Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Fall Finds #1



Today I will finish up the Westerly digger's collection purchase from last week.  I came across the listing on Craigslist, and a cobalt medicine bottle stood out like a sore thumb.  Due to insufficient resolution, the bottle’s identity remained a mystery until I saw it in person.  I was excited to confirm that my best guess of a Frank L. Powell Chemist Newport, RI medicine was correct!  Excluding the Caswell Hazard bottles from Newport, cobalt RI pharmacy bottles are very hard to come by.  This example was nearly 7” tall, making it an unlisted size.  The seller was asking a pretty steep price for all of the bottles, but this is the one that made the purchase worthwhile!


A day of antiquing in Newport led me past a consignment shop I decided to check out.  After browsing through typical Salvation Army type fodder, a shelf featuring dirty bottles snapped me out of my doldrums.  I picked up an art deco soda, and to my amazement saw it was embossed Surf Club Ginger Ale Co. Middletown, RI!  With the exception of milk bottles, this is the only embossed bottle from Middletown, which makes it pretty special.  The owner of the shop used to do a lot of dredging, and this was one of the bottles he found years ago.


I finished my trip with a debated stop at the Eagle’s Nest antique center in Portsmouth.  While it is a nice center, most of the bottles are quite overpriced, and the turnover is very slow.  I was excited to find a The Washington Co. Providence, RI whiskey bottle I had seen a few years back here.  It wasn’t priced yet, and the next time I visited (much to my despair) I could not find it.  Luckily it was just tucked away, and the store owner took a satisfying $20 off of the scary sticker price.  The listed version is a 30oz. example, and this one was 15oz., which helped justify the still higher than average price.


September 29 was the Lowell Bottle Show, and it was the first time in two years I went at the start of general admission.  I probably missed a lot of good early buys, as the pickings were pretty slim.  I came across a damaged Albert H. Sydney Providence, RI soda.  For $1 I couldn’t leave it there.  When I compared it to my other examples, I found there was a random period after Sydney, making it a new variant.



One of my rules when browsing shows is to always check the boxes under the dealers tables.  Quite often they have bargain bottles, and this time was no exception.  I was very excited to find a squat Henry Wilkens Tivoli Providence, RI beer bottle.  As far as tall (ca. 9”) RI beer bottles go, this is one of the toughest to find.  This midsize 7-1/2” example was a brand new version that I’m sure other beer bottle collectors would envy.