RIBottleguy
Well-Known Member
A few days ago I went digging with my friend Mike, who has been collecting bottles for about a year now. He's slowly learned what bottles are good and which ones are junkers, and his collection is shaping up nicely. We decided to check out a few cellar holes along an old dirt road. My Subaru barely made it past some of the potholes, but it survived. After scoping out one cellar hole, we found one right on the road that a friend of mine had dug. There was a nice dump right on the road in front of the cellar, which of course was a pile of rocks. There were quite a few broken pontils and fragments up to the 1880s. I dug into it and found a broken olive amber umbrella ink, which I swear is a Stoddard piece. Mike wasn't very fond of the broken pieces and tailing piles my friend left behind. I suggested he dig the outbuilding foundation across the road. It was made of beautiful cut stone.
Shortly after that he calls me over. He's holding a broken Paine's Celery Compound. I was surprised, and while it was common, was much more intact than the shards I was finding. The foundation was shallow, and we only dug down about half a foot into pine needles. Suddenly he hits another bottle, and this one looks whole! He brushes the dirt away uncovering an amber square. I'm pretty sure it's a Hostetters, but there is something exciting about it. I gingerly removed a stone from where the lip was, and fortunately it was still attached. He let me pull it out, and as I handed it to him, my jaw dropped slightly. It was an A.M. Bininger whiskey! It easily rivaled the best bottles I had ever dug.
Needless to saw we were both elated (though he slightly more than I). Another hour of digging failed to produce anything else (I did find more nice shards though).
Looking it up online I couldn't find an example like this one. All the listed ones have the address on the front. This one doesn't. I also noted there were three slugplates on three sides of the bottle. New York is in a slugplate (so the address was removed), one side has a long blank slugplate, and one side has a short blank slugplate. It was pretty easy to gather that this was an Old London Dock Gin (Gin being the small slugplate). Has anyone heard of this example before?
New York in slugplate
Long blank slugplate
Shortly after that he calls me over. He's holding a broken Paine's Celery Compound. I was surprised, and while it was common, was much more intact than the shards I was finding. The foundation was shallow, and we only dug down about half a foot into pine needles. Suddenly he hits another bottle, and this one looks whole! He brushes the dirt away uncovering an amber square. I'm pretty sure it's a Hostetters, but there is something exciting about it. I gingerly removed a stone from where the lip was, and fortunately it was still attached. He let me pull it out, and as I handed it to him, my jaw dropped slightly. It was an A.M. Bininger whiskey! It easily rivaled the best bottles I had ever dug.
Needless to saw we were both elated (though he slightly more than I). Another hour of digging failed to produce anything else (I did find more nice shards though).
Looking it up online I couldn't find an example like this one. All the listed ones have the address on the front. This one doesn't. I also noted there were three slugplates on three sides of the bottle. New York is in a slugplate (so the address was removed), one side has a long blank slugplate, and one side has a short blank slugplate. It was pretty easy to gather that this was an Old London Dock Gin (Gin being the small slugplate). Has anyone heard of this example before?
New York in slugplate
Long blank slugplate
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