THE RAREST WEST TENNESSEE HUTCH BOTTLE!?

[CreekWalker]

In the last week, I caught a break from work due to the torrential rains in the area. My son and I started bottle digging where we left off back in the early spring. He wasn't with me the day I found my most prized bottle, he was in school and I wanted to complete a hole before the weekend rain filled it. This was the last bottle found and one of the few unbroken. My hometown is Brownsville Tn. Home of some very rare embossed bottles, especially pre-1910 bottles, due to a little known fact. That's another story. I starting relic hunting with my dad in the 1960's. We were on the trail back then for Native American relics and projectile points, Civil War artifacts and the occasional bottle. My dad had a pile of good bottles, stored in a corn crib in our barn, but he cared very little for them. However I loved the hunt, the prize when found, the local history behind them and the beauty of the bottle craft. I found my first bottle with this brand name in 1984, it was in 3 pieces and was a straight side, not a hutch. A couple years later , in a wet privy ,I found two thirds of a Hutch soda, in the cracked slug plate was embossed simply: BERT SMITH, BROWNSVILLE TENN. I still keep in a brown paper sack somwhere in the attic. After that I never found another. I have found hundred's of west Tenn. bottles since, but not a Smith. 20 years later. I made a cash offer for another Bert Smith straight side soda, cracked with a base chip , found in back of the Smith Lumber Company, a long story I told digger mcdirt awhile back , I believe under "Embossed Soda's." Well after digging the shallow privvy, and finding several good local bottles, such as an aqua : WEST TENN BOTTLING & ICE CREAM CO. BROWNSVILLE TENN. Str. side soda, which are rare in amber or aqua , this one had the: Gay-Ola, THE IMPROVED COLA with the embossed ribs, a previously unknown bottle! A unique transition bottle I have never seen, nor any of the other bottle collectors locally shown. I knew this could be a great hole, my probe found several more, such as a nice squat blob top, but unmarked, a rare cathethal soda: CLOVER BRAND, embossed with the local COCA COLA bottler. But all had damage as did the Gay-Ola with it's sheared crown top. I was about to pull the ladder down, with I turned to haul down the rope, my foot scubbed a hard lump on the outer edge of the mud. Not a brick but a good lookin hutch,...yes! I could not read it yet for the grime, but it had a slug plate and lettering! I got it home with the rest of the bottles and placing them in the soaking tank, I went in and had my supper and came back later to check for the brand, I figured another common Memphis hutch, many are found here and I had found two in the hole that day. To my surprise and after a 26 year hunt, I found not a : BERT SMITH. BROWNSVILLE, TENN hutchinson, but an aqua : BURT SMITH & CO. BROWNSVILLE TENN hutch! I can retire now. I can't find an local collector yet, who has heard of it. If you have one send me a photo.

 

[surfaceone]

Hello Rick,

Whatta great story! Way to persevere. Congratulations, you've got braggin rights now.

 

[slag pile digger]

Hey creekwalker,
Awesome story!!! Glad to hear about your hometown hutch bottle you have been searching for so long.... I recently started taking my digging/collecting seriously and found a med of my hometown..It was an unbelieveable feeling I will never forget!!! I spoke to a local collector and there are 4 more for me to find...2 milks, and 2 spring water bottles.. I hope some of your luck will rub off on me!!!! Michael

 

[CreekWalker]

Thanks! surfaceone and slag pile digger, I still got the itch, it's hard to shake off. I had a local six sided cobalt blue med or cure bottle, I parted with 10 years ago, for $600 and have found the amber version since but not another blue. So I have that goal plus I need a few upgrades for damaged bottles. And I have two young diggers fired up too, after finding that hutch. I had told that story to them so often , it had taken legendary status. They couldn't wait to scour somes creeks east of us after last weeks rains. Then they saw digger mcdirt's latest posts and headed up to Jackson ,digging somewhere and brought a wheel barrow load of 1960 & 70's bottle back! I'm still sorted through them and will post some photos soon. Don't forget the mosquito dope and the snakebit kit!

 

[sandchip]

Great find and a great story!

 

[CreekWalker]

Thanks and good luck digging up Georgia. Hope you find a real peach of a bottle.

 

[girlie]

Great Find!!..I hope i have your luck.

 

[CreekWalker]

ANOTHER BURT SMITH HUTCH BROWNSVILLE TN HUTCH

I dug an old victorian trash dump recently. Finding mostly plain meds except for a embossed CHAMBERLIEN'S COUGH REMEDY. I was surprised to find a another hutchinson bottle I had searched for in vain 26 years. The bottle is a BURT SMITH CO (in slug plate) BROWNSVILLE TENN hutch. It is chipped at the top, however I found a chip that may repair it well enough for display. This is the second such bottle dug in less than a years time for me, when it rains it pours, I suppose! The newly acquired Smith Hutch is spelled BURT instead of BERT , the spelling in the bottle price guides (and on the 1900-10's amber straight side sodas of this local brand). The and (&) is missing on this one, between SMITH and CO. Another difference is the base marking, on the newest find it is embossed LIQUID along the base rim not smooth and plain as last years find. Just adding to the knowledge pool of Tennessee diggers, who like me, love the local glass.

 

[Unclefungus]

I'm looking for information on a bottle like this for my sister. She showed me one she found many years ago and it looks like yours. It is spelled Burt and the "&" is missing. On the bottom you can see "THE LIQUID" but it is extremely light, we had to use a magnifying glass in order to read it. It's in great shape without any chips. She is wanting to sell it but I told her to do some research first. Google is amazing. lol. Thanks in advance.

 

[CreekWalker]

Thanks for the inquiry. Please post a photo of the bottle front showing the slug plate for the TN hutch collectors. The bottle is on Hutchbook.com website , it is also in 2 bottle value or price guide books from the 1980's covering southeast US bottles written by a Brownsville bottle digger now deceased. I have never seen one sold online in 30 years, Locally those have sold in the past decade for $35 to $50 depending on condition. Older Coca-Cola bottles from Brownsville , namely the 1915 HS and 1923 HS and straight side have sold recently $50-60 price range. And I suspect a Bert or Burt Smith hutch would bring ten to twenty dollars more if near mint. It is so rare as to have little interest or demand from local collectors. It is too obscure. The hot items recently sold due to the bicentennial of the city of Brownsville and Haywood county are embossed medicine bottles from the 1870-1900's such as Bond Drug Co. and Glass Drug Co. Also hot are Brownsville Saloon stoneware whiskey jugs, all saloons closed in 1900 by vote of the citizens, check recent completed eBay auctions for prices realized. Burt Smith was owner of the ice plant, the first town bottler and owner of the coal company which supplied the local railroad and their trains. He entered into a large business contract or deal with a Memphis law firm and somehow lost his entire fortune and the businesses as the local legend goes. I have read he just made a bad business deal and didn't read the fine print on the contract without consulting with a lawyer as this was a secretive transaction of some type. Good luck with the sale of the bottle. There are a couple of members on this site interested in purchasing one.