Monday, June 4, 2012

Past Finds



Welcome back!  I’d like to start up where I left off, at that exciting dig in Shannock.  There was actually more to the story I neglected to mention.  Before venturing into the river, I talked to a tenant in one of the old mill houses.  He had the fortune of being there when the old dam was taken out, and had some bottles from the excavation.  Nothing struck my interest until I saw an unembossed beer bottle.  Well, not exactly.  It was an acid-etched bottle that read Narragansett Brewing Co. Famous Export Lager Prov. RI.  Acid etching was a cheap method of marking bottles but was rarely used and is most commonly found on wine bottles.  Soda and beer bottles are scarce, so it made this one of the rarest Narragansett bottles.  He was curious of the value, and I said given the heavy wear and scratching, I thought it was worth around $10-15.  I was pretty surprised when he then offered it to me for $5!  We became fast friends and had many a pleasant chat on the river while I dug away.




Sometimes you find a really uncommon bottle, then déjà vu!  It happens again like something from the Twilight Zone.  While browsing the Richmond Antique Center, I came across another acid etched RI beer in a display of bottles.  This one was an Eagle Brewing Co. Prov. RI.  I actually passed up the $12 tag, and then came back the next week.  I figured how often do you see acid etched RI beers?  Almost never!








I remember one particularly exciting ebay auction a few years ago.  Someone had amassed an impressive collection of Bristol, RI pharmacy bottles.  There are very few known, and given how lots on ebay usually sell cheaper than separately listed bottles, I put in an aggressive bid and won the lot.  I was initially disappointed by the numerous chipped bottles that were not mentioned, but after getting a partial refund I was able to appreciate the lot.  There were a total of four new J.H. Young variants, which was the only listed Bristol druggist online at the time, and three new druggists.  There was a Morris, Bedell, and my personal favorite, W.H. Buffington.  With that addition I involuntarily became the authority on Bristol druggists.

















Until two years ago, the only bottle show I had attended was the Little Rhody Bottle Club’s annual show.  So when Al Otis invited me to come to the Merrimack Bottle Show in Lowell, Mass, I gladly tagged along.  Upon arriving, I was pretty overwhelmed.  It was significantly bigger than the Rhody show, and while it was heaven there was almost too much to process.  I wasn’t even able to see all the tables, and left with two boxes of goods.  Among them was an unlisted Providence medicine, A.J. Hopkins & Son.  It’s an unassuming square bottle, but I remembered that A.J. Hopkins put out a quack medicine that was listed on the website.  His Magic and Improved Magic Healing Powders were both rare bottles. 



I’ll finish up with a rather iconic RI medicine bottle.  The massive chemical company Caswell & Hazard of Newport and New York produced some of the nicest colored RI medicines around.   Particularly well-known are their square cobalt bottles embossed with their motto “Labor Omnia Vincit” (Hard work conquers all).  There are three generations of this bottle, in order of succession: Caswell Mack, Caswell Hazard, and Hazard Hazard.  The newest generation, Caswell & Massey, is still around and there are rumors that they put out the “LOV” bottle too.  They are actually quite common, with around 10 cobalt blue examples surfacing on ebay each year.  The scarcer colors, including amber and clear, are harder to find but cheaper.  I somehow acquired three amber examples but was too cheap to competitively bid for one of those blue ones.  One day I just decided to lay down the cash and bought one for a reasonable total of $37.50.  I was pleasantly surprised when it came in the mail and found it to be an unlisted smaller size!  The embossing was also very bold, which was a bonus since most examples have weak impressions.  I still have a long ways to go to catch up to David Andrews, but I have a start…