists and hutches.I am from Illinois originally and take away Chicago there are probably more good bottles from Peoria than anywhere.I dug a big dump on the Pekin side once but it had been hit before but it didn't look like I missed much.Got enough Mexican Amole's to hold me over
There is plenty of great stuff to be dug all over the U.S. so don't be discouraged.Them guys in the 60's and 70's had first crack but they didn't even put a dent in it.Good luck out there.Welcome again and enjoy this great hobby
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