Monday, December 21, 2015

Fall Finds #5 2015

The November club meeting was a fun one, and while I didn't buy much, one was all I needed! An Edward Mee & Son Woonsocket, RI whiskey easily stole the show. A rare bottle as a blob top, a whiskey has never been documented. Add a bunch of embossing to the slugplate, and you have one of the nicest looking Woonsocket bottles I've ever seen!


A constructions site that backed up to the railroad had a promising vein of ash in the back corner. It turned out to be a 1910s dump, and soon ABM ketchups and whiskeys were erupting from the ground. Thankfully that wasn't all I found. A Burke Bros. Providence, RI crown top beer made things interesting. I have seen the shoulder slugplate style on other RI bottles, but not a Burke Bros.!


A prodigal return to a very rewarding Providence construction site dump was well worth the effort. I had previously given up on the place, but when I opened a nice deep hole where I left off, it turns out there was more to be had! A Wm. K. Reynolds Providence, RI was the first prize of the day. The only version known has a fancy shield design on the front. While not as fancy, this one is just as exciting to find!


Next up was a H.I. Hough Drug Store Olneyville, RI with an embossed bird! It was a wonderful case of deja vu, as I had found a larger size of this bottle here as well. This smaller size was unlisted!


Perhaps not as exciting, I was still surprised to see a Davol Nurser Providence, RI show up on ebay in an unlisted size. It is only one of two known nursing bottles from RI.

Fall Finds #4 2015

It was that time of year again to return to the big 1930s city dump. After a lot of digging, I finally got to a productive pocket. I was beyond excited when I found a Kist from West Barrington, RI! I had always assumed that the West Barrington Kist bottles were unmarked, but surprise, the 6oz. Size is marked!


A mill village dump that I have dubbed “the dusty one” I initially abandoned. There was very little to be found, and the dust was overpowering. Yet, perseverance paid off! I found a pocked in a less dusty part of the dump. Among the finds was a Fisk & Co. Pawtucket, RI medicine. At 3-1/2”, it was an unlisted size.


A not so uncommon sight on ebay is that of a Scientific Prepared Beef, Wine, & Iron People's Chemical Co. Providence, RI medicine. However, when a pair of them surfaced recently, I was surprised to see one had a donut ring style lip. The cross on the bottle was also different, resembling more of a plus mark than the Maltese style usually seen. As an added bonus it was attic mint!


A lady in Virginia recently reached out to a club member looking to sell a bottle she had. It was a Jas. Hanley Brew Co. Needless to say I was pretty excited since it was an unlisted RI beer. We agreed on a price and now I have my second embossed Hanley bottle!


Another exciting appearance on ebay was a The Cal. Wine Co. T.S. Mitchell Providence, RI quart whiskey. It wasn't a pretty transaction, with the seller purposefully leaving some damage unmentioned, but worse things have happened. Listed in a pint size, which I have never seen before, an unlisted size was even better!


Oh no, can it be? Yet another Geo. A. Peckham Grocers Supplies Providence, RI! It's actually not as bad as it sounds. This one was a fairly scarce unlisted large size.
(picture coming!)

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Fall Finds #3 2015

I savaed the best for last with the flea market finds my friend got for me. A Ferro China DeAngelis Chemical Industrial Co. Providence, RI was the find of the month. After digging a broken example, I was determined to dig a whole one. When that proved to be unlikely, I was a little discouraged until now! With this addition my DeAngelis collection is now 90% complete.


A club member recently picked up a Checinis Indian Sebago the Great Blood Purifier. This was a bottle I had mentioned earlier in one of my “new but not mine” posts.  Virtually all Indian bottles from RI are very rare, and this one is no exception.  I am now the proud owner of one! 


A digger in South Carolina found a cobalt blue Caswell Mack & Co. Chemists New York & Newport medicine recently. Talk about a traveling bottle! This version is only listed in clear.


When it comes to the Everett & Barron shoe polish bottles, the word “rare” is scarcely ever used. The exception is when one deals with the amber versions. I was quite delighted to finally get an amber Everett & Barron Co. Providence, RI. While listed as BIM, this example is ABM.


It was with some reluctance that I made the trip to the Coventry, CT bottle show. It is one of the smaller shows in the area, and the last couple times I went I fould very little. My persistence paid off in a big way when one seller handed me a Cundall & Ball's Pharmacy Block Island, RI medicine!!! Little did he know that this was my most wanted local bottle of all time. Once he handed it to me the bottle never left my hands. It was even more exciting to find out that it was unlisted size! Where's the other one?


Friday, December 11, 2015

Fall Finds #2 2015

Another flea market prize was a rare Blanding & Blanding cylinder in an unlisted size (9-1/8”). It was my second size of this attractive bottle, now I just need one more to complete the trio!


This month's bottle club meeting produced a nice S.J. Briggs & Co. Providence, RI medicine. Most Briggs bottles have three lines of embossing, but this one just had two.


A friend gifted me a scarce Shiloh Bottling Co. Providence, RI green deco soda recently. There is a fancy clear deco bottle listed, but this one is “scaled back” a little to accommodate a label.


The fall LRBC tailgate show was a little slow, but the weather was very agreeable! I grabbed two blobs, including a Douglas Ave. Bottling Co. N. Providence, RI. While I have a small horde of these, I didn't have one with an AC monogram. The examples I have either have an O (Oates), or C (unknown). The mystery deepens!


A visit two an antique shop that recently changed owners produced a nice John E. Good Importer & Jobber Providence, RI whiskey. The listed example I have has a double sloping collar lip, while this version has a simple square collar lip. 


Fall Finds #1 2015

I spotted a group of bottles on ebay that looked rather dismal. Yet, among “junkers” and other common bottles, I spotted a D. Miller & Co. Providence, RI quart whiskey! D. Miller whiskey bottles aren't easy to find, and there are none listed in a quart size. I'll take it!


I almost forgot to mention a bottle you're probably pretty familiar with by now. A Puritan Bottling Co. Providence, RI ABM crown top. Hiding on a Brimfield table, I was surprised to see it was (1) machine made, and (2) aqua! Together those two attributes make it yet another unlisted variant.


The Keene, NH show always starts the fall bottle season off in a grand style. My first pick was a Rumford Chemical Works. This early version has crude gothic panels embossed on each side, making it unlisted.


While at the Keene show a RI collector hitting up local flea markets called me about a dealer with a table full of RI bottles! They were all $5 each, and by the time he was done listing them there were 10 that I wanted. Among them was an A..F. Cappelli Providence, RI shoulder slug plated beer. There is a similar bottle listed, but this version had This Bottle Not to Be Sold on the back.


Another exciting addition from the flea market find was a J.H. Branaghan Exchanage St. Pawtucket, RI blob. Not only was this the only Branaghan blob with an address on it, but it was an address I've never seen! I even checked the old city directories, and while he was on Exchange St. for 2 years, it was not at this address!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Summer Finds #6 2015

The September bottle club meeting produced a pretty exciting find, a Charles. M. Cole Newport, RI citrate of magnesia style medicine! Since there was only one RI citrate of magnesia known before this one, I think it's fair to say they are an endangered species. Is there a third one out there?


A few months ago I came across an Anthony Bottling Works Anthony, PA soda bottle in an antique shop. Now you might be wondering what a Pennsylvania soda bottle has to do with RI bottles, but truth be told this is a RI error bottle! It looks exactly like the smaller version, and the AS monogram is for Antoni Szymkowicz, the owner of the company. There is an Anthony, PA, but it is little more than a crossroads. Anyway, I finally found a broken example that I am keeping as a placeholder.


Along with the Twin City soda from last post, I acquired a Kerona Beverages Central Falls, RI soda. It is listed in aqua, but not clear. This one has the label to boot!


Also from the bottle club meeting was a J.L. & P. Gannon N. Providence, RI blob. Listed as RI-1024, my other example is 9-1/2”, while this one is 9”. There tends to be a bit of variation in the height of blob sodas, but half an inch is more than enough to consider it an unlisted size.



Fall in Brimfield is a beautiful time to be out picking for antiques. Brimfield proved yet again to be an inexhaustable source of RI bottles. Among them a J. Prior & Co. Inc. Providence, RI blob. Unlike the listed version, this one has “This bottle not to be sold” on the heel. 

Summer Finds #5 2015

A collector on the Bottle Collectors group on Facebook recently posted their finds at the National Bottle Show in Tennessee. At first I thought they were all foreign bottles, but when I looked closer I did a double take. There was a big Ferro-China style medicine embossed Societa Per Le Industrie Chimiche Providence, RI! That's the Industrial Chemical Company in Italian. Raffaele DeAngelis, the founder of the company, immigrated from Italy, so it would make sense that he catered to the Italian immigrant crowd. Needless to say I contacted the collector and we made a deal. It is the second known medicine from RI embossed in another language, and a pretty impressive one too!


Nothing gets the blood pumping like coming across a completely unknown RI bottle. When I saw an Acton Bros. Newport, RI crown top on ebay, the week-long wait was agonizing. There was surprisingly little interest in the bottle, and I easily won it. The Acton brothers ran the City Hotel for only 3 short years (1901-1903) before going their own ways. Often times hotel owners would bottle their own soda or liquor, and this bottle is pretty solid proof of that!



On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are bottles you are almost guaranteed to find on a dig. A George A. Peckham Grocers Supplies Providence is definiteley one of them. I've all but lost count of how many variants I have. I found two on my last marsh dig, and sure enough, one was new! I had this variant in clear, but this one is aqua.
(example on left)



One of our club members was having a moving sale recently, and my “informant” notified me of the presence of some RI bottles. I came back with a nice Palmer & Madigan Importers Providence, RI quart whiskey. It is listed as RI-1735, which I had, but wait! It looked a lot different. My version had “chubby” shoulders that gradually merged with the neck, while this new example had squared off shoulders leading to a straight stovepipe neck. This usually doesn't qualify as a new find, but the style was different enough that I though it warranted attention.



My persistent antiquing finally paid off when I spotted a new dealer with a bunch of soda bottles for $5 each. I walked away with four, including a deco style Twin City Spring Beverages Central Falls, RI. It is probably one of my favorite RI deco bottles, which I already had in green. This clear one completes the unlisted pair!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Summer Finds #4 2015

A collector from northern RI told me about a dump near his house that was “too new” for his liking. By too new he meant 1910-20s, which was plenty old for me! It was a tough dump to dig, but soon the bottles started popping. A Joseph Brown Co. Woonsocket, RI medicine was the only embossed RI medicine to appear. Measuring 6-1/4”, it was an unlisted size.


Next up was quite a surprise. While the top was broken off, I was happy find it and reunite the two pieces. The bottle was a Jos. B. McLaughlin Woonsocket, RI soda. There are quite a few Thos. McLaughlin bottles, and the later bottles are embossed McLaughlin's Soda Works. Joseph succeeded Thomas in 1912, and by 1914 established the McLaughlin Soda Works. That explains why this bottle is unlisted! The same mold for the Thos. McLaughlin bottle was used, and the lettering was reworked (you can see Thos erased under Jos). The monogram was changed as well.



In my latest river walk, finds were getting scarce. I dig grab a Nectar Bottling Co. Providence quart crown top that decided to emerge from the muck. I thought I had it, but nope! My other example (also unlisted) has 28oz. on the front, while this one says 26oz.


I recently had the pleasure of viewing a local veteran collector's collection, which contained some very nice glass. He was willing to part with a few RI bottles, including a Star Bottling Co. Pawtucket, RI clear quart. Normally this bottle wouldn't make me bat an eye, but I noticed it was clear, as opposed to the listed aqua. That makes four variants!



Auctions are one of my smallest source for new bottles, but every now and then you find something. Recently I saw a crate full of sodas bottles coming up for auction. It said Morris Bros. Bristol, RI. I was hoping for some variety, but they were all the same. Hey, at least they were a new version! There is another listed example with the unusual rectangular shoulder slugplate, but it is a smaller size.

Summer Finds #3 2015

A Massachusetts digger recently unearthed an O. Sumner & Son Pharmacists Providence medicine. It got me pretty excited, because the ornate design on the front was unlike any other RI medicine I have seen. We agreed on a price, and soon I was the proud owner of the nicest Sumner bottle!


A friend tipped me off to a dam in West Warwick that was being worked on. The river had dropped a few feet, exposing all sorts of goods. The only blob I found was a typically common W.H. Arnold Riverpoint, RI. However, this one has sloping shoulders, which no listed variants have. Despite being damaged, it was a neat find.


A scarce Newport medicine popped up on ebay recently, and I was on it like a flea on a dog. I came away with an unlisted variant Geo. A. Wood Chemist Newport, RI. The listed version has the embossing in script, while this one is just plain block letters.


A few weeks ago I dug a Puritan Bottling Co. Providence, RI. I certainly had some déjà vu when I found one at a new dump I was digging. All of the sodas were broken besides this one, which had damage. Unlike my other example, this one has punctuation including a random period after Bottling.


A recent yard sale produced a Rosseau & Brown Druggists Woonsocket, RI medicine. It is one of my favorite prescription bottle shapes, round with a flat front panel. There is a Rosseau & Brown listed in this shape, but it is also embossed Rexall, which this one is not!
 

Summer Finds #2

The month of July proved to be an exceptional one for new finds! For starters, I finally won a Harvey Mineral Water Works Newport, RI Codd soda! This is one of the rarest RI bottles known, and what makes it really special is that it is a variant of the damaged example I already have! It has patent dates on the base and heel, while the listed example only has the dates on the base.  It appeared in a recent Glassworks Auction, and thankfully I had a little cash tucked away for something like this.



An exceedingly rare whiskey also made a special appearance. The Best World Rye On Earth R.L. Rose Co. Providence, RI is the only RI whiskey with a ground screw cap. It is also one of the most ornately embossed RI bottles, featuring a globe on the front. Listed in a half pint size, this example is an unlisted pint!


Just when I thought that I had the only two possible examples, I came across another E. Jenckes squat soda! This one is smooth based with a block letter period after the E. The other smooth base one I have has a plain period. That makes three!



Small town sodas are among my most wanted RI bottles, and this Ashton Bottling Co. Ashton, RI was near the top of that list! Listed as a blob, this is an unusual short crown top version! You have to love surprises.



At the summer Brimfield show I picked up an American Oyster Co. Providence, RI pint size jar. I noticed that the lip is squared, which is a variant of RI-1777.