RIBottleguy
Well-Known Member
Whilst antiquing yesterday I kept debating whether or not I should head over to Putnam, CT. It's a little drive from where I am, and while the antique center there is massive, it can be hit or miss. Eventually I said to heck with it, and plugged the address into the GPS. The two big shops were a bust. I decided to walk down the street to a junk shop that has a lot of bottles. The first time I went there, they had close to 1000 bottles upstairs. About 950 of those were common junkers, but I did come away with about 30 bottles. Since then not a lot of new ones have come in, or so I thought.
I noticed the store's layout had changed, and that included a couple new bottles. I was walking past a dirty Hood's Sarsaparilla when I stopped and looked at the bottle sideways, and to my surprise saw the words Providence, RI! Not a Hoods. Snatching it up, I got that quick heart-pounding adrenaline rush of realizing I just found a super rare unlisted RI medicine! It was embossed Vital Tonic // A Life Preserver / Whitney Medicine Co. Providence, RI. It was unpriced, and the dealer said "make me an offer", and a $20 bargain was struck.
Before and after cleaning
I noticed the store's layout had changed, and that included a couple new bottles. I was walking past a dirty Hood's Sarsaparilla when I stopped and looked at the bottle sideways, and to my surprise saw the words Providence, RI! Not a Hoods. Snatching it up, I got that quick heart-pounding adrenaline rush of realizing I just found a super rare unlisted RI medicine! It was embossed Vital Tonic // A Life Preserver / Whitney Medicine Co. Providence, RI. It was unpriced, and the dealer said "make me an offer", and a $20 bargain was struck.
Before and after cleaning
