Monday, June 3, 2013

Spring Finds #2



I’ll take a break from the Otis collection this week to catch up with my other acquisitions.  One bottle I was trying to track down was a Warwick Club West Warwick, RI seltzer bottle.  It is easily the rarest bottle from the prolific Warwick Club, and the fancy siding gives it a nice look.


I was excited to go to the New England Antique Bottle Club’s show in Dover, NH for the second consecutive year.  I found a lot of good deals last time, and this time was no exception!  I made a trade with a friend for a trio of James O’Hare Pharmacist Providence, RI medicines.  One was an unlisted 3-1/2” size.


The only unlisted RI bottle I bought at the show was a nice early E.G. Champlin Druggist Westerly, RI.  While listed in aqua, it was not listed in clear.  There are only two pontiled bottles from Westerly, a Potter & Champlin ink and a J.H. Potter medicine.  Now if I could just find a slightly older E.G. Champlin…


A fellow club member recently came across a rash of Douglas Ave. Bottling Co. North Providence, RI soda bottles.  One of them was this unlisted handmade crown top example.


While on a recent trip to the Stillwater Antique Center, I was surprised to see a reasonably priced RI seltzer bottle.  A lot of dealers ask exorbitant prices for them, and of course you come back to the same shop five years later, they are still there.  I was happy to pick up my first Turbitt & Orme Providcence, RI seltzer for a very fair $10.

Otis Collection pt.6



Welcome (and for some, welcome back!).  This week I will keep plugging away at bottles from the Otis collection.  I’ll start with an ABM crown top soda, B. Colantonio Dean St. Providence, RI.  There are bottles from DePasquale & Colantonio from the same address, so it appears DePasquale left and Colantonio continued the business.



A plain but noteworthy soda is embossed Nasonville Bottling Co. on the heel.  While it doesn't grab one's attention, Nasonville variants are pretty hard to come by, and this is one of the newest ones I’ve seen with a date code for 1918.


It was only a matter of time before I ran into another unlisted Palmer & Madigan Importers Providence, RI.  This half pint is unlisted in this embossing version.


I have a couple of Fisk & Co. medicine bottles from Pawtucket.  I was rather pleased to see a Fisk & Co. 200 Main St. Pawtucket, RI (in script) in an unlisted larger size (6-1/4”).  It is one of the less-common bottles from this prolific company.


Another nice medicine was a Helmer Drug Co. 3 Stores Providence, R.I.  There is no recorded Helmer bottle with 3 Stores embossed, and it’s the only RI bottles with that kind of embossing to my knowledge.  The sides and back consist of 13 panels in a rectangular shape, which is also a less common shape.