RIBottleguy
Well-Known Member
I went out with a friend today in hopes of digging my first privy. We had permission at a 1740s colonial, but it was extensively altered and the backyard was lavishly landscaped. We were almost afraid to touch it! Well, we probed and probed...nothing. It was likely because all the surrounding houses were newer (1900s), so we needed a tight city block to find something for sure.
My friend then took me to an abandoned property that we got the ok to look for bottles and privies. Besides all the debris in the yard, it looked very promising. We hadn't even started to probe when he called me over to look at some bottles on the ground. There were a bunch of 1870-90s bottles just lying there! We picked through them and got some sodas, pharmacy bottles, and even a Quaker bitters. As we went back to get a bucket, I noticed two 50-gallon barrels full of bottles!
They were poorly covered, and appeared to have been haphazardly tossed in from a construction site. Some had broken from freezing when full of water (or from having stone beers tossed on them). We started picking through them and left with five buckets of bottles.
The pictures speak better than I can:
The entire haul:
Rush's Bitters, 4 Warner's Safe Cures, a bunch of teal green master inks, some embossed, 4 Rumford Chemical Works
Dyottville cylinder, ancient black glass bottle, Anheuser Busch (Meyer variant), Himalya Cure, Skilton Foote Bunker Hill Pickles
Stone beers, one marked with blue top
X-rare Deerfoot Farm Southboro, Mass. milk bottle. Fruit jars were used to bottle milk in the 1870-1880s period
Moutarde Diaphane pontiled mustard barrel
Caw's Black Fluid Ink
Stafford's Ink master
Anheuser Busch close-up
Dr. Ham's Aromatic Invigorating Spirit NY
The Craig Kidney Cure Co.
Artistic shots
My friend then took me to an abandoned property that we got the ok to look for bottles and privies. Besides all the debris in the yard, it looked very promising. We hadn't even started to probe when he called me over to look at some bottles on the ground. There were a bunch of 1870-90s bottles just lying there! We picked through them and got some sodas, pharmacy bottles, and even a Quaker bitters. As we went back to get a bucket, I noticed two 50-gallon barrels full of bottles!
They were poorly covered, and appeared to have been haphazardly tossed in from a construction site. Some had broken from freezing when full of water (or from having stone beers tossed on them). We started picking through them and left with five buckets of bottles.
The pictures speak better than I can:
The entire haul:
Rush's Bitters, 4 Warner's Safe Cures, a bunch of teal green master inks, some embossed, 4 Rumford Chemical Works
Dyottville cylinder, ancient black glass bottle, Anheuser Busch (Meyer variant), Himalya Cure, Skilton Foote Bunker Hill Pickles
Stone beers, one marked with blue top
X-rare Deerfoot Farm Southboro, Mass. milk bottle. Fruit jars were used to bottle milk in the 1870-1880s period
Moutarde Diaphane pontiled mustard barrel
Caw's Black Fluid Ink
Stafford's Ink master
Anheuser Busch close-up
Dr. Ham's Aromatic Invigorating Spirit NY
The Craig Kidney Cure Co.
Artistic shots
