No, this is not an April fool's joke, I
have indeed found yet another one! This time it is an amber Otis
Clapp & Son Incorporated.
Usually ABM, this was a beautiful BIM example. I now believe
quite earnestly that I will not come across another new Otis Clapp
bottle for quite some time!
My first return to the big town dump
found bottles still frozen in the thawing ground. I was able to
free a damaged J. Lifschitz & Son Providence blob. This
scarce blob looked a little different than the example I had, and
sure enough it was! I have included a picture of the listed version
on the right, with the new version on the left.
There is only one bottler from RI that
dated his bottles somewhat consistently. I was delighted to add a
J.H. Branaghan 7 Pawtucket, RI crown top to my run of dated
sodas. There are no listed 1907 versions, so it goes quite well with
my 6 and 9 examples!
Another bottle that has proved to be
rather elusive is a smooth based Dyer's Healing Embrocation
Providence. The small versions are fairly common, but this 6”
version is most often found pontiled. This particular double apostrophe version is listed pontiled but not smooth based! In my
humble opinion it looks like they simply forgot the pontil!
The Dyers above and this base embossed
sample 2" Rumford bottle came from the collection of Ed Greer.
He was one of the founding collectors of the Little Rhody Bottle
Club, and it was an honor to finally meet him. Since things were a
little tight for me financially, a friend of mine bought a bunch of
his collection which he was parting with. Luckily I was able to
afford a few of those gems!
