Summer Finds 2025 #3

 A recent club meeting produced an A.W. Howe Broad St. Providence, RI pharmacy, a nice variant for the collection!

I spotted a collapsing abandoned barn, and inside was a basket full of bottles! Most were common, but T.E. Hickey & Co. Providence, RI blob turned out to be a new variant. I have the exact same bottle but with a crown top.

In a group of bottles listed online I spied a Standard Bottling Co. Pawtucket, RI narrow blob top. I have seen narrow (aka Aetna style) crown tops from Standard, but not a blob! These have always been one of my favorite styles.

A friend found a farm dump that produced a few milks and a Morris Bros. Bristol, RI ABM crown top. It was a variant I had only seen pieces of, so despite the damage it was an improvement!

Another friend found a Mt. Hope Distilling Co. Providence, RI aqua blob in a river. While common, I know there are a lot of variants, so I looked closely and saw that it was ABM, making it a new variant.

 

Summer Finds 2025 #2

 Years ago one of my first bottle digging friends Steve Anderson gifted me a few bottles including a Clarkes Kill Pain. Years of research failed to yield any information, but I did find a patent medicine dealing Clarke in Maine. I decided to give the research one final try before listing it on ebay, as the Narragansett Times had recently been digitized. I was shocked when I got a hit, and to my delight I found out the bottle was from Dorrville, RI! This was a name used for present-day Bradford, also formerly known as Niantic. Steve found many bottles diving in the river there, and I'm sure he would have been excited to see I solved the mystery!

A new construction site looked promising, but the summer heat was not exactly calling my name when it came to digging. I found a small shallow pit with a few bottles including an American Bottling Co. Union Station Providence, RI whiskey. Lo and behold, it was a variant!

A river walk yielded a few fun finds, but the big surprise came as I was leaving! A barely visible Acme Bottling Co. Providence, RI caught my eye. It was a new variant of an already rare soda.

I was pickup up a rare but listed soda bottle in Newport, and asked the seller if they had any others. I was delighted to also pick up a Moren & Sullivan Echo Bristol, RI soda! I've known about this bottle for years but it had eluded me, until now!

A friend found an Echo Eagle Bottling Co. Bristol, RI soda while walking a river recently. I was very surprised, as I was not aware that the Eagle Bottling Co. had ties to Echo. Apparently they bought the location from Moren & Sullivan and kept their original plant as well.

 

Summer Finds 2025 #1

 A snagged an Eagle Bottling Co. DC Providence, RI off ebay, and it turned out to be a new variant!

The small construction site also yielded an A.F. Cappelli Providence, RI blob that I sort of neglected because they are so common. I finally got around to comparing it to my other examples and surprise, new variant!

A friend spotted a Remington & Co. Smith St. Providence, RI pharmacy bottle for sale online and I snagged it. At 5" it was an unlisted size of a scarce med!

I picked through a sad group of soda bottles that had mostly been pulverized by sitting in frozen bins over the winter. A green Warwick Club Ginger Ale Co. quart managed to survive. It was yet another example I had in clear but not green!

After seeing so many Faerber bottles, I kept thinking that there had to be a tall blob from him somewhere. Years after suspecting it, a Peter Faerber Newport, RI aqua blob showed up on ebay! It's the only Faerber bottle I've seen with his first name spelled out.

 

Spring Finds 2025 #5

 A small house appointment only estate sale turned up a few nice bottles. Among them was a Blanding Druggist Providence. These are normally very crude and almost look pontiled. This one has a much newer look to it but still dates to the late 1870s.

I spotted a large 8" Edwin P. Anthony Providence, RI med on ebay. Sadly with a moderate sized crack it was not worth the cost of shipping. The seller had a large collection of bottles in NH so I decided to make the trip and took it home!

A small construction site unearthed a classic Providence city dump layer. A heavily damaged James O'Hare Providence, RI somehow survived in one piece. This is a scarcer earlier variant, and at 4-1/4" was a new size.

 

Also found were a pile of damaged blobs. Among them was a Caproni Bros. Atwells Ave. Providence, RI which was of course another variant!

A more exciting find an an Aetna style Caproni Bros. & Co. Spruce St. Providence, RI. Unfortunately also damaged, it is still a great looking bottle!

 

Spring Finds 2025 #4

On the hunt for an old time diggers collection, I was able to track down his digging partner. He was a very nice guy with a bunch of fun stories to share. Surprisingly he sold most of his RI bottles as he preferred bottles from the 1880s or earlier. I was about to leave when I spotted an odd bottle in his window. I nearly fell over when I saw it was embossed New Aetna Stopper Pawtucket, RI! It was an extremely rare salesman sample that was promoting the new closure. I have never seen anything like it and was even more shocked when he told me to take it. I owe him a dig now!

A friend who bought some of the Bergseng collection managed to turn up a few more conical style glasses. One was an O'Connor & Wilbur Pawtucket. All of these conical glasses are either unique or have very few known examples.

A Frank E. Crawford conical glass also joined the collection.

After obtaining an etched glass, I now also have an Anthony Pharmacy conical style glass!

The last one to join the collection was a J.A. Bernard Cathedral Sq. conical glass. I think it's safe to say that I now have the largest collection of RI dose glasses ever assembled!

Spring Finds 2025 #3

 This post continues with more additions from the Bergseng dose glass collection. A Harrop's Pharmacy was one of two from Pawtucket.

A Lalonde Pharmacy dose glass was another Pawtucket example dating to the 1920s.

Lastly there was a Paola's Pharmacy dose glass, also from the 1920s. I was surprised how late many of these glasses were when I researched them!

A recent dig turned up a base embossed Batchelor's Bott Works green quart. I have them in clear and aqua, but this is the first one I've seen in green!

I grabbed a Standard Bottling Co. Pawtucket, RI with the older classic vertical embossing. What made me buy it was the color, as it turned out to be unlisted in clear!

 

Spring Finds 2025 #2

 I finally was able to snag a Dr. Seth Arnold's Infantile Regulator off ebay. This is one of the hardest Seth Arnold bottles to find, so it's nice to check it off the list!

Another highly elusive bottle was a quart size Phosa blob. Normally these bottles are crown tops with a distinct groove in the shoulder, but this one is much older!

I was able to contact the widow of dose glass collector Don Bergseng, and while she had sold many of the glasses, she still had all of the etched examples from RI! My favorite addition was an F.L. Powell Pharmacy Newport, RI glass.

An Anthony's Drug Store dose glass was another nice addition. This was from E.P. Anthony.

A Hall's Drug Store dose glass was another unique example.

A Reilly's Pharmacy was also unique and on the newer side for dose glasses dating to the 1920s.