FreeBirdTim
Active Member
Stumbled upon a bottle dump the other day while metal detecting. Happy at first, but disappointed when I spotted a ton of 1970's Tab and Fresca bottles on the surface. I did see quite a few steel soda cans, so I checked it out in the hope of finding some in decent shape. Didn't find any worth saving, but started to see older stuff when I started clearing leaves off the mounds of bottles and trash. A GM carb from the 1940's, a broken aqua Atlas mason jar and a car radio from the 1950's (I think).
It got really interesting when I spotted a very large crock that was broken into a dozen pieces. Picked up a shard and it had a cobalt blue design on it! Thought it could be pre-1900, but not positive. My thinking at that point was that someone had cleaned out an old barn and dumped the refuse there. Started to rifle through all the Tab bottles and spotted a blob top right on the surface! I was in total shock! It was an 8 1/2" aqua bottle from T. E. Hickey & Co. of Providence, RI. They were in business from 1872-1902, so it's at least 122 years old! Has a rough whittled look to it, so it could even be from the 1880's. Not in mint condition, but not bad at all. Safe to say, I'll be going back there to see if there's any more good finds lurking under the leaves. You never know...
It got really interesting when I spotted a very large crock that was broken into a dozen pieces. Picked up a shard and it had a cobalt blue design on it! Thought it could be pre-1900, but not positive. My thinking at that point was that someone had cleaned out an old barn and dumped the refuse there. Started to rifle through all the Tab bottles and spotted a blob top right on the surface! I was in total shock! It was an 8 1/2" aqua bottle from T. E. Hickey & Co. of Providence, RI. They were in business from 1872-1902, so it's at least 122 years old! Has a rough whittled look to it, so it could even be from the 1880's. Not in mint condition, but not bad at all. Safe to say, I'll be going back there to see if there's any more good finds lurking under the leaves. You never know...