What the garden turned up

diggerdirect · Jun 18, 2013

Tilled up a garden spot for my sister at her house last weekend, the place is on my maps as being a coopers mill in 1867, started turning up shards of old glass and pottery right off. Its right on the edge of a drop off to low ground and appears it was a burn pit back in the day.

Crazy color for a drakes!
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sandchip · Jun 18, 2013

Mercy!

botlguy · Jun 18, 2013

THAT makes this old former BITTERS collector VOMIT ! [:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][

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blobbottlebob · Jun 19, 2013

Sounds like a cool story, and sorry it wasn't a whole bottle but maybe you can educate me. How can you tell it's a Drakes? Are those bumps in the first picture unique to that bottle? Thanks.

cowseatmaize · Jun 19, 2013

It does have that Drakes or similar log look to it.
What would be worse, finding it melted or mulching it with the tiller? [8|][8|]

botlguy · Jun 19, 2013

It does appear to be a DRAKE'S but could POSSIBLY be one of several Log Cabin shaped BITTERS. a KELLY'S come's to mind. If it is a DRAKE'S, I think it is a 6 log. I'd have to have it in hand to know for sure.

cowseatmaize · Jun 19, 2013

Drakes makes the most sense but I did think of some of the others Jim. I would never guess on the 4, 5 ,6 log variants though. The 6 I think had the odder colors for the most part but I'm not sure or confident enough to say that out loud
The only pontil I saw (online) was also a 6.
What is your opinion as to logs and colors pontil and such?

botlguy · Jun 19, 2013

You are correct that the 6 logs have the widest array of color by far. If one looks at the corner logs, the 5 log has the logs offset or the side logs are slightly higher than the front & back. The 5 logs did have that dark reddish and / or tobacco amber coloration in some examples.

I have never personally seen a pontiled DRAKE'S, the dates of manufacture would put that in doubt. I do believe there were earlier similarly shaped cabins that are pontiled. I believe they are NOT word embossed. It is possible that the earliest DRAKE'S, perhaps sort of prototypes, were pontiled, until they went into production.

There is also the EXTREMELY RARE " XX/PLANTATION / BITTERS / 1862 that was made from the DRAKE'S patent. Please don't tell me it's THAT one.[X(][X(]

cowseatmaize · Jun 19, 2013

There is also the EXTREMELY RARE " XX/PLANTATION / BITTERS / 1862 that was made from the DRAKE'S patent. Please don't tell me it's THAT one.

Or that... what was it... the Arabic?
There were quite a few, weren't there?
Hopefully but unfortunately, we may never know.[

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botlguy · Jun 19, 2013

The proper term for that one is "ARABESQUE" That is (I believe) the rarest of the "Standard" type DRAKE'S, there are "One of a kind" variants but they are "End of Day" or "Whimsy" pieces. At one time I had about 20 DRAKE'S in the collection but no ARABESQUE. I just never had the money when one was available. They did become available in auctions from time to time.

What the garden turned up

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