The February Little Rhody Bottle Club meeting was an
eventful one! A man from Massachusetts selling
his father’s collection came, and it was like a second Christmas. He had a name your price policy. I bought a great grouping of listed and
unlisted RI bottle. One of them was an Antonio Gasbarro Providence, RI machine
made blob. These ABM blobs aren’t very
common. It was clear that this was an
early one, with a lot of mold imperfections.
The strangest part was the blob lip.
At first I thought the inside of the lip was chipped, but it appears
that it was actually overblown, and the excess glass was chipped off. I guess quality control wasn’t as good back
then!
A bottle that has long eluded me is the R.L. Rose Co. whiskey. This Providence bottle has an eagle in a shield and a dragon on the front, making it one of
the best pictorial RI bottles. I have
always been outbid on the handful of these that showed up on ebay, so it was
nice to finally bring one home. The
icing on the cake was discovering it was an unlisted version. The lip style and footed base weren’t listed.
One bottle I had the feeling I would eventually come across
was a Geo. L. Claflin & Co.
Wholesale Druggists Providence, RI.
I had seen a few before, and this one happened to be an unlisted size at
4”. This is an earlier style Claflin
bottle dating from about 1885-1895.
Another exciting find was a Leon Marmette Druggist 602 Broad St. Central Falls, RI. I knew right away it was unlisted because of
the unusual name. Bottles from Central Falls aren’t too
common. Less than half the druggists
listed in the RI directories have embossed bottles. At least that’s how it is…for now!
One new RI bottle didn’t come from the big collection
selloff. A Shiloh Quality Beverages Providence, RI soda was a welcome
addition. The shoulder and heel
embossing seem to indicate that it was made to have a paper label. The stippled body and slanted writing give it
a nice look.
