found my new hobby

[Optimo1986]

Very cool. That little poison bottle is really sweet.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Everyone has to start somewhere, and in my 50 years of digging, I never dug one of those skull & crossbones poisons. When I was about 12 years old I starting digging for bottles. I would lug home a bunch of bottles and my aunt, the negative nelly, would exclaim, "THOSE aren't old! I used to use those when I was younger!" So this one time when I found some extract bottles under an old house I decided to run them by the local museum for their "expert" opinion and was told they dated to the 1880's. Armed with this new found knowledge, I was ready for my aunt's usual comment, to which I replied,"Well, you must be as old as the civil war, because the museum told me they were from the 1880's!" My aunt ceased her negative comments after that and about 5 years later I discovered the museum curator had "aged" my 1930's bottles by about 50 years, keeping alive my boyish notions of "Maybe Jesse James drank from this, or Wyatt Earp!" I am certain if the curator had agreed with my aunt, I would instead be a paleontologist! Here are a couple pics of a nice one from Sedalia that made its way to Hannibal and a variant. Last time I saw one of the first bottle it sold on ebay for $102! Keep your eyes open as I suspect there are more of these in your neck of the woods. Good hunting and good luck. Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

I meant to add that my beginning collection looked a lot like yours does today, and today mine still has many commoner bottles, but they are still special to me since I was the first to touch and recover them after being buried all so many years ago. (Closest to finding pirate treasure I will ever get, and the magic is still with me.) Jack

 

[David Fertig]

Like the Cannibal, I got started when I was around 11 or so. You either broke everything you found in the woods, or you drug it home. I drug it home. Dad fueled my passion by taking me to the flea market and yard sales and letting me buy enough to fill the trunk on many days. The poison is nice. You usually don't dig them much. The Coke would follow me home too. It's probably not rare - depends on the town on the bottom - but I just cant see leaving them behind. As for the rest of the bottles - use them as shelf fillers for now, but in time you will replace them with better bottles. Best of luck, and keep us posted.

 

[TJSJHART]

sorry to hear about you gettin bitten by the bottle bug,,it's a life time of a sickness ..i've been collectin for over 30 years now ..nothing new lately...but the book case some of my best bottle are displayed on still bugs my wife . good luck.