Last week I mentioned finding a nice cache of bottles in a
river. I must say this is one of the
most leisurely ways of finding bottles.
It takes a good eye, but spotting an algae-covered bottle just lying in
the river can be just as exciting as digging.
I was lucky enough to find two more unlisted RI sodas that day. The first was a McKenna Bros. Providence, RI blob.
While fairly common, that usually leaves room for a few variants. This example had a larger monogram than the
version listed (RI-1246). The other soda
was a handmade crown top from the Puritan
Bottling Co. Providence, RI. The
embossing arrangement is different than the example pictured online.
The November meeting for the Little Rhody Bottle Club
produced some bottles from East
Providence, which aren’t terribly common. I bought a pair of machine made Star Soda Bottling Works East Providence,
RI soda bottles. The smaller 7oz.
size wasn’t listed with a slugplate online, making it a new variant.
I currently live in the quaint mill town of Hope Valley. It happens to be the home of an elusive local
medicine. G.E. Greene was the only
pharmacist in the town for many years, and I’m the proud owner of a few of his
bottles. One day I was digging near a
cellar hole in the sandy soils of Charlestown,
and behold! My first dug Geo. E. Greene Pharmacist Hope Valley, RI
medicine! It was a listed version, but
at 5-1/4” an unlisted size!
One of many return trips to the large 1940-50s dump in Seekonk, Mass.
produced an Otis Clapp & Son
Incorporated medicine bottle. Based
in Providence and Boston, this company lasted over 100
years. While many screw top RI bottles
are not listed, this one will probably find its way into the ranks soon enough.
A fellow collector recently bought a large collection of RI
bottles that largely consisted of blob top sodas. I was happy to receive the doubles and
damaged examples. Among them was an
unlisted McKenna Bros. 54 & 56 Eagle
St. Providence, RI. The punctuation
is pretty funky on this one!
