Amethyst Pepsi-Cola Heart Breaker Dug This Weekend!!!

[Toby]

Dug this Amethyst Straight Sided Pepsi-Cola over the weekend at an early 1800's farmhouse in NC. It is a Spencer, N.C. bottle. I've been looking for the dump for months. I'm new to bottle digging and have been hooked since day 1. Can anyone put a date on this bottle?

 

[RIBottleguy]

That is certainly a heart breaker! I think the heel embossed slugplate ones date from 1900-1905.

 

[Toby]

Yes, it is! I have just broken the surface of the dump. The original part of the farmhouse looks like late 1700's, all hand hued log. What are your thoughts on search for the privys? I've heard it would be a waste of time to dig. Why were the amethyst bottles produced?

 

[Bass Assassin]

It's never a waste of time to dig the privy. Chances are there will be something in it besides night soil.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

I agree with bass, though on farms it is more likely there is a dumpsite where a majority of glass will be found. I would also check around the inside of the foundation and search for the cellar as there may be some long forgotten treasures there. Pay special attention to fireplace bricks as the base of these fireplaces can yield bottles and other finds. Reason being, they had to dig out where they lined the brick like a privy but much more shallow, of course. Often times they would fill the edges with trash when done. Few bottles were "produced" amethyst, unlike yours, which was clear originally. The public, for various reasons, demanded clear glass containers, mostly to see what they were getting. Manganese was used as a clearing agent from the 1880's up until we entered WW1 in 1916. At that time, Germany was the main exporter of manganese and they cut us off for entering the war. Exposure to years of direct sunlight turned your "plain Jane" Pepsi into a beautiful amethyst color, also known as desert glass. Many people collect bottles only purpled by the sunlight. At that time we switched to selenium as a clearing agent until the early 20's when glass production became more refined and mass produced. (Selenium still turns the glass a light straw color under natural uv light but a more deeper gasoline smoky color when nuked.) Check out sha.org/bottles for an extensive overview of bottle technology over the years. Hope this helps and good luck! Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

PS- To answer your other question on dating the bottle, it is generally said any sun purpled glass dates prior to 1916, and if yours is machine made, then 1910 would be a reasonable/general earliest date. Could be slightly earlier as the abm bottles were not mass produced for a few years after the industry's initial acceptance of the machine in 1903. Pepsi Cola likely became popular rather quickly based on the large number of varieties found, so they had a greater need for mass production sooner than most. According to Wikipedia, Pepsi wasn't sold in bottles (6 ounce) until 1904 when they sold almost 20k gallons. That's a lot of bottles! Still, if a tooled top, I would think up to about 1910 before they would need help in the mass production department. Jack

 

[Toby]

-cannibalfromhannibal, thank you for all the info. I plan to get back out there as soon as this snow apocalypse moves out of NC. I'm going to hit the dump area first. I have a lot of clearing to do to get access to the full dump. I will check the different places that you have listed above. I will post all pics of the dump and all that comes out. I will get a few pics of the house and barns. The property has the oldest barn still standing in Davidson County, NC neighboring Spencer, NC. I plan to start poking out privys during the spring. Should be some great hunting!!!

 

[Toby]

A few more finds from the dump. Can anyone put a bottle with the cobalt blue top that was dug and help identify/date the others??? I am finding a lot of broken amethyst glass in this dump. I have found a few pieces of stoneware but nothing whole. I was only able to dig for 2 hrs. this past weekend. The local whiskey was another rare heart breaker that this dump has produced! The whiskey bottle was buried under an old truck seat that took about 30 min. to remove! I did unearth an old hand drill and tractor pedal that were both pretty sweet finds. I will post a few pics of them later. I will continue the unearthing of "Heart Break Dump" this weekend!!!

 

[hemihampton]

Looks like your finding some good stuff. Some people call the Amethyst bottles SCA for Sun Colored Amethyst if I remember right. Keep looking, some good stuff will pop up. LEON.

 

[sunrunner]

the Amethyst color was not made intentionally, the chemical manganese which was put in the glass to make it clear before 1918 , will turn this color wan exposed to ultra violet light over time.