leebran20
Well-Known Member
This is from a dig my partner Mike and I enjoyed at the start of this month. Started out typically, with us just wandering up into one of our favorite Honolulu valleys to hunt in an area frequented by the deposed Queen and her supporters around the end of the 19th century and later settled by many Japanese immigrants to the Hawaii Territory around the '20s and '30s. This was an area of glory digging back in the '70s for the first diggers who found it, but there's still plenty of meat back there for those willing to hunt it.
Mike, my other partner Dean and I have dug single dumps in this area that have been mixed with different stuff from 1880-1970, others which have been exclusively milk-filled and included some real killer embossed '20s specimens which can bring in five hundy apiece, but this was the first time any of us had lucked into an exlusively 19th-century pit up there. And it all started with me having to go pee and happening to wander near the completely vertical dirt cliff alongside a river, where I spied two bottle necks sticking out before hollering for Mike to check it out while I went to find just the right bush. I first thought it was just a "Federal Law prohibits..." clear whiskey top I was looking at, so of course I wasn't that excited -- but then Mike yelled out that it was actually the top of a 3-pint clear Palmboom case gin, which of course was one of the few things that could stop me mid-stream and send me scurrying still undecent back to the spot. You think I'm kidding, but barely.
The finds weren't spectacular in pure dollar value, but we do believe -- and others have agreed -- that we set the state record that day for most tiger whiskeys (obviously the pottery specimens) found on a single dig. Though they were made a bit earlier too and the form I believe is continued until today, these 64 tigers, also known as Ng Ka Pys, are from the 1890s period, as is the Hollister and Co. Honolulu hutch and John Rapp & Son S.F. Cal beer and the few other potteries. As you can tell, some of the better tigers are Kanji embossed -- but most are not -- and they are glazed with a variety of beautiful shades.
Happy digging. I'll post some pics of one of those killer milk holes next.
Mike, my other partner Dean and I have dug single dumps in this area that have been mixed with different stuff from 1880-1970, others which have been exclusively milk-filled and included some real killer embossed '20s specimens which can bring in five hundy apiece, but this was the first time any of us had lucked into an exlusively 19th-century pit up there. And it all started with me having to go pee and happening to wander near the completely vertical dirt cliff alongside a river, where I spied two bottle necks sticking out before hollering for Mike to check it out while I went to find just the right bush. I first thought it was just a "Federal Law prohibits..." clear whiskey top I was looking at, so of course I wasn't that excited -- but then Mike yelled out that it was actually the top of a 3-pint clear Palmboom case gin, which of course was one of the few things that could stop me mid-stream and send me scurrying still undecent back to the spot. You think I'm kidding, but barely.
The finds weren't spectacular in pure dollar value, but we do believe -- and others have agreed -- that we set the state record that day for most tiger whiskeys (obviously the pottery specimens) found on a single dig. Though they were made a bit earlier too and the form I believe is continued until today, these 64 tigers, also known as Ng Ka Pys, are from the 1890s period, as is the Hollister and Co. Honolulu hutch and John Rapp & Son S.F. Cal beer and the few other potteries. As you can tell, some of the better tigers are Kanji embossed -- but most are not -- and they are glazed with a variety of beautiful shades.
Happy digging. I'll post some pics of one of those killer milk holes next.
] I hope that you didn't have to tote these through the woods too far. Keep at it and watch out where you take a leak.[
