I’ve been slowly increasing the number of bottle shows I
attend, and soon fear that my reach will encompass all of New
England. My latest venture
was a 3 hour drive to Dover,
NH for the New England Antique
Bottle Club show. It was bigger than I
expected, and after selling a Boston
jug, I was able to splurge a little.
Looking through a box of common medicines paid off, and I got a nice Corrigan the Apothecary Providence,
RI /Fall
River, Mass. Hang on, is
that bottle from two states? I didn’t
know until I got home that it was an unlisted bottle and one of only two RI
medicines from two different states. The
other is a Dr. Hoff’s Syrup of Tar and Wild Cherry from Providence
and Waltham, Mass.
Another find from the same show had a little more history
with me. A few years ago I bought a
squat soda marked E.P.F. in block
letters on the front and J.S. Hazard
& Co. on the bottom. I knew it
was a RI soda since J.S. Hazard has bottles from Newport
and Westerly
(he moved around). I was young at the
time and had a specific quota of how many bottles I was supposed to be
obtaining. Of course this was the one
time it was enforced, and I never saw that bottle again. I was thrilled to see one at the New England show for an agreeable $10. I notice that the J and Z on the base are
backwards, which adds to its character.
Now the great mystery is what does EPF stand for?
Recently I committed to buy a whopping 60 RI soda bottles
from my friend Jan Boyer. I just felt
that it was time. There were a bunch of
unlisted variants, including two new Cranston
Bottling Co. Inc Cranston, RI, three Augustin
Vitale Providence, and an early handmade crown top Warwick Bottling Works Arctic, RI.
I now have five Vitale variants while only one is listed online. Interesting…
I recently ventured into uncharted territory and made my
debut appearance in a Portsmouth,
RI antique center. The long drive was worth it, as I found a box
of semi-decent bottles for a mere $10.
Among them was another one of those elusive acid etched sodas. This one was an unknown E.E. Ferrin Summer St. Prov.
I tried to research the name, but came up empty. That now brings my etched sodas/beers count
to 5! Update: I recently found an Eaton E. Ferrin listed as a bottler on Summer St. I originally said the name was Ferria, as the etching was weak.
Ebay produced another unlisted soda variant from the distant
lands of Pennsylvania. A lady found a D. Proto & Sons Bottling Co. Bristol, RI art deco soda. Listed in quart size, this one was a cute
8oz. bottle. No sooner had I documented
this when I got another unlisted Bristol
soda in the mail. This one was an Empire Bottling Works Bristol crown top
quart. One can easily find their unique
bottles with an embossed person in a flowery scene (Roman
empire?), but this was an early slug plated bottle, probably from
the companies beginning in the 1920s.
