Summer Finds #1

As summer draws to a close, I am finally close to catching up with my beginning of summer finds!

After digging a rare H.I. Hough Pharmacists Olneyville, RI medicine a few posts back, it appears that someone saw my post! A variant (an even nicer version with the address embossed) surfaced on ebay. I prepared for some fierce bidding, but winning was easy :-)

A trip back to the city dump was planned as a simple souting run, but when I saw that a 20 ft. long by 4 ft. deep trench had been dug in a dumpy area, that changed quickly! Right on the surface was a Puritan Bottling Co. Providence, RI crown top soda. This example lacks any punctuation whatsoever.

At the Little Rhody Bottle Club's summer tailgate show, I was excited to pick up a Joseph Demers Pawtuchet, RI error blob. Since Pawtucket is misspelled Pawtuchet, I call it the “sneeze error” version. It was previously undocumented!

Also in June was the summer Brimfield show. Usually hot and unbearable, attendees were spared with temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s. The finds were about average until I chanced upon a Milwaukee Lager by Joseph Bush Pawtucket, RI blob. This is one of the rarest beer bottles from RI, and it was an unlisted split size! A “split” soda or beer is usually about 8” compared to a normal size beer (9-91/2”) or a squat soda (ca. 7-1/2”). They are one of my favorite sizes because RI ones are quite rare and on the early side (1870s-80s).

I couldn't pass up a clear McManus & Meade Western Hotel Nasonville, RI crown top at Brimfield. While these are common bottles, variants about, including this one. With no periods in RI, it was a new variant!

Spring Finds #6

The hit and miss world of Craigslist finally turned up a decent lead recently. A lady in Warwick was selling a bunch of bottles, and I noticed a good number of them were crown top sodas. Among them was a Eureka Bott. Wks. Woonsocket, RI. This short-lived company was only around for three years before it changed names. A quart sized bottle is listed, but not an 8oz. Size.

Also in the mix were two Dexter Bottling Co. Central Falls, RI crown tops. Both 8oz., one has a slugplate and another does not. Like the Eureka bottle, this bottle is also listed in a quart size, but not 8oz!

I recently paid a visit to a massive 1930s dump. The bottles are plentiful there, but the digging is deep and dangerous. I was quite surprised when I pulled out a Coca-Cola Pat. Nov. 15, 1915 Providence, RI. Providence Coca-Cola bottles are a dime a dozen, but the earlier Christmas patent (1925) examples are less common. This 1915 patent is the earliest style of the famous hobbleskirt design, and in RI it is exceedingly rare. Sadly it is in rough shape, but it's still an exciting find!

Another nicer than average screw cap is embossed Cinderella Shoe Dressings (embossed Cinderella). This was a product sold by Everett & Barron Co. out of Providence. Their bottles are quite common, but for some reason this screw cap is fairly hard to find.

It's been a while since I added a new seltzer bottle, so I was happy to come across a T.E. Hickey & Co. Mineral Waters Providence, RI footed seltzer. It's a nice early one with some good detail, and the first Hickey seltzer to be documented!