Thanks, Jim.
I have to say I much prefer uncleaned bottles. They have much more character. Too bad I have no places to dig around SF. The neighborhoods are too new, and the old areas of san francsisco are either covered up with cement or a building is on top of them. Wish I could have lived in the 1970s when the developers would let enthusiasts dig prior to putting a building up like the embarcadero 2! I have two or three bottles I bought from a guy who dug this site. The Taylor and co (the first bottle in this thread) was dug in the 70s and was in this man's collection for 30 years.
I'm lucky to have it. It's going to stay original (no cleaning).
coincidentally there is an article in last sunday's chronical...
said archaeologists were finding many artifacts at the site of the new trans-bay terminal here in SF. One of the items found was a Bay City Soda Water cobalt smooth base squat...lol
I like it when the history of a bottle's discovery is known. I have one that was found all the way back in the 1950s by a man who was likely to have been the first hard-core bottle collector in my area. To this day, not another example of that bottle has surfaced.
I also prefer the "original" look for early dug bottles. My few local squats are all clean, but that's because two were never in the ground and the other one came out fairly clean from a dump. If I dig one, it will be left as-is. I'll rinse off the crud, but that's it unless it is totally hideous. Then, I would consider a light tumbling. I love my minty ones, but that is their original condition. Every one of my pontiled medicines was dug, and all they look like 150+ year old dug bottles should, in my opinion. ~Jim