Privy Full of Bottles but can't Dig.

[hemihampton]

After work I stopped by where they just tore down/Demolished a old house. As usual I go in back yard where they tore out Concrete Garage floor. This is where the old Privy's like to hide. I see a bottle in dirt & at first I think it's a Beer Bottle with broken off top. As I walk over to it I see a little sliver of what looks like a piece of crock slightly peeking out of the dirt, I start wiping the dirt away & see some Lettering & Automatically I know what it is, seen many before, I get excited & start wiping the dirt away but assume it's just a broken shard but as I wipe the more & more I see & I start thinking, COOL, Looks like it's whole & it is. Out comes a nice Matheson Ginger Beer Stoneware Pottery Bottle by Detroit Distilled Water Co. Then I walk over to the broken beer bottle to see what it is, But then I see, it's not broke, it's just short looking because it's a Hutch. As I pick it up & wipe dirt off I say to myself what I always say, I hope it's not a Norris. And it is. The Most common Detroit Hutch. Anyways, in a nutshell I'm pretty sure the bulldozers dug into a Privy with all the White Ash & broken shards laying around. I wanted to pull out my Shovel & start digging & usually I would of, BUT, With Detroit being the 3rd worst City with the Corona Virus & in Total Lock Down with $1,000 fine if caught out doing non essentials I could see it now, Cop drives by & Stops & say's Hey, What you doing there, I say Digging old Bottles. Not sure what they'd say about that? Plus Neighbor came out back door so I grabbed the Bottles & headed for the Car. This spot could be filled in, in the next day or 2. hopefully it will be a few weeks before that happens. LEON.

 

[woods_walker]

Nice story Leon. Common bottles are nice when all you have to do is walk up to them and pick them up.
I hope you can get back before the opportunity is gone!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hemihampton]

Here they are cleaned up a little with water & sponge. LEON.

 

[sandchip]

Maddening, I tell you, maddening!

 

[hemihampton]

The Mathesons I dug or picked up today, I'm not sure if I should consider it different then the one in my personal Collection. All the ones I have or seen all have Black ink Transfer. This one is kinda dark bluish green maybe? Hard to see in this Pic. More noticeable in Person. LEON.

 

[ROBBYBOBBY64]

The Mathesons I dug or picked up today, I'm not sure if I should consider it different then the one in my personal Collection. All the ones I have or seen all have Black ink Transfer. This one is kinda dark bluish green maybe? Hard to see in this Pic. More noticeable in Person. LEON.
View attachment 205910

Maybe oxidized? The colors might have changed slightly due to water and elements in the soil. I have seen black dyes and paints turn a greenish color before. Hope you can get back there again. Love your posts.

 

[yacorie]

Nice job. The hutch has a different shape than the ones we have out East - that one seems to have a more squat shape to it.

Are you nearby where this is? Perhaps you could monitor it or if there are still machines there maybe you could ask the excavator operator to take a scoop or two and let you look?

 

[treeguyfred]

Sofa King cool Leon! I too love it when a cache just appears like this! A number of years the tree service I worked for were doing a land clearing project for a road widening project. After we pieced down a few trees near an embankment, a heavy equipment operator started to excavated the stumps and as the stumps were being pulled out, the roots revealed several local bottles including hutches and two ginger stone wares and a jug all from Paterson, NJ! I simply asked if I could take a quick break and collect the booty... so satisfying and exciting still have the treasure found that day ... even though they are common for our area they are in great shape!
Yours are damned nice Leon and I hope you can find more... you might get lucky with a scarce bottle or three!
~Fred

 

[CanadianBottles]

Nice finds! Hope the site stays open long enough for you to get a chance to dig it, looks like a good one.

 

[RCO]

there aren't any restrictions on digging on private property here as long as there isn't enough people present it amount to a gathering of 5 or more

all public parks have been closed although I've still seen people in many of them , there is a look out here and the town actually blocked the road to it by dumping a large pile of sand / gravel at the entrance . apparently a sign or chain blocking the road was not enough ?

its been rather crazy lately to be honest