Thursday, September 13, 2012

Summer Finds #1



Summer is usually an off time to dig for bottles.  The heat, bugs, and all that flourishing green stuff make it hard to compete with the beach or indoor AC.  But, for the persistent few, there are ways to beat the system...
 

I’ve often gazed out on Narragansett Bay imagining the thousands, if not millions of bottles that blanket its bottom.  One can dive for bottles, but poor visibility, seaweed, and quite often the gradual concealment by detritus makes it a difficult task.  Additionally, lucrative sites such as Newport harbor are protected from "treasure hunters".  Last week in June marked my first excursion into Narragansett Bay.  I chose the historic seafaring town of (anonymous) as my test subject.  It turned out to be a smashing success.  Wherever I dug in the bay I found bottles.  They might have been 1980s beers, or in one case a broken ca. 1750s Dutch onion bottle.  The key was to find areas dominated by older bottles.  Sometimes I was able to simply walk in the muck and pull out bottles when I felt them with my feet.  Among the RI bottles I found were a few unlisted examples. 
            A local pharmacist I had been impatiently waiting for came forth in three sizes, two of which were unlisted.  E.E. Young Pharmacist Wickford Pharmacy Wickford, RI.  He was one of two pharmacists that had embossed bottles made for them in Wickford.  The unlisted sizes were 5-1/4” and 6-1/2”.


Perhaps the most exciting find was a true crier.  My digging partner found a blob top soda bottle broken in place.  It was an Aetna Bottling Co. Fauly Bros. East Greenwich, RI.  There were only two other bottling companies (Gorman & Connole, J.S. Byrne) known from East Greenwich, now there are 3!  The Aetna Co. was more well-known for making bottle closures.


Another discovery in the harbor was my second Providence Brewing Co. Providence, Rhode Island BIM crown top.  I particularly like this bottle because it has Rhode Island spelled out.  This unlisted version has a comma after Providence, and a period after Rhode Island. 


At the last club meeting until the fall I picked up two nice sodas.  One was an unlisted version of the Empire Bottling Co. 129 Chestnut St. Cranston, RI blob.  The other was perhaps the nicest looking Warwick Bottling Works Arctic, RI I’ve ever seen.  While it’s listed, the strong green aqua color definitely isn’t, and it’s probably the only one known in this color! (looks nicer in person)


 I recently came across another immigrant bottle on ebay.  Residing in Florida, I took a Blanding & Blanding Pharmacists Providence, RI bottle out of retirement.  While semi-common, this example was 8” tall, making it unlisted.  I do have a clear one in this size, but this one has a light aqua tint.