Some of you might recall that a shard of a new RI Codd soda
bottle were found a few months ago. The
half-bottle was missing some key embossing that I was (despite exhaustive
research) unable to extrapolate. Well,
that same Massachusetts digger (Rodney) struck gold recently and found an intact example! It is embossed “Ashworth & Jackson
X.L.C.R. Mineral Waters Lonsdale, RI”.
It is easily the most important RI bottle found this decade, and a
complete surprise as well! Lonsdale is a
small town with no previously known soda bottles, and the bottler’s choice of a
Codd bottle is very odd. Perhaps it
explains why they didn’t do very well!
A recent dig at the “big town dump” unearthed a true
heartbreaker shard. While most bottle
people use the term to refer to a broken valuable bottle, I like to think it
applies to any bottle you really wish was whole. This one was a Phenix Bottling Co. Duffy & Co. Phenix, RI soda. I don’t know if it was a blob top or crown
top, but they were only listed for a few years before going out of business.
One of my early season marsh adventures uncovered another
surprise heartbreaker. A Central Bottling Co. Arctic, RI soda
bottle shard remains shrouded in mystery.
The company is not listed in any directories. Again, I’m not sure if it this one was a
crown top or blob, but either way I really want a whole one now!
Veteran collector David Gates has a very respectable
collection of Rhode Island
bottles, including a good number of unlisted examples. One completely unlisted bottle is a W.F. Fanning PhG PharD Druggist Cranston
St. This Providence medicine is currently the only
example known from this pharmacist!
A Craigslist add sported a clear picture of a Wm. J. McGunagle Druggist McGunagle’s Block
Valley Falls, RI medicine bottle. A
McGunagle’s Drug store bottle is listed, but not one like this! Sadly I was a month late in seeing the ad.
