SA dig 12 ....

[downeastdigger]

Great stuff Dale!
It is so interesting to see your posts. I agree with our Canadian friend here saying that the "English stuff always throws me off" in terms of age etc. You are in South Africa, digging what looks like what I always call "English bottles". But then you have that cool Cape Town bottle, man that would be a cool one to have, it looks American. :]

I always try to figure out if there are bottles from England, or South Africa for that matter, that are super rare, and desirable, the way certain American bottles are. Like over here, bottles made at Stoddard or Keene or Pittsburgh etc are valuable for the glass house they were made at, and also, an 1890s clear bottle from a ghost town in Nevada can be very valuable etc. I'd love to have a better handle on whether there are similar items that you might dig in S.A. that is a Holy Grail type of bottle, because of where it was made, or how it is embossed.
Thanks for the photos, great to see. Continued good luck

 

[GACDIG]

More and More great dig SA.... How many Ginger Jar have you dug Now ?? I have a small collection of them hear in the States. I have one large one I was told are harder to come across.
gac

 

[SAbottles]

@ Glen: I must have about 14 or 15 out of this lane so far. All small ones. I was lucky enough to dig some large ones from an early 1800s site in Simon's Town. Will put up a picture later.

@ Bram : remember almost all our bottles came from overseas; there was no real bottle making industry here till the early 1900s. What are very eagerly sought after are certain SA Ginger Beers. Some of these can reach up into the $1000 region. Also the coloured lip hybrid Codds, which can bring in quite respectable money. Sorry to seem too commercial, but there are so few real SA collectors that crass old $$ are the only way to really evaluate our bottles. Obviously there are things which I have dug which have tremendous personal value for me, but that is different !

 

[Wheelah23]

What's embossed on these 3? I like 'em!

 

[beendiggin]

Man you are on a tear over there. But I would be too with all those finds to keep me going.. You must be sporting a rather large collection by now.......

 

[kastoo]

Nice stuff man!

 

[SAbottles]

Here are some more of the local pharmacies, now that they have had a clean up:

 

[SAbottles]

John Hall was our local chemist and I can remember going there as a young boy (No Surf. Not in the 1890s !)

 

[SAbottles]

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[SAbottles]

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