Benicia Glass

[Old Diggens]

Hello,

I've been collecting for many years now and have a great number of bottles that I'm now doing research on. I've just joined this board after reading it for a time and finding that many on this board are very knowlegable and bring very good information to fellow collecters. My question is related to Benicia Glass. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and many years ago I dug up some Benicia Glass bottles. The one I would like info on is a 11 1'2" amber Eskay's Albuminized Food bottle. It was dug from an old dump that was used pre 1900. Many of the bottles I dug were 12' below the surface, in bay mud. I've seen a lot of sick glass but the color in these bottles is exceptional. I'm not intersted in selling but would like to know what this bottle is valued at? And, where would I find a good website that deals with Benicia Glass?

Thanks

 

[portland med. man]

i used to have the same bottle and used to put my spare change in it , i dug the one i had as well and it was not as stained as your example not big money involved but nice big bottle i believe it means liquid food. what i dont know but web search might help, i have seen some crazy staining in very large dumps and bye the ocean dumps the coloring i was told was that the glass is slowly breaking down and the irredacence flaking is the begin stages of this i`m no pro but if you tumble that bottle she`ll be a nice one.....

 

[Old Diggens]

Hi Med Man,
As you said, I've also found that it's the different minerals in the making of the glass that leach out in different colors. I kind of like the colors on this bottle as is, so I'm not likely to tumble it. I wish I could get into another dig like that one. I was working for a construction company at the time and had access to a 335 Cat Hoe that was used at the site. We split up over 500 bottles between three of us. Since then all my digging has been by hand tool. But it was the big dig that got me hooked many years ago. Reading this site has got my interest up again and I've started going through the old dust covered box's again. Still hooked.

Best regards Med Man