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.

 

Fall Finds #2 2021

I got some gut-wrenching news after leaving our last tailgate show. A local showed up with some bottles including an open pontiled cobalt teepee soda! This is the unembossed version of the iconic Ira Harvey teepee. It was purchased for a bargain $100. Of course the buyer offered it to me for a much higher price, and I couldn't say no despite the fact I could have saved so much if I had just stuck around for a few more minutes!

A fellow club member was having a yard sale and I picked up a medicine embossed Bennett Pharmacy. I'm not positive if this bottle is from RI, but there was a Bennett pharmacy in Warren so my fingers are crossed!

The buyer of the teepee soda also gave me some other RI bottles for free! One of them was a J.H. Blackler Westerly, RI w. flag. I was sure I had this one but it turned out to be a new variant!

They also had another J.H. Blackler B Westerly, RI that was BIM. I have this bottle in an ABM version so this was a nice surprise.

The last one they had was a plain yet interesting Turks Head Ginger Ale Providence, RI soda. There aren't many RI bottles embossed with ginger ale, so add this one to a short list!

 

Fall Finds #1 2021

A friend picked up a lot of blob tops that included a few from Woonsocket. The best one was embossed Woonsocket Grocery Co. Woonsocket, RI. I was able to make a trade for it, and now it's one of my favorite Woonsocket blobs!

I also got an Edward Mee & Son Woosocket, RI from the same friend. There are a lot of varieties of this one, and of course this was an unlisted one!

My construction site friend came through big time with a Valley Bottling Works Riverpoint, RI blob. This is one of the rarest West Warwick sodas, and now there is only one left from that town that I don't have!

Another nice addition was a T.M. Morris Bristol, RI crown top with a plain monogram. I'm continually amazed at how many Morris variants there are!

A fun variant from the “big dig” was a McKenna Bros. Eagle St. Prov, RI clear ginger ale style blob. I've seen a bunch of these in aqua, but this was the first one in clear!

 

Summer Finds #5 2021

This post continues with more additions from my friend's construction site mega dump. One of the most exciting and surprising bottles he found was a Chagnon's Family Drug Store Artcic & Natick, RI. Chagnon bottles are fairly scarce, but they are only from Arctic. He opened a branch pharmacy in Natick that only lasted for about two years, so this bottle is extremely rare!

A free crier from the dig site was a McManus & Meade Weston Hotel Nasonville, RI seltzer bottle. And yes, it is supposed to say Western Hotel but instead says Weston! The McManus & Meade seltzers are quite rare to begin with, never mind an error version!

An L.D. Angell Providence, RI pharmacy showed up as well. It's been quite a while since I saw one of them. At 4-1/8” it is an unlisted size!

Quite possibly my favorite looking med from this site was a Wm. H. Hinds Providence, RI pharmacy. His larger bottles are nice and ornate, and at 6” this one is an unlisted size.

On the way back from a bottle show in CT I drove by a yard sale and it happened to be a member of the Little Rhody Bottle Club! I couldn't believe my luck as I walked away with three exciting RI bottles. The only unlisted one was a James O'Hare Benefit St. Providence, RI pharmacy. The later O'Hare bottles are quite common, but his early examples with the Benefit St. address are quite rare.

 

Summer Finds #4 2021

A friend was selling a blob top soda embossed Adolphus Sylvester Mill St. Central Falls, NY. Normally I don't give New York blobs a second glance, but the Central Falls town name gave me pause. A search on Google turned up no trace of Central Falls, NY ever existing. I then searched the Mill St address with results possibly connecting it to RI. I was finally able to visit the RI Historical Society and found proof that this is indeed an unlisted RI error bottle!

Craigslist yard sale ads are becoming less and less rewarding, so I was happy to finally find one with decent bottles. The winner by far was a Lymansville Mineral Water Co. Lymansville, RI blob. This completely unlisted mineral water was the short lived successor to the Lee Mineral Water Co, which is also a very rare bottle.

Also at the yard sale was an American Bottling Co. Opp. Union Station Providence, RI pint whiskey. It looked identical to my listed example, but lacked the period after St, so a new variant it is!

A friend sold me a McLaughlin's Soda Works Woonsocket, RI in aqua, which has proved to be rather elusive to me. It was also elusive to other club members as it was unlisted in that color!

A bottle collecting construction worker reached out to me about a huge dump he found on one of his projects. He doesn't collect RI bottles so he saved them all for me. Among the many exciting finds was a Manville Bottling Co. Manville, RI crown top. This one has a monogram which the listed ones do not have.