I was casually checking some auction
sites before going to work one day, and discovered that Norm Heckler
was having a live auction that day. One lot caught my attention, and
it was quickly followed by dismay. Alas, I was going to be at work!
However, I “knew a guy” who might be going, and sure enough he
was! He agreed to put in a bid for me, and he won! I was the proud
owner of an E. Jenckes
colored squat soda. I had only recently found out that this was from
Ezra Jenckes of Providence. Now I thought this was going to be an
upgrade for my damaged sand pontiled example, but it wasn't pontiled!
I ended up pretty excited to have a new variant of an already rare
soda.
If the Jenckes soda wasn't good enough,
lightning struck twice! Someone listed a S.J. Esten squat
soda on ebay last week. Samuel J. Esten was a bottler from
Providence, and happened to use the same block letter embossing that
Jenckes used. While the Little Rhody Bottle Club website has a
history of Mr. Esten, it does not list any of his bottles.
Two weeks ago I had a less than
memorable start to the weekend. A broken glass left me with five
stitches and scrapped plans for a dig that day. Still determined, I
felt well enough to check out a nearby yard sale. I was rewarded
with a M.S. Horgan Newport, RI crown top liquor bottle. The
only example listed is a blob, so this one is new!
One of my favorite ebay sellers listed
a H.N. Hassard & Co. Newport, RI quart blob on ebay, and I
knew I had to get it. I have seen two examples of this rare unlisted
bottle, and while one was overpriced, I let the other one get away.
Not this time though! It is the only quart size blob from Newport.
Since moving to Providence I have had
some time to look through my collection and clean some of the bottles
that went straight from the ground to boxes. I was surprised to see
a common Hebe bottle was a new variant! Embossed The Hebe Co.
32oz. Prov. RI, the listed
examples have 28oz. embossed.
