Summer Finds #3 2022

Back in August I received a random message request on Facebook. After cautiously accepting it, I discovered that it was someone trying to sell a “Coonley flask”. The spelling error meant it could either be a J.C. Conley flask or a John P. Cooney flask. Well to my great excitement it turned out to be a John P. Cooney Prov. R.I. flask! There was only one known to exist, but apparently there are a couple others out there. I was even more surprised to discover that it was a different version and color than the example that was documented. This was easily my best find of 2022!

A trip to the local river usually turns up a few ABM sodas. After finding a pile of Star Bottling sodas from Pawtucket (the usual suspects), I spotted Metropolitan Bottling Co. Providence, RI. I recognized the name from the city directories I've used for research, but I didn't know a bottle existed! It's pretty crazy how an ABM soda could be so rare.

Also from the river was a United Mineral Water Co. Providence, RI crown top with no slugplate. That makes it a new variant!

Sadly the productive construction site in Providence finally got filled in an paved over, but a new spot showed some promise! I was digging there with my friend Scott when he found a 5-1/2” Corrigan the Apothecary Providence, RI. I didn't have one, and jokingly said “dig me one too!”. Well less than a minute later he finds another one! I sure do love a win-win situation!

Every now and then I do an ebay search outside of the bottle category to see if anything got mis-listed. A W.J. Goff Arctic, RI blob top got my attention very quickly! This was one of those completely unlisted bottles that made all those long hours scrolling through ebay listing worth it!

 

Summer Finds #2 2022

A bottle dealer I'm good friends with recently picked up a Caswell Hazard & Co. NY Newport medicine in amber. The size is uncommon, but the embossing on the small side panels is definitely unusual! It cost me an arm and a leg, but I figured I would probably never see another. (Update, a few months later someone beat me to this exact bottle at a show, only it was embossed Hazard, Hazard & Co!)

The same dealer friend also had a base embossed D. & M. Co. green medicine with full labels. It identified the bottle as a Daggett & Miller, a colored RI medicine! While also priced exorbitantly, I was able to trade for it which softened the blow.

A couple in Warwick reached out to the club to see if anyone was interested in bottles dug on their property. There was nothing special shown except an odd little jar. I almost immediately recognized it as a Pat'd Aug 8, 1882 fruit jar by F..H. Perry of Providence! Without the lid that has the patent date it would be nearly impossible for anyone else to ID, but luckily I had the shape committed to memory! This jar is listed in the Red Book of Fruit Jars but this size was unknown!

My good friend Andy came across a 4-1/2” Cahill's Drug Store Providence, RI medicine at a yard sale recently. I have a soft spot for these later style BIM pharmacies, and did not have a Cahills yet!

An exciting ebay discovery was a completely unlisted blob embossed Donnelly Olneyville, RI. The horizontal embossing is unusual and research on the company proved tricky without any first initials.

 

Summer Finds #1 2022

An ad for dug bottles in Fairhaven turned up a Modox (2x embossed) with ground off embossing in aqua! The aqua Modox bottles are very hard to find, and this is an unlisted example!

A trip to CT to see a fellow digger and buy a few bottles yielded a nice W.A. Walling Charles St. Providence, RI.

My friend also had a large size 6-1/2” Dr. Duprez's Cough Syrup. This size has eluded me for some time, and happened to be unlisted as well!

Another CT digger/collector recently bought a small collection that included a J.H. Branaghan 10 Pawtucket, RI blob. This bottler was one of the only two in the state that dated their bottles each year. I have every known year, but 1910 was not listed!

I bought a large collection of blob top sodas in CT from the relatives of a collector who wrote a book on blob top sodas from New England. It was a great collection, but sadly did not have a single Rhode Island bottle, despite there being quite a few being shown in his book. A few weeks later the family told me they had found another box! And behold, there was a Geo. Kulz & Co. Dorrance St. Providence, RI in the mix. I have never seen a Kulz with this address before!

 

Spring Finds #3 2022

Another surprise addition from Al was a Dexter Bottling Co. Central Falls, RI quart. I already have two Dexter quarts and figured that was all there was, but this is another variant!

Brimfield this spring was very slim pickings. I was able to find an Edwin P. Anthony Pharmacist Providence, RI medicine. Normally this is nothing special as Anthony bottles are quite common, but this one was rectangular instead of square.

A recent trade with a friend landed me a Hazard, Hazard & Co. LOV NY Newport clear medicine. I call this style LOV sort for the Latin motton on the front, Labor Omnia Vincit (hard work conquers all). I have one of these rare clear examples with Caswell erased under the first Hazard. Now I just need the prized green version!

Back at the city dump I was slowly coaxing out a few more bottles. A Fred L. Lothrop Pharmacist Providence, RI was unlisted at 4”.

My best find was a completely unlisted E. Batchelder's Standard Extracts Providence, RI. These completely unknown bottles are few and far between, and always a delight to discover!

 

Spring Finds #2 2022

A trip to the “bottle river” yielded a deco style Colaluca Bottling Co. Providence, RI soda. Unlisted deco soda bottles are few and far between, so this was definitely a highlight!

Back at the city dump I dug an Alfred Barth Providence, RI 4-1/4” medicine. This style Barth is unknown!

Nearby I found a 3-1/2” Alfred Barth Providence, RI floating in a large puddle. I also noted that the shape is different than the first one.

My friend Al Otis recently gifted me some bottles he picked up after selling off his collection. Among them was a deco quart Twin City Bottling Co. Central Falls, RI soda. Seeing stuff like this makes me want to dig in Central Falls!

He also gave me a rare H.T. & C. O'Brien Central Falls, RI medicine. This example is an unlisted size.

 

Spring Finds #1 2022

Someone on Facebook contacted me about selling a Rhode Island flask. When he mentioned that it was amber my heart skipped a beat! It was a pint size John Keefe Providence, RI flask. A quart size is listed, and I believe it was the only example known! This one will take a special place in my collection.

I got an email asking for information on a Charles Maul Newport, RI blob. This one also nearly gave me a heart attack, as the only known Maul blob is green, and one of my most sought after RI bottles. This one is clearly aqua but still an exciting and rare find! After a little negotiating we made a deal and it came back to RI.

It's been a while since I came across a good city dump, and last spring that happened! A construction site happened to be located right on top of one of Providence's many dumps. One of the first bottles I found was an E.C. Danforth PhG Providence, RI medicine. At 3-1/4” it was an unlisted size.

A second visit to the new dump produced more bottles including a W.R. Greene 1 Westr. St. Prov, RI. This is an unlisted version with the odd abbreviation of Westminster.

While visiting an old time collector to buy some soda bottles she was also kind enough to offer me a S.S. Thompson Newport, RI cream jar. Cream jars from RI are quite rare, and with the addition of this one I now have four!

 

Winter Finds #2 2022

I was recently able to trade with a friend for an Edw. Smith Co. Pawtucket, RI half pint whiskey. Normally these are very common, but the embossing style was new!

Another friend of mine dug a Kings Bottling Works Westerly, RI BIM soda. Until he dug this example, all known Kings bottles were machine made, so this was a nice surprise!

An antiques dealer bought a small bottle collection that included a Chas. M. Cole Thames St. Newport, RI. I have never seen one of these with Oz and CC measurements before!

Yet another friend came across two Newport pharmacy bottles. The first one was a Frank L. Powell Newport, RI.  The pharmacist version is harder to find than the chemist version and this is an unlisted size!

The second bottle was another Chas. M. Cole Newport, RI. At 6-1/4” it is also an unlisted size.

 

New But Not Mine 2022

 An out of state collector came across a truly wild piece recently! It was an S.J. Esten squat soda whimsey. This example is in a different color than the normal Esten sodas, and it's pontiled! This doesn't make it older, a pontil rod was simply needed to make this unusual piece.

Another photo I saw on the web was this shoulder embossed McKenna Bros. Providence, RI crown top. The only one I knew of had Providence spelled Brovidence.

Another unusual medicine to surface was an Albert Fenner Providence, RI cylinder. Narrow cylinders are uncommon, and wide mouthed ones even more so.

A friend of a friend came across an interesting Eagle DP Co. Providence, RI. This bottle was likely related to the Eagle Brewing Co. which operated at the address on the bottle.

A friend recently dug this amazing heartbreaker blob. Embossed The Gold Dollar Central Falls, RI, it is easily one of my new favorite Central Falls bottles.

 

Winter Finds #1 2022

 

Ever since my friend Justin dug an Otis Clapp & Son triangular med, it has been on the top of my Otis Clapp want list. One finally surfaced on ebay and it was a fairly easy win! Given their rarity, it is pretty surprising that there was already another triangular RI bottle (the OHP Rose bitters). Now there are two!

A nearby auction had a bunch of bottles and pharmacy ephemera from an old RI pharmacy. Needless to say I was on it right away. Among the winnings was a nice pair of Cundall & Earnshaw E. Greenwich, RI medicines. They are almost identical so I've only pictured one.

There are very few bottles that were actually produced in RI and marked as being such. Even though it dates to the late 1970s-early 1980s, I still had to grab this National Bottle Co. Coventry, RI commemorative bottle from a friend. This company succeeded the Star Bottling Co., which I also have a bottle from.

A woman contacted me about bottles she wanted to sell before a local estate sale. I told her that I was looking for Westerly bottles, and much to my disappointment, I found the ad for the sale online and noticed a bunch of the Westerly bottles shown were not present. I also noticed that her very full purse sounded suspiciously like clinking bottles, and sure enough, it was. Luckily she didn't find all of them, and I picked up a Barbour's 18 Broad St. Westerly, RI in an unlisted size.

I also grabbed a scarce Thomas J. Bannon Westerly & Watch Hill, RI that was also an unlisted size. The shape was also different from the norm, and you might notice this one survived a fire too!

Fall Finds #3 2021

 

A friend picked up a jumbo sized medicine that happened to be one I was looking for! It was a 9” W.F. Fanning Cranston St. pharmacy bottle. It is one of the few RI pharmacies that doesn't have the city embossed on it, which makes it a little harder to ID. I had a smaller example already, maybe there is another in between size!

An ebay seller was advertising an Alexandra Perfumer & Atomizer Pat. 1872 bottle as being from RI. Sure enough, it had been patented by James J. Essex of Newport! It was a buy it now/ best offer listing so I made an offer and brought it home to RI.

Another friend had the good fortune of digging a Dr. Hough's Anti-Scrofula Syrup. This is a rare RI patent medicine, and I have only seen them in a jumbo size. This is still a big fella, but definitely smaller than the known example. We were able to work out a trade, so now I just need the pontiled version!

Another ebay find was a Ferro-China DeAngelis Providence, RI. This Ferro-China preparation was very popular with Italian immigrants, and the generic style bottles are abundant. I have only seen one embossed by DeAngelis, and this example is a smaller size! I have to say this makes an unexpected but most welcome pair!

I have a healthy collection of J.L. Gannon Co. N. Providence, RI sodas. It looks like I'm still rounding out the collection as this is a new ABM crown top variant.