Summer is usually an off time to dig for bottles. The heat, bugs, and all that flourishing green stuff make it hard to compete with the beach or indoor AC. But, for the persistent few, there are ways to beat the system...
I’ve often gazed out on Narragansett
Bay imagining the thousands, if not millions of bottles that
blanket its bottom. One can dive for
bottles, but poor visibility, seaweed, and quite often the gradual concealment
by detritus makes it a difficult task. Additionally, lucrative sites such as Newport harbor are protected from "treasure hunters". Last week in June marked my first excursion into Narragansett
Bay. I chose the historic
seafaring town of (anonymous)
as my test subject. It turned out to be
a smashing success. Wherever I dug in
the bay I found bottles. They might have
been 1980s beers, or in one case a broken ca. 1750s Dutch onion bottle. The key was to find areas dominated by older
bottles. Sometimes I was able to simply
walk in the muck and pull out bottles when I felt them with my feet. Among the RI bottles I found were a few
unlisted examples.
A local
pharmacist I had been impatiently waiting for came forth in three sizes, two of
which were unlisted. E.E. Young Pharmacist Wickford Pharmacy
Wickford, RI. He was one of two
pharmacists that had embossed bottles made for them in Wickford. The unlisted sizes were 5-1/4” and 6-1/2”.
Perhaps the most exciting find was a true crier. My digging partner found a blob top soda
bottle broken in place. It was an Aetna Bottling Co. Fauly Bros. East
Greenwich, RI. There were only two
other bottling companies (Gorman & Connole, J.S. Byrne) known from East Greenwich, now there are 3! The Aetna Co. was more well-known for making
bottle closures.
Another discovery in the harbor was my second Providence Brewing Co. Providence, Rhode
Island BIM crown top. I particularly
like this bottle because it has Rhode
Island spelled out.
This unlisted version has a comma after Providence,
and a period after Rhode Island.
At the last club meeting until the fall I picked up two nice
sodas. One was an unlisted version of
the Empire Bottling Co. 129 Chestnut St.
Cranston, RI blob. The other was
perhaps the nicest looking Warwick
Bottling Works Arctic, RI I’ve ever seen.
While it’s listed, the strong green aqua color definitely isn’t, and
it’s probably the only one known in this color! (looks nicer in person)
I recently came across another immigrant bottle on
ebay. Residing in Florida, I took a Blanding & Blanding Pharmacists Providence, RI bottle out of
retirement. While semi-common, this
example was 8” tall, making it unlisted.
I do have a clear one in this size, but this one has a light aqua tint.
