Summer Finds 2025 #3

 A recent club meeting produced an A.W. Howe Broad St. Providence, RI pharmacy, a nice variant for the collection!

I spotted a collapsing abandoned barn, and inside was a basket full of bottles! Most were common, but T.E. Hickey & Co. Providence, RI blob turned out to be a new variant. I have the exact same bottle but with a crown top.

In a group of bottles listed online I spied a Standard Bottling Co. Pawtucket, RI narrow blob top. I have seen narrow (aka Aetna style) crown tops from Standard, but not a blob! These have always been one of my favorite styles.

A friend found a farm dump that produced a few milks and a Morris Bros. Bristol, RI ABM crown top. It was a variant I had only seen pieces of, so despite the damage it was an improvement!

Another friend found a Mt. Hope Distilling Co. Providence, RI aqua blob in a river. While common, I know there are a lot of variants, so I looked closely and saw that it was ABM, making it a new variant.

 

Summer Finds 2025 #2

 Years ago one of my first bottle digging friends Steve Anderson gifted me a few bottles including a Clarkes Kill Pain. Years of research failed to yield any information, but I did find a patent medicine dealing Clarke in Maine. I decided to give the research one final try before listing it on ebay, as the Narragansett Times had recently been digitized. I was shocked when I got a hit, and to my delight I found out the bottle was from Dorrville, RI! This was a name used for present-day Bradford, also formerly known as Niantic. Steve found many bottles diving in the river there, and I'm sure he would have been excited to see I solved the mystery!

A new construction site looked promising, but the summer heat was not exactly calling my name when it came to digging. I found a small shallow pit with a few bottles including an American Bottling Co. Union Station Providence, RI whiskey. Lo and behold, it was a variant!

A river walk yielded a few fun finds, but the big surprise came as I was leaving! A barely visible Acme Bottling Co. Providence, RI caught my eye. It was a new variant of an already rare soda.

I was pickup up a rare but listed soda bottle in Newport, and asked the seller if they had any others. I was delighted to also pick up a Moren & Sullivan Echo Bristol, RI soda! I've known about this bottle for years but it had eluded me, until now!

A friend found an Echo Eagle Bottling Co. Bristol, RI soda while walking a river recently. I was very surprised, as I was not aware that the Eagle Bottling Co. had ties to Echo. Apparently they bought the location from Moren & Sullivan and kept their original plant as well.

 

Summer Finds 2025 #1

 A snagged an Eagle Bottling Co. DC Providence, RI off ebay, and it turned out to be a new variant!

The small construction site also yielded an A.F. Cappelli Providence, RI blob that I sort of neglected because they are so common. I finally got around to comparing it to my other examples and surprise, new variant!

A friend spotted a Remington & Co. Smith St. Providence, RI pharmacy bottle for sale online and I snagged it. At 5" it was an unlisted size of a scarce med!

I picked through a sad group of soda bottles that had mostly been pulverized by sitting in frozen bins over the winter. A green Warwick Club Ginger Ale Co. quart managed to survive. It was yet another example I had in clear but not green!

After seeing so many Faerber bottles, I kept thinking that there had to be a tall blob from him somewhere. Years after suspecting it, a Peter Faerber Newport, RI aqua blob showed up on ebay! It's the only Faerber bottle I've seen with his first name spelled out.

 

Spring Finds 2025 #5

 A small house appointment only estate sale turned up a few nice bottles. Among them was a Blanding Druggist Providence. These are normally very crude and almost look pontiled. This one has a much newer look to it but still dates to the late 1870s.

I spotted a large 8" Edwin P. Anthony Providence, RI med on ebay. Sadly with a moderate sized crack it was not worth the cost of shipping. The seller had a large collection of bottles in NH so I decided to make the trip and took it home!

A small construction site unearthed a classic Providence city dump layer. A heavily damaged James O'Hare Providence, RI somehow survived in one piece. This is a scarcer earlier variant, and at 4-1/4" was a new size.

 

Also found were a pile of damaged blobs. Among them was a Caproni Bros. Atwells Ave. Providence, RI which was of course another variant!

A more exciting find an an Aetna style Caproni Bros. & Co. Spruce St. Providence, RI. Unfortunately also damaged, it is still a great looking bottle!

 

Spring Finds 2025 #4

On the hunt for an old time diggers collection, I was able to track down his digging partner. He was a very nice guy with a bunch of fun stories to share. Surprisingly he sold most of his RI bottles as he preferred bottles from the 1880s or earlier. I was about to leave when I spotted an odd bottle in his window. I nearly fell over when I saw it was embossed New Aetna Stopper Pawtucket, RI! It was an extremely rare salesman sample that was promoting the new closure. I have never seen anything like it and was even more shocked when he told me to take it. I owe him a dig now!

A friend who bought some of the Bergseng collection managed to turn up a few more conical style glasses. One was an O'Connor & Wilbur Pawtucket. All of these conical glasses are either unique or have very few known examples.

A Frank E. Crawford conical glass also joined the collection.

After obtaining an etched glass, I now also have an Anthony Pharmacy conical style glass!

The last one to join the collection was a J.A. Bernard Cathedral Sq. conical glass. I think it's safe to say that I now have the largest collection of RI dose glasses ever assembled!