Hello again, and sorry for the slacking. I'll spare you an explanation and dive right back in!
Sometimes you come across that bottle that you just can’t
make heads or tails of. In this case I
can’t figure out where it’s from. The
bottle in question is an amber medicine marked Romoc Co., Sole Proprietors Boston,
Mass. U.S.A. Now it does
seem fairly obvious that this is a Boston
bottle, but I had the (mis) fortune of seeing two labeled examples. Of course, these labels stated the company
was from Providence, RI.
Hmm… My best guess is that this
short-lived company started out in Boston and
moved to Providence,
since directories and advertisements never say they were located in two
places. I’m keeping mine for now, since
it has RI ties, but can’t bring myself to call it an unlisted RI bottle.
I recently went kayaking on a RI river with a fellow ACL
collector Steve. Kayaking is his
favorite way to find bottles, and from his online posts I was fairly
impressed. We found a few soda bottles,
which made the trip worthwhile. Among
them was a Sherba Beverage Co. West
Barrington, RI (ABM). I have one in
green, but this was an unlisted aqua version.
Another soda was a What Cheer
Bott. Co. Inc. Providence, RI (also ABM). I have a quart, and this is my first 7oz.
example.
Club member Bob Lampher had the good fortune of finding not
one but two rare RI ink bottles.
Naturally I couldn’t help myself, and now have a Builder’s Recorder Ink made by Builders Providence, RI. It’s a bit harder to find than the Venturi
Ink bottles from the same company.
My recent kayaking trip inspired me to look for bottles
along another river, and I must say it was rewarding! I came home with three full buckets of
bottles, including 30 Coca-Colas alone.
My second trip produced an unlisted handmade crown top soda. American
Bottling Corp. West Exchange & Fountain Sts. Providence, RI. While bottles are very common from this
company, this was only the second one I’ve seen with an address, and it wasn’t listed.
I’ll end with a special bottle. When a colored pontiled RI soda shows up on
ebay, I’m quick to admit defeat in view of my meager budget. That’s why I was surprised and delighted when
a J. Harvey & Co. Canal St.
Providence, RI emerald green squat ended with a high bid significantly
under $100. What made me happy was that
it was my high bid! It is only my third
pontiled RI soda. This example has a
“sand pontil”, which some confuse with an iron pontil missing the iron
residue. This unlisted pontil style,
along with unlisted punctuation made this a great buy.
