Spring Finds #3

My second to last dig at the satisfyingly productive construction site produced two siginificant RI medicines. One was this H.I. Hough Druggsit Olneyville, RI with an embossed bird! Pictorial druggists from RI are hard to find, and they usually feature an owl or eagle. This one has a songbird, making it perhaps the rarest pictorial RI pharmacy bottle!

Another very satisfying find was a Geo. T. Dana & Co. Druggists Pawtucket, RI. This square medicine had the embossing on a ribbon topped by a mortar & pestle. Very nice, and very unlisted!

Walking a tidal river produced yet another crier this May. A Wm. B. Blanding Providence, RI had a large hole in the front. It was rectangular and had the WBB monogram, which made it an earlier unlisted variant.

A fellow CT collector came across some damaged RI pharmacy bottles that he was kind enough to give me for free. Among them was an A.B. Briggs Physician & Surgeon Ashaway, RI. A scarce small town druggist, Mr. Briggs still managed to crank out a number of elaborately embossed bottles. This is one of my favorite examples, and it happens to be unlisted!

On my way back from another successful trip to Brimfield, I got stuck in the infamous traffic heading through Sturbridge, Mass. It was a blessing in disguise, however, as it allowed me to take a good look at a yard sale I had passed by quite a few times last year. I saw blob sodas, so I pulled over. Sure enough, some were from RI! At $1 each I didn't complain. A Frank P. Casey North Smithfield, RI turned out to be a new variant, with "the property of" embossed above the slugplate.

Spring Finds #2

I was casually checking some auction sites before going to work one day, and discovered that Norm Heckler was having a live auction that day. One lot caught my attention, and it was quickly followed by dismay. Alas, I was going to be at work! However, I “knew a guy” who might be going, and sure enough he was! He agreed to put in a bid for me, and he won! I was the proud owner of an E. Jenckes colored squat soda. I had only recently found out that this was from Ezra Jenckes of Providence. Now I thought this was going to be an upgrade for my damaged sand pontiled example, but it wasn't pontiled! I ended up pretty excited to have a new variant of an already rare soda.

If the Jenckes soda wasn't good enough, lightning struck twice! Someone listed a S.J. Esten squat soda on ebay last week. Samuel J. Esten was a bottler from Providence, and happened to use the same block letter embossing that Jenckes used. While the Little Rhody Bottle Club website has a history of Mr. Esten, it does not list any of his bottles.

Two weeks ago I had a less than memorable start to the weekend. A broken glass left me with five stitches and scrapped plans for a dig that day. Still determined, I felt well enough to check out a nearby yard sale. I was rewarded with a M.S. Horgan Newport, RI crown top liquor bottle. The only example listed is a blob, so this one is new!

One of my favorite ebay sellers listed a H.N. Hassard & Co. Newport, RI quart blob on ebay, and I knew I had to get it. I have seen two examples of this rare unlisted bottle, and while one was overpriced, I let the other one get away. Not this time though! It is the only quart size blob from Newport.

Since moving to Providence I have had some time to look through my collection and clean some of the bottles that went straight from the ground to boxes. I was surprised to see a common Hebe bottle was a new variant! Embossed The Hebe Co. 32oz. Prov. RI, the listed examples have 28oz. embossed.