1875 - 1890s dump site. approximate age of bottles found?

piggler · 2013-05-14T10:44:49+00:00

Jeff Great finds - glad to hear there are still surface dumps out there which have not been picked over. Your bottles all fall in the late 19th century ran...

piggler

Here are some recent finds. First is an old crown top soda with the embossed letters H.W. Owen, Ansonia Conn. The crown looks to be tooled, no mold seam. Thinking around C1900? Sound about right? Sadly has a large crack in it..... also found an aqua medicine, and old printing plate. Let me know what you think, and if you have any insight on the previous post bottle, I'd be interested in hearing.....

Chris

Always great to find local bottles, esp. when you can tie them to a specific building and/or other local info.

Your dating is what I would think, possibly even a bit later. What is curious about the Ansonia bottle is the "PARIS" embossing on the base. I would think that would be just another Whitall Tatum product.

The metal printing plate is another curiosity...at least I am assuming that is what it is.

Chris

piggler

Some info on the printing plate I found. I reversed the image and it speaks to the effect of the drug " Cancerine". A quack medicine of the turn of the century, and was the subject of one of the first cases involving the supreme court and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The case also involves C.Henry Wilson, a distributor from Shelton! I have attached some info.....

Chris

Great research! Interesting that it was a pivotal case for passage of further protections under the Pure Food and Drug Act.

So what the heck is it doing in that bottle dump?

piggler

Hey Chris,
Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the printing plate... Went back and did some water hunting and came up with some nice bottles, and some REAL sad criers.... The date range for this dump seem to keep expanding as I find more relics. The Iron pontil squat soda I imagine would be 1860's if not earlier (broke my heart). Your thoughts? And the Mellons Infant food I believe is late 1890s. Then I come up with a fully machine made Watkins, thinking 1915 ish... Crazy the variety of artifacts here... Any ideas?

Jeff

Chris

I have heard of a number of great bottles coming out of ponds and rivers here in the northeast...this seems to be the new untapped source of artifacts.

Wow, so sad that the Stoddary "stubby" is missing the lip...that is so much earlier than the other things you have found.

piggler

I was disappointed when I saw the top was missing....... Oh well, hopefully I can find a whole pontilled bottle some day.

I did happen to find a few more bottles in the dirt the other weekend. I am wondering about this skinny, tall, aqua bottle. Any idea what it may have been used for? Has a tooled lip, and many bubbles. Thinking around 1890, sauce bottle ? Whats your opinion?

Thanks, Jeff

Chris

Olive oil for certain - have seen them with labels over the years. Here is a picture of one I found on ebay marked FERNDELL OLIVE OIL

Chris

piggler

Thanks for the info Chris, spot on. Found a listing as well in a catalog for olive oil, and a similar shape was available. Added the picture. I found another bottle which I am unfamiliar with. Think its a perfume maybe? Haven't been able to find anything similar online. Its about 4'' tall, tooled lip, and looks like a grenade. Any ideas on this one? Use, age, ect.... Thanks for your help.

Jeff

Chris

Jeff, yes, have seen similar examples. The pattern has a floral or sunburst design.

Sure would like to see the bottle that was attached to that iron pontil :-(

piggler

Thanks Chris, I would have liked to see what was attached to that pontil too..... Found some small open pontil fragments too, I'll post them.

Would like to share one of my latest finds, its a pint milk bottle from my home town. It is made by the Thatcher Manufacturing Co, 1920, according to the embossing on the base. Front embossing reads " H.B. Maurer" - M - Shelton, Ct. I cannot seem to find any leads to this company, any suggestions on what avenues to explore to find more info, guessing just go to the library?

Its a very clean bottle, some minor cracks, nice shelf appeal...

Jeff

Chris

Maurer ran a dairy, it may or may not have been a business that advertised. Perhaps there may have been info in a local newspaper. You might find some answers at a local historical society.

There are a number of books (indexes) published on dairies and their bottles, not sure if there is one for Connecticut.

Chris

Amazingly clean for a dug bottle but sometimes they come out like that!

piggler

Finally got a chance to get back to the old dump site this year. Came back with a gem.
A Whitall & Tatum cobalt poison! Its in perfect condition. My question with this bottle is What was actually inside it? What was the company that sold it?

Jeff

Chris

Wow, nice find. The dump that keeps yielding new discoveries :-)

I am not aware that W-T was in the product business, but I could be wrong. I assume that they mass produced bottles for product manufacturers and bottlers, as well as pharmacies.

The answers to your last question lies in tracking down some labeled examples...

Chris

piggler

Hey Chris, you are correct in that W-T did not produce the product inside the bottle, just the bottle it self. It was up to the buyer to put product specific labels on the bottle. Did some research on the company and this specific type bottle.
It is called a KC-1 bottle, for poisons ect. It came in many sizes. I have attached the page from the 1880s W-T catalog, this mould ran until about 1920.

piggler

Found another object, not sure what it is. Looks like a child's tea cup or doll type thing.... Any ideas?

piggler

Found a Liebigs Beef Wine & Iron this last trip, and a couple broken beauties : ( The Liebigs reads it was prepared by the Jarmuth co, Providence R.I. What exactly is Beef Wine & Iron?

piggler

Discovered another bottle, an apollinaris style. It appears to be turn molded and has a small applied blob top, and is about 14'' tall. Some searching turned up that it most likely held mineral water or beer. Pre 1900?

Chris

Bill Lockhart, quoting Julian Toulouse says that turn mold bottles date primarily from 1880 to 1910.

To me, if anything, they tend to look a bit older than they actually are.

I continue to be amazed that your dig site has no end..

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