This past August was time for the LRBC summer show at the Richmond Antique Center. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate,
but we held it on the rain date. While
the turnout could have been better, it was still good, and I found some RI
bottles. I obtained a damaged blob soda
from veteran digger Mark Thatcher, a Louis
H. Meyer Library Court Olneyville, RI.
It was an early version, as most of his bottles are marked Providence. Hopefully an undamaged one is out there!
From the same digger I acquired a nice local medicine, a Dr. M.W. Thewlis Wakefield, RI. While it is listed, this was a new version
with a fancy line between the two lines of embossing. Dr. Thewlis became a doctor in 1911, so his
bottles are fairly late examples to be handmade.
A recent tip led me to a yard sale in Charlestown, RI
where a small time digger was selling off some bottles. I was able to get a nice selection of sodas
and two medicines from him. Out of the
medicines, one was a nice unlisted local.
It was simply marked Dr. A.B.
Briggs Ashway, RI. It was round with
a flat front panel, which is one of my favorite medicine bottle shapes.
Another find was an exciting unlisted version of a local
soda. The Gladstone Springs Water Co. Narragansett Pier, RI bottles aren’t
rare, but when I saw this example I knew something was different about it. Sure enough, it had Contents 16 Fl. Oz.
embossed on the rear heel. An unlisted
large size! That’s the second new Gladstone bottle I’ve
found in two months.
The other unlisted soda was a familiar face. I had recently dug an unlisted S.H. Farnham Westerly, RI “narrow
style”. This example was simply embossed
Registered above the slugplate, and was surprisingly unlisted with the narrow
body.
