Summer Finds #2 2021

Bottles from Warren can be very tough to find, so I was very happy when an Eagle Bottling Co. Warren, RI quart soda showed up on ebay and I had no competition! The quart size is not listed.

A friend sold me an Oliver Johnson & Co. Providence, RI medicine, which is normally a common bottle. This example looked slightly taller than my other two, and sure enough, it was an unlisted 6-1/2” size!

Similar to Warren, Bristol bottles are hard to find as well, unless they are a Morris soda. I was pretty sure I had this T.M. Morris Bristol, RI crown top, but it had registered erased, which was yet another unlisted variant!

I was happy to be back at Brimfield this year, even though the finds were fairly slim. I spotted a Frank Bros. M. Providence, RI blob in one dealer's booth. I have never seen one with an M in the slugplate, so it's a new variant!

A friend came across a United States Bottling Co. Providence, RI blob, but it was different than your average example. Most of these have an embossed eagle, but this was an early example with a fancy embossing style. I have to say I like it!

 

New and Not Mine 2021 Part 1

 

Well I just realized that it has been quite some time since I did one of these! There have been some great unknown RI bottles that my friends and other people have acquired recently.

A friend of a friend dug this DeAngelis Beverage Co. Drink Hygea Providence, RI ABM soda. Dr. DeAngelis was an iconic fixture in Providence and put out an exciting variety of bottles. This one is interesting because although he is known as a doctor, he apparently dabbled in the beverage industry with little success!

Another friend of a friend came across this neat Eagle D.P. Co. Ames St. Providence, RI blob. I have no idea what D.P. stands for, another mystery blob for me to research!

A friend recently showed me a bottle I was hoping really existed but was a little skeptical of. Sure enough it was real! This Bruce's Liquid Dentine Providence, RI has one of the coolest shapes I have seen in a while.

A Facebook user posted a great Florence Drug Store Providence, RI citrate of magnesia. There are very few embossed citrates from Rhode Island, so it's nice to see another one surface!

A friend recently dug a true crier shard embossed Dr. Sprague Centreville, RI. There were no known embossed pharmacy bottles from Centreville, until now! There has to be an intact one out there somewhere!

 

Summer Finds #1 2021

In literally the last box of bottles from the Newport haul was the real prize, a cobalt Frank L. Powell Pharmacist Newport, RI med! These are very hard to find, and I have had the good fortune of having three in my collection. At 3-1/2” this is my 4^th size and an unlisted one too!

I have been trying to get more sizes of the R.L. Rose & Co. whiskey for years now with little success. I finally scored an 8 ounce size, and this style is unlisted!

The last soda from the haul I didn't have was a nice D.W. Sheehan Newport, RI blob.

The last new medicine was a Caswell Massey & Co. NY Newport variant. Most of these are square, so rectangular versions are often unlisted!

A friend of mine was kind enough to give me an Otis Clapp & Son Boston & Providence lid in a trade. I originally thought it went to a specific jar, but I found their catalog and it shows the lid being sold separately!

 

Spring Finds #3 2021

 A friend recently picked up a medicine embossed C.L. Ormsbee PhG Greene, RI. I was floored because not only was it completely unlisted, but from a very small village! Small town meds are some of the most satisfying to find, and this one is no exception!

Pictorial RI pharmacy bottles are certainly more elusive than their more generic kin. I got lucky and won a nice John F. Oates Providence, RI med off ebay. It was an unlisted size at 4”. Mr. Oates had a sense of humor because he had a bundle of oats embossed on most of his bottles.

In case you were wondering there are more bottles from the Newport haul I haven't gotten around to! Another nice addition was a J.R. Lorah & Co. Dispensing Chemists Newport, RI. Very few RI pharmacists describe themselves as dispensing chemists, except a few in Newport. I wonder if it was a local thing or perhaps they were copying each other?

Another nice addition was a Geo. A. Wood Newport, RI medicine. At 5-1/2” it's an unlisted size!

A crier addition was this cute Caswell Mack & Co. NY & NP medicine. Sadly it has a crack and hole in it. Listed in cobalt, it is surprisingly unlisted in clear!

Spring Finds #2 2021

At last summer's outdoor show in Upton Mass I picked up a scarce Walter Price & Co. Fruit Flavors. Most of Price's flavoring extract bottles say Price's Pure Preparation on the front.

A lead from many years ago finally panned out and I was able to see an epic collection of bottles dug in Newport in the 1970s. They had been picked through by the diggers, but there were still plenty of new bottles for my collection. Among a few sodas was a P. Sheehan Newport, RI.

One of the coolest bottles from this collection was an etched wine that has P. Faerber over P. Corbett Newport, RI. Either P. Corbett went out of business and Faerber re-used his bottles or Faerber simply stole one of his bottles! Either way I doubt I'll ever see another one!

I won a New England Bottling Co. Westerly, RI crown top off of ebay almost a year ago. I had planned to meet up with the seller but Covid scuttled those plans for some time. We were finally able to meet and my newest version joins the New England family. It is remarkably crude for a crown top!

Also acquired at the summer show was a small size Maltol medicine. I can't confirm it yet but I believe this is a RI medicine from Arctic. Quite a few have been dug in RI so this would seem to confirm that theory, as well as a shot glass from Charles Chagnon that says drink Maltox. Perhaps one or the other is misspelled?

 

Spring Finds #1 2021

A couple doing work on their house in East Greenwich uncovered a local pharmacy bottle, and an exciting one at that! They did not seem to care for it at all, but a friend of theirs persuaded them not to throw it in the trash (to my great relief), and posted a picture of it in a Facebook group. It was embossed People's Drug Store Greenwich, RI, a most exciting find as there is no record of a People's Drug store in East Greenwich, and the East part of the town's name is conspicuously absent. I was able to meet with the couple, and after telling them what I could about the bottle, they offered it to me even after I insisted on paying for it. Oh to be rich!

A return to the ACL soda dump yielded a Batchelors Bott Wks clear base embossed quart. I have one in aqua so this one makes a swell pair!

 

 

At one of the tailgate shows I picked up a box of mostly common RI sodas including a Lewis Ruhland & Co. Cranston crown top. My suspicions of never seeing this style with a crown top was correct, so now my Ruhland tribe consists of 8 versions!

Another beer in the lot as a Hand Brewing Co. Pawtucket, RI. It was a harder to find BIM version, and while I have two variants the embossing style was noticeably different. This one might be a little questionable to count as a new version but I'll consider it one for now!

A friend was digging at a well-dug dump and found a broken Price's Compound Tolu Syrup. An exceedingly rare patent medicine bottle from Westerly, it took me a second to realize that the listed version said Dr. Bush's while this one said Prices. He was kind enough to donate the placeholder example to the collection. I sure hope a fully intact version surfaces!

 

 

Winter Finds #2 2021

I have been on the hunt for a 1915 hobbleskirt Coca-Cola from Woonsocket, RI but to no avail. My luck finally changed and I was finally able to buy one! I am somewhat surprised this one isn't listed.

 

I spotted a group of bottles on ebay with poorly taken pictures. I could just make out one that said The Reiner Co. Apothecaries Providence, RI. This was a new one to me so I put in a bid. I had quite a scare because the seller didn't even wrap the bottles! Half of them arrived in pieces but by a small miracle this one survived.

I have a pretty complete collection of Havens Bottling Works Westerly, RI sodas. This quart happened to be a new variant!

A lady recently emailed me saying she had a W.F. Fanning Cranston St. medicine for sale. This was quite a stroke of luck as it does not say RI on it so it can be hard to ID. I had it listed on my online want list so she was able to google it and find my blog!

I now have a sizable collection of Earnshaw Drug Co. East Greenwich, RI pharmacy bottles. I'm still amazed there was only one size listed originally! My newest one is 4-1/2” thanks to a local digger.

 

Winter Finds #1 2021

About two years ago I discovered that a bottle embossed Martin's Life Cordial for Dyspepsia & C was an early RI quack medicine. The bottle was auctioned off on ebay and went for far more than I expected, despite heavy stain and a chip. When I posted it on Facebook, another group member posted their example, which was in mint condition. They said they would consider selling in the future. Fast forward to the present and he reached out to me out of the blue! I was initially stunned, grateful that he offered it to me first, but also realizing I would have to make a very good offer. I made my offer, and he accepted! This is easily one of my favorite quack medicines from RI, the name, shape, and age all combine to make it something truly special!

Lightning struck twice when another Facebook collector posted an Andw. J. Smith's Celebrated Croup Syrup Providence, RI that they recently acquired. This bottle is listed as pontiled and is very high on my want list. Surprisingly this example was smooth based! He was open to selling so we made a deal and another very rare RI quack medicine joined the collection!

A friend tipped me off to a construction site that had unearthed a few bottles visible from the road. My best find was a pontiled medicine on top of a dirt pile, but the larger dump was a 1920s-30s era and located in an old foundation. It was a fun dig and a surprise find was a 3-1/2” ABM Davis Vegetable Pain Killer. While technically a NY bottle, this medicine originated in RI before it was bought out in the 1890s. This is the smallest example I have seen, and I hope to find a similar one that is BIM!

I spotted an Albert H. Sydney Co. Providence, RI blob on ebay. This is a pretty common soda, but I noticed it was a slightly different version with a round slugplate.

I bought a large collection from a local old time digger recently. The only catch was he sold most of what he dug, and these were all the leftovers. I was pretty sure a John F. Perry Narragansett Pier, RI crown top was a double, but as a rule I always check to confirm. Surprise, I had it as a blob top but not a crown top!

 

Fall Finds #2 2020

I had been meaning to get together with a friend to do some trading. For various reasons, we never met up to do the trade despite digging together a few times. We finally got it worked out, and it was a win-win situation. I acquired a nice narrow Francis Gavin Pawtucket, RI crown top. I really like these crude early examples, I suspect they were made at a second-rate glass company simply due to the poor quality. I'm sure Mr. Gavin might not have been terribly pleased, but us collectors certainly are!

I was also very excited to get an A.W. Tenner Providence, RI error medicine. It was supposed to read A.W. Fenner. This is a less common error to find, and my guess is that the order for the bottles might have been written in cursive, which in the 1800s the Fs and Ts looked rather similar hence the confusion.

This Bridge Club Bev. Co. Providence, RI heel embossed quart is rather bland in appearance, but I do wonder what the label looked like! I have examples in clear and green, but this aqua version is unlisted!

On a recent dig I picked up a Central Falls Bottling Co. Central Falls, RI crown top that had been left behind by the last digger. It was understandable as there is a huge crack in it, but this style is completely unlisted so I counted it as an exciting find!

 

 In a 1940s dump I don't expect to find many embossed RI bottles. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found a Davol Anti-Colic Nurser Providence, RI that was completely embossed! Most of these have base embossing and a pyroglaze label on the front, so this was a new one.

 

Fall Finds #1 2020

A while back a friend called me about a construction site off the highway where he saw some ash and glass shards. I was busy but told another friend who checked it out. He only found one bottle there but man was it a keeper! It was a Hermann Gartner Providence, RI blob. It was completely unknown, crude, and even had a spelling error (This spelled Tnis on the back). I kicked myself for not checking out the spot myself but was happy it went to someone who appreciated it. Fast forward a few months and my friend was kind enough to offer it to me during a trade. I was super excited because I doubt I will ever see another one!

The same friend also traded me a Standard Bottling Co. Pawtucket, RI narrow crown top soda.

He also had a Standard Bottling Co. 7 Pawtucket, RI crown top. Standard was only one of two companies to date some of their bottles (1907), and that year is unlisted!

He also had an ABM blob S.H. Zucker & Co. Pawtucket, RI. These are fairly common but I have never seen one that was machine made. Blob tops only had a roughly 5 year overlap from when bottlers started using ABM bottles (many were still handmade until circa 1920), so ABM blobs are fairly scarce.

I found a dump at a small construction site and took home a crier Crystal Beverage Co. Providence, RI aqua crown top. All of the known Crystal sodas are clear and the aqua really gives this one some character.