found a bottle in lake erie, 1880 still full

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Thought I'd mention my post on May 28th "Finished off digging a 10 footer" where I dug a few of these round bottomed sodas. Mainly thought I would share some ideas for the stand. I was also going to construct something wooden but then recalled seeing something produced in the day specifically for these bottles but couldn't even come up with a search phrase. I stumbled onto the three holders on the bay, two are for torpedo shaped sodas and one for the round bottomed ones. The torpedo ones still work for the round bottomed ones though I don't know if the reverse would be true as I have no torpedos to test the theory, but presume they would. The prongs are somewhat pliable, allowing for individual fit. (Stand on the left is the round bottomed stand while the two right of it are the torpedo stands.) That said, they are very spendy if you can find them, and when you find them nobody wants to sell them for any price! I recalled what I did for stands some years past for a couple round bottom chianti wine bottles. I simply formed "cups" using modeling clay and though the clay has hardened over time, it is still moldable to some degree. Works fine for the thinner, lighter chiantis but might not be so much for the heavier sodas, unless the "cup" is made a bit deeper. Back to the soda, I think the ones with "Medicated" embossings are older, since the one I dug was the last bottle out of the hole where there was some pontiled stuff around it. I think the medical aspect of soda quickly gave way to the pleasure aspect of flavored sodas. Just my opinion.....Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Here's a pic of the chiantis and the clay stands......

 

[cowseatmaize]

Someone here was making some nice ones, I can't remember who and when though.

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Doesn't Bert Dewitt do stands?

 

[MuddyMO]

This stand I made out of palette wood, and can hold torpedoes too...

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Superior!

 

[ScottBSA]

I have made two stands similar to MuddyMO's stands to hold my bottles with the contents. They are tipped towards the neck so the cork on one and the crown top on the other stay wet. Both have held the contents for several years that way. To each his own on whether or not to keep the contents. The Steamboat Arabia Museum in Kansas City has many full bottles with the contents still intact from a steam boat wreck in 1856. In their book, there is a picture of the discoverers popping the cork on a bottle of champagne with the contents fizzing out. Cool find regardless of what you do with the contents. Scott