Finished off a 10 foot brick liner......

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Well, got into the brick liner Sunday and Monday that had what appeared to be a 3 foot thick cement cap. Fortunately, it was part of what was likely a foundation as it only went over the hole a couple feet, so we were able to dig around it. First pic is the brick corner we encountered, leading us to dig in THAT direction. Pic with the bucket in the hole was end of day one, where here they usually end around here at the 7-8 foot level. When I returned the next morning, I fully expected to be scraping the bottom 6-12" clean, filled in and out by 10am. Instead, I discovered 2 more lime covered layers, dropping me down first into the 1870's, then mid to late 60's at the very bottom at 10'. Third pic shows my 5' ladder in the hole with another foot or so to go to bottom. There were a few open pontil bases from large apothecary jars and the one wine bottle was free-blown with a pontil and a busted pontiled black glass ale, leading me to believe mid 60's. I was surprised at the percentage of broken stuff as it was mostly soft and fluffy digging near the end and void of the usual large rocks and bricks. I would have expected more survival rate but came to about 2/10 survival. Dug pieces of an early amber Hoss and a top part of a Doyles. Also a strange square jar with a hole in one side with base embossed Wright Smith's Thunder & Lightning St. Louis Mo. Failed to keep it as I presumed it was a preserve jar and listed in the RB, but found nothing. Could possibly have been a lamp as it had a small mouth opening for a preserve jar.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

First pic here shows a freshly dug Cantrell &/ Cochrane/Belfast &/ Dublin/ Aerated Waters, and as common as they are, it was my first embossed round bottom. Later I dug another duplicate and then at the very bottom, one more but older looking and embossed the same but with MEDICATED/ Aerated/ Waters embossed on 3 lines. I was stoked. Second pic shows the finds from Sunday, mostly from the top 2 feet of the cap. That round bottom was dug by my apprentice digger. Last pic is what came from the last couple feet, with a couple 1870's Hannibal Pharms. I didn't have in those sizes, always a welcome find. Also a cool Eclectic Liniment and a yellow ware mug I have to glue together. Not a ton of stuff, but still fun and found some things I didn't have, name of the game. Now it is time to rest the old back for a few days! Jack

 

[LC]

Interesting as well as well presented , thanks for sharing . Wish it had turned out better for you although it looks like you got a few nice keepers .

 

[nhpharm]

That looks like a fun dig! I always love getting into the old stuff...you just never know what you might find. Really enjoy your digging stories!

 

[Bass Assassin]

Hey hannibal, another great digging excursion from the master story teller. I would love to have been there when you realized this thing was deeper than expected, and wondering what lies beneath those layers. Thats a great feeling! You got a little bit of everything including some round bottoms which i have yet to dig, but want badly. The blue med is fantastic! Please get us another close-up of that one when you can. Its got to be a let down when the broken ratio is 8/10. Terribly sorry to hear that. Just weird that you had so many brokes but not a lot of brick/stones in the bottom. Wondering if they were broken before being thrown in? Always seems the best ones are broken. I dug a pit where i found 18 whole slick beers/ales, only found 2 broken but found a broken drakes under the beers. That sent me into s state of pissed off you have never seen the likes of!

 

[Bass Assassin]

Forgot to ask, do you know what the green stopper went with?

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Nice blue med! Man i was I had the time the dig like you do.

 

[2find4me]

Cobalt Med is nice, I really like that stopper too.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Thanks, to you all. Bass, the cobalt med is a common, (yet older style than what I had before), Ackers English Remedy with the North & South America Sole Agents embossing. I believe the uranium green glass stopper went to a fancy barber style hair oil bottle, but I never found any pieces to it. And Rick, not to rub it in, (or maybe to), I have dug in a productive hole every day this month so far except for today, yesterday, and one day about 2 weeks ago! That's why I need the back break! Digging and climbing the ladder and pulling the bucket on my own gets grueling some days and it finally caught up to me after this last one. (Trying my best to make up for the looooong winter!) But I just probed out my next planned dig, behind another 60's era house about a block and a half from mine......maybe tomorrow. I'm such a glutton, but who can blame me? I'm in a bottle digging time warp, back to the 1960's, Baaaybeee! Ha! Jack

 

[deenodean]

Jack- i always enjoy reading your stories, pictures and finds. Get'er done !