Spring Finds #1

I happened upon an A.F. Cappelli 265 Atwells Ave. Providence, RI crown top on ebay recently. The Cappelli bottles are pretty common, but I noticed the address was 265, not the usual 255. It turns out this was the last address he used before going out of business. It's about as close as you can get to a rare Cappelli bottle!

I was retaking pictures of some of my older bottles, and by pure chance discovered I had a variant I never caught! A Frank P. Casey North Smithfield, RI amber blob had “This Bottle / Not to / Be Sold” embossed on the back of the bottle. This listed example has that embossing on the back heel of the bottle. I now have four different amber Casey bottles!

Otis Clapp & Son bottle #45 turned out to be my biggest one yet! At and intimidating 24oz., 8-3/4” it beat out the 8” runner up.

One of my favorite RI screw cap bottles are embossed Sunlight Bleach Phillipsdale, RI. Appearing in a variety of colors, I added my 4^th color, light aqua. Now I just need the apple green and olive green!

After an unbearably long and cold winter, I was finally able to punch through the thinning layer of frost and dig some bottles! One of the first prizes of the year was a Purizone, Made by Washburn Purizone Co. Providence, RI. This is a rare household (disinfectant) bottle. Listed at 5-3/8”, this was an unlisted 6-3/4” size!

Baltimore Show Finds

This post includes more of my Baltimore show finds. One of my favorite additions was a D.G. Hall iron pontiled soda. I have an example with a blob style top, but this one had a tapered collar lip. When the seller offered it to me at less than half the asking price, I couldn't say no!

I was gifted a J. Fred Gibson Co. Providnence, RI medicie with a badly damaged lip. I was surprised to discover it was an unlisted 5-1/2” size. The Gibson family grows!

Another common druggist found was a Geo. L. Claflin & Co. Wholesale Druggists Providence, RI. The “wholesale druggist” bottles are of an earlier vintage, and at 5” this one was unlisted.

While technically not an unlisted bottle, a Dyer's Healing Embrocation Provce, RI did look different than the example I have. This one had a hinge mold and crudely rolled lip, just missing the pontil age. My other example had a circlular mold indentation on the base (slightly newer style) and a rather neat looking lip. It can be fascinating to see how these bottles progressed!

In a tie for my favorite bottle from the show is a Davis Vegetable Pain Killer, pontiled with a rolled lip! Roughly one in every 50 pontiled Davis bottles has a rolled lip, making it pretty rare. I was pretty excited to add this unlisted variant.

Winter Finds #4

I recently acquired a few RI blobs from a fellow collector from New York. My favorite one was a Roberts & Hunter 135 Pine St. Providence, RI. Completely unlisted RI blobs are hard to find, so this one was an exciting discovery!

Another unlisted one was a California Wine Co. Providence, RI aqua ABM blob. It is listed in clear, but not aqua.

The last new one from the lot was a Geo. M. Christoph & Co. Cranston, RI blob. This one has a M.G. monogram, which stands for Michael Gruntmeyer, one of the owners of the company. The only listed examples had an E.H. monogram, and one with an M.O., possibly an error.

I went to the Baltimore Bottle Show for the first time this March, and it was quite the event! Easily the biggest show on the east coast, I found quite a few RI bottles to take home. One was a Hazard, Hazard & Co. Chemists NY & Newport. This example has no punctuation, as opposed to the listed version.

One seller had a total of four different Rumford jars, so I had an instant collection! While not rare, these apparently come in quite a few sizes and variations. Two are base embossed, and two are shoulder embossed. 

New But Not Mine

A fellow collector found a shard embossed C.F. Gladding Pharmacist Warren, RI. There is only one Warren pharmacist bottle listed (Bennett), so this is a completely unlisted bottle. Hopefully there's a whole one out there!

I received an email asking for info on a T.E. Hickey & Co. This Bottle Registered Providence, RI blob. There are no Hickey bottles listed with “this bottle registered” embossed in the slugplate. The owner was dismayed to learn it didn't have a lot of value, and consequentially decided not to sell it, but I least I know it exists!

Another surprise discovery was a Five Sullivan Bros. Wickenden St. Providence, RI crown top. Normally a very common soda, this example had the address embossed, which no other versions do. A bidder who can sometimes be the bane of my existence (he once paid $400 for a $10 bottle) outbid me, but when there is one there's always another.

Another exciting Ebay listing was for a Gorman & Co. Providence, RI squat soda. The only Gorman soda listed is a tall blob, so I put in a higher than usual bid for it. Of course the crazy bidder struck again and outbid me. Thankfully, he has gone dormant for now. Another squat blob for my bucket list!

A Craigslist ad featured a Joseph Demers Pawtuchet, RI blob. Yes, Pawtucket was misspelled Pawtuchet. I called the seller a dozen times after he confirmed he still had the bottles for sale, but he never got back to me. Alas, his loss is my loss.

Winter Finds #3

Welcome back faithful followers! A lot has happened since my last post. I moved from South Kingstown to Providence, RI. It's been fun adjusting to city life, and rest assured, I'm still finding plenty of bottles!

I have been going through a dry spell when it comes to new local bottles. A Watson's Pharmacy Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island jarred me out of a state of semi-awakeness when I saw it listed on ebay. I was friends with the seller, so he added a buy it now price to spare me the agony of waiting a week for the auction to end. It is my second size of this rare pharmacy bottle, and at 3-3/4” was an unlisted size!

My run of Davis Vegetable Pain Killer bottles is nearly complete. The iron pontil examples were proving hard for me to find, but I finally got a 6-3/4” iron pontiled example! These are much harder to find than the open pontiled examples.

Ah yes, here's another Otis Clapp & Son Incorporated! This 5-1/2” amber rectangle is my 44^th Otis Clapp bottle. Looks like I'll be on track to hit 50 soon!

I should have more examples of the popular Dyer's Healing Embrocation Providence, RI. This 7-1/8” hinge mold example turned out to be unlisted.

I was quite surprised to see an Earnshaw Drug Company East Greenwich, RI medicine show up on ebay recently. The listed version is rare to begin with, and I have never seen this unlisted small (3-3/8”) style. It fills out my East Greenwich collection nicely!