June is the last month the Little Rhody
Bottle Club meets before our summer break. There is usually some
nice goods that show up at this final meeting, and this time was no
exception. I was pretty floored to see a J.A. Provost Warren, RI
dose cup. Warren bottles are exceptionally rare (save a few of the
milks), and dose cups from RI are rare in general. There are no
listed bottles from Dr. Provost, but I will certainly take the dose
cup!
The dismal river dump also produced a
variant that I had previously overlooked. A damaged Olneyville
Mineral Waters Johnston, RI had a different looking monogram.
Sure enough, there are two monogram variants, as well as a variant
with R.I. spaced out (like R. I.). First there was one, then there
were three!
 |
| Small monogram, spaced out RI on left |
I finally made it out to one of the
most “middle of nowhere” villages in RI, which is Nasonville. It
makes sense they would need a taven/hotel way out here, and the
Western Hotel did just that, surviving to this day. McManus &
Meade, the proprietors of the hotel in the late 1890s-1910s, started
a bottling company there as well, which also thrived. I had the
chance to dig the large dump for the hotel, but I wasn't the first to
think of doing this. It had been dug quite well, probably since the
1960s. I was happy to leave with a damaged bottle a previous digger
had discarded. A P. Lynch Bottler Nasonville, RI was a most
welcome addition. Patrick Lynch was McManus & Meade's
predecessor, and all of his bottles are unlisted.
Another welcome addition was a small
size Gladstone Springs Water Co. Narragansett Pier, RI.
This is the only RI soda in this dimunitive 6oz. size. I have one
in clear, and this one is aqua with 6 oz embossed on the rear heel.
A long day of antiquing in “south of
Boston” Massachusetts was getting pretty dismal. At the last store
I visited, I finally found something. A Sunshine Bleach
Phillipsdale, RI with a crown top and base embossing was a new
one. I'm thinking this might have been an early version which was
quickly changed when they realized it looked a lot like a soda
bottle.
