1890's Blob Tops, Pictorial Beers, etc. (March 15th 2023)

[MaxiLou47]

Got out during a big wind storm today. Many old bottles were exposed on the surface as a result of the wind and waves washing away all the silt. These are some of the better finds of the day:

Christian Wagners Sons:
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S. Liebman's Sons Brewing Co.
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Obermeyer and Liebmann's
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Minck Bros. & Co. (8oz):
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Minck Bros & Co. (28oz):
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How in the world are you lucky enough to find these in such great condition and right at your feet??! They are beautiful! Impressive.

 

[UnderMiner]

Land diggers like me get absolutely COVERED in dirt lol from collapsing ceilings and walls. If you aren’t digging a lined privy, it’s extremely frustrating and sometimes dangerous. Not discounting the mud and other such, but I envy the peeps who dig in Georgia, Florida, or any other place where it’s sandy soil.
Though I don’t know how well the silica reacts with the sand!

You know who has it best, the creek walkers down in the South like Alabama and Georgia, they walk in these knee-deep creeks and pull out 19th century hutches, no better place to look for Coca-cola hutches imo.

 

[hemihampton]

The problem with sandy privies is that instead of water filling your holes the unstable sandy walls are always falling in filling your holes. must of been very hard to dig a sandy privy in the old days as the soft sandy walls don't wanta stay up. the ones I've dug had no wooden or brick lined walls, just sand.

 

[Roy]

It may seem like I am just picking bottles off the floor, but alas it is not as simple as it appears. I walk many miles through weeds, silt, and mud to get to many of these places.

There are a few places however that are easy to get to. In these places when the winds and tides are right, it is possible - such as in the example posted above, to find old bottles on the surface. But that same place above I sometimes visit a dozen times in a month and find absolutely nothing- because the mud and silt is unpredictable and covers everything.

But for the majority of my finds I actually do dig, and it is some of the most intense digging you can imagine. I dig mostly in mud and compacted clay which sticks to my shovel and is very heavy. Most of the time I get little to nothing. If you recall my lattice and diamond poison bottle, that was dug from compacted clay and was the only find from three hours of digging. What you don't know is I went back to that location three days in a row and found absolutely nothing else, that poison bottle was the only bottle down there.

When I dig my dumps, which are located on the water's edge, I often get covered in mud and sometimes oil, especially in the 1920's-era dumps when they burned everything. I actually envy land diggers alot, because when they dig their holes they don't immediately fill in with water and every shovel full of soil they scoop actually comes off their spade without needing to be scraped off with the bottom of their boot.

The job is not easy but I must say the one real advantage I have here in NYC over other places is the age, NYC is old and therfore the finds can stretch back alot further in time here than in most places. I make it look easy because I only really ever show the end results, but we all know bottle digging in all its glory is always tedious and dirty

I love it.
You just make it look so easy!!!
Roy

 

[UnderMiner]

Here is a pic of some of my more recent bottles all put together. Most of these are from Jan-March 2023 though a few of the little ones date back as far as last summer. These are the bottles I deemed best for the top shelf though there are several other blob tops that deserved a place but were kicked off by better bottles recently.

 

[Still]

Here is a pic of some of my more recent bottles all put together. Most of these are from Jan-March 2023 though a few of the little ones date back as far as last summer. These are the bottles I deemed best for the top shelf though there are several other blob tops that deserved a place but were kicked off by better bottles recently.
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A great hoard! They all clean up really nice

 

[Still]

You know who has it best, the creek walkers down in the South like Alabama and Georgia, they walk in these knee-deep creeks and pull out 19th century hutches, no better place to look for Coca-cola hutches imo.

Facts

 

[hemihampton]

The Citrate of Magnesium was considered a better bottle/blob?

 

[UnderMiner]

The Citrate of Magnesium was considered a better bottle/blob?

Yes, because it's the oldest version I ever found and had the lightning stopper. Also it's before they put the "of" in the name, which I found interesting.