Last weekend (it's probably later than
that now) will go down as “yard sale madness” weekend. I went
two two yard sales that both had a large quantity of bottles, and the
finds were exceptional! First up was a pair of W.N. Orcutt
Apothecary Woonsocket, RI meds. Orcutt bottles are very rare,
and to find two together? Most impressive!
Next up was another very rare Doctor
Bannon's Red Root Balsam.
This Westerly bottle comes in a small and large size, but this
example is an unlisted midsize!
After hitting the yard sales, I went to
an auction in Foster. There were two lots of bottles, and you could
guess which one I wanted. That would be the one with a box full of
very dusty Rhode Island sodas. Among them was a H. Frank
Providence, RI. The address
was different than the listed example, so now it is my 6th
Frank bottle.
(picture coming)
A few months ago I was at an auction in
East Greenwich. There were four lots of seltzer bottles, and three
of them had bottles I wanted. Well, I lost all of them, but kept
tabs on who won them. One was a lady who owned an antique shop. Her
initial price of $50 each was far too high for me, so I waited. It
took a few months, but she finally lowered the price to what I had
originally offered. The first seltzer was a B. Weinbaum &
Sons Bottling Co. Providence.
The other seltzer was a sided Bell
Bottling Co. Providence, RI. I have a round one, and this
example makes a great pair!
