Florida Water and Cerevisine (Tooled Bottles)

[UnderMiner]

Today's finds:

Florida Water in situ:

Cerevisine in situ:

 

[Johnny M]

They sure come out nice and clean from that area. Looks like a fun spot to be mudlarking. Nice finds. Johnny M

 

[Roy]

Today's finds:
View attachment 243638

Florida Water in situ:
View attachment 243641

View attachment 243639

Cerevisine in situ:
View attachment 243640

View attachment 243642

Nice, and you didn't have to dig all day to get them ... You do have a nice spot there. Roy

 

[CanadianBottles]

Is that an applied lip Florida water? Looks older than the ones I'm used to.

 

[Johnny M]

They sure come out nice and clean from that area. Looks like a fun spot to be mudlarking. Nice finds. Johnny M

What's the best you've pulled from that mud so far? Ever find pontil pieces or a whole pontiled bottle? Johnny M.

 

[UnderMiner]

Is that an applied lip Florida water? Looks older than the ones I'm used to.

Yes, this is the oldest Florida Water I've ever found. Until now I have only ever encountered the machine-made version with the thin seam line extending all the way to the lip. This one in contrast has a tooled neck with an applied lip. It also has a wide seam line that ends at the base of the neck where the craftsman would have taken over the finishing process.

 

[UnderMiner]

What's the best you've pulled from that mud so far? Ever find pontil pieces or a whole pontiled bottle? Johnny M.

I have only ever found one intact pontiled bottle, the 1848-1853 "Robinson, Charlesworth, and Tryner" mineral water bottle with the "XX" mark featured in my profile picture. That bottle came from this site and is the oldest bottle I have ever found here or anywhere else.

R.C. &T. XX bottle in situ:

It is an iron pontil bottle.

The finds from this particular location are scarce and I often find nothing at all, but when I do find something its often very old.

I did alot of historical research on this location. Apparently there were alot of oysters here in the 18th and 19th centuries which brought alot of people to dredge the mud for them. But the oysters all died out from over-hunting around the turn of the 20th century, and the people stopped visiting. This explains why there are only pre-20th century bottles at this site, they're the bottles left by the oyster fishermen.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Yes, this is the oldest Florida Water I've ever found. Until now I have only ever encountered the machine-made version with the thin seam line extending all the way to the lip. This one in contrast has a tooled neck with an applied lip. It also has a wide seam line that ends at the base of the neck where the craftsman would have taken over the finishing process.

I don't think I've ever seen an ABM version. Maybe we didn't get those in Canada.
I think there must have been some dumping at your site at some point, maybe once it was no longer productive for oysters. I can't imagine someone going out and fishing for oysters while carrying along a bottle of Florida water, unless there was some reason they were reusing bottles. Might have also been dumping into the water a bit of a distance away and the currents brought the bottles over to your spot.

 

[UnderMiner]

I don't think I've ever seen an ABM version. Maybe we didn't get those in Canada.
I think there must have been some dumping at your site at some point, maybe once it was no longer productive for oysters. I can't imagine someone going out and fishing for oysters while carrying along a bottle of Florida water, unless there was some reason they were reusing bottles. Might have also been dumping into the water a bit of a distance away and the currents brought the bottles over to your spot.

Most certainly. There was also a fancy yacht club in the general area around the same time (1890's) and the boats probably would have found their way to this site. The rich men and women on these boats wouldn't have cared too much about getting back their bottle deposits as much as the oyster workers would have (imo anyway). Florida Water may have belonged to one of the yacht club ladies.

 

[Still]

Super cool finds!