# What bottles have you dug that you let go...



## bottlediger (Jul 22, 2009)

Want to start something new here and hear what you all have to say on this topic - What bottles have you have Dug that you ended up letting go only to regrete it down the road. Personally I can not think of one off the top of my head

 If you could post a pic that would be awesome

 Digger Ry


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## RedGinger (Jul 22, 2009)

I dug a local druggist that was in a rare aqua color.  I don't necessarily regret giving it away, as I gave it to the homeowner (it was the only one I found that day).  I do wish I could have seen it cleaned up and of course I wish I had it, but it's only a bottle.  So, I guess it doesn't totally qualify as regret, but your post brought it to mind.  I'll see if I can get a pic of it.


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## GuntherHess (Jul 22, 2009)

oh gonna torment me again[]
 Do I have to relive all the bottles I found in civil war camps that I gave away when I didnt collect bottles? Wish I kept more than just the inks.


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## bottlediger (Jul 22, 2009)

haha I would have loved to seen those bottles you just GAVE away Matt! I wish I was your digging partner back then. Hey ill give you all these mini balls and ill just take those stupid bottles you got there []
 Happens to everyone Matt, makes us smarter

 Digger Ry


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## RedGinger (Jul 22, 2009)

That's why he has so many good bottles now[]


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## GuntherHess (Jul 22, 2009)

This is one I really liked and got rid of.  Not that great a loss, it was damaged. I really like early pontil marked slug plate druggist cylinders.


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## appliedlips (Jul 22, 2009)

I try to hold onto everthing that I enjoy alot but have let a couple of lesser finds go to regret it later. One was a local 1870 era druggist in aqua before I started collecting this particular druggists bottles and the other was an amethyst Dr. Tebbetts that I ended up digging a couple more of years later..I don't think I will get so lucky with the 10" tall, aqua druggist bottle but I continue to offer 2 or 3 times what I sold it for in trade to get it back.. I don't have any problem passing a purchased bottle on to another collector but a personally dug find is a whole different story.


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## Dabeel (Jul 22, 2009)

That was a nice one Matt........It's as whittled as a pickle!


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## pyshodoodle (Jul 22, 2009)

Funny you should mention this now! 
 See this post:
https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Insulator-and-marble/m-239268/tm.htm
 I'm surprisingly not upset... apparently I made someone's day and hope to find more!


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## capsoda (Jul 22, 2009)

Before I activated into the Air Force from the guard in 1977 I had a collection of hundreds of pontiled bottles. From foods to meds and many different onions. I rarley kept anything that was embossed unless it was pontiled. Therw back and gave away a good fortune in Pepsi Hutches and other bottles of every description.

 The AF sad I couldn't take them with me and I knew what the bros would do with them sooooo I sold some that were really rare and gave the rest away. They didn't have rental storage back then.[&o]


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## blobbottlebob (Jul 22, 2009)

Warren. You're killing us.


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## bottlebryan (Jul 22, 2009)

When I was about 12 or 13 I dug a pair of cobalt "Abigail Littlefield, Watervliet NY" square pharmacy bottles. These were the best bottles I ever dug and later let go. I would like to obtain one again. I also had dug (and later let go) an iron pontilled base embossed Dyottville Glass Works cylinder whiskey, and not knowing what an iron pontil was I scrubbed most of the iron off with an SOS pad!


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## Staunton Dan (Jul 22, 2009)

I can honestly say that I have few if any regrets. I love to dig and keep only that which I like. Some of my favorite bottles are not worth a whole lot but may have an interesting shape or color. The thing about bottles is that they are made of glass and glass can break. I enjoy selling what I find and realized a long time ago that I can always replace tomorrow anything that I might sell today. One thing that I do not sell are important memories and if a bottle preserves a memory of a special dig, I am hard pressed to sell it.


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## cyberdigger (Jul 22, 2009)

I miss all the bottles I ever gave away.. I keep a list, and cross-reference it with the obituaries every morning.. those babes are coming back to Papa!!! [&:]


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 22, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  bottlediger
> 
> Want to start something new here and hear what you all have to say on this topic - What bottles haveÂ you have Dug that you ended up letting go only to regrete it down the road. Personally I can not think of one off the top of my head
> 
> ...


 

 Im with you man. Can't think of a single one cuz I still have them all []


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 22, 2009)

Like my mom used to say, thats a bute []


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## blobbottlebob (Jul 22, 2009)

> Can't think of a single one cuz I still have them all


 Rick. Seriously. You need to spread the wealth on all of that cobalt. I have a big space on my windowsill that is begging for iron pontils.


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## blobbottlebob (Jul 23, 2009)

> I can honestly say that I have few if any regrets.


 
 I'll agree with Dan on that. It doesn't pay to have regrets. You make the best decision you can with what you know. If you make a mistake, you live and learn, right?

 Having said that, there are a few bottles that I wouldn't mind having back. I really liked this seltzer. It is footed from a small town that was mis-spelled in the etching. A little worn but as far as I know, there isn't another one out there. Here it is . . .


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## baltbottles (Jul 23, 2009)

I can say of the thousands of things I have dug and sold I only ever regreted two of them. One was a 3 piece mold iron pontiled whiskey in a nice yellow topaz color made at a Baltimore glass house in the 1840s-50s. At the time I wasn't collecting unembossed utility type pieces and sold it for a pretty good sum of money. Several years later I started collecting Baltimore utility type bottles and regreted selling that whiskey. But then a couple years ago I was lucky enough to dig another one in the same color and mold. The other piece I regret was a blue decorated stoneware pitcher. That was way out of my price range to buy out my digging partners.

 Chris


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## jays emporium (Jul 23, 2009)

There is definitely one bottle that I regret getting rid of the most.  
 In 1978 I dug an amber Houston Texas Coca Cola bottle and sold it to someone with an ad in the Old Bottle Magazine for $200.  I knew it was rare but that seemed like a lot of money back then.  In the last 30 years I have not dug another one or even a broken one that I remember, I don't think I've even seen another one since then.


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## beendiggin (Jul 23, 2009)

A scarce local cure:  "Morrison's Sure Cure Tonic/ Bar Harbor, Me.", an OP aqua Harrison's Columbian Ink,  an "AntiApoplectine Sure Cure for Apoplexy"  and another local cure which I finally dug a replacement for last summer:  "Crescent Cough Cure/ Rockland, ME."  That's all I can think of right now.


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## riverdiver (Jul 24, 2009)

How about this batch, all were dug while river diving and all were sold to the same collector...so I could finance the furnishing of my new house. DR. SWETT'S PANACEA EXETER N.H., 2-teal Staffords master inks 1-large and 1-medium sized. 1-green apple colored Carters 3-mold master ink with pinched pour spout and another Carters in a variation of yellow with the same mold characteristics of the green apple Carters. I say a variation of yellow because all of the different shades I am not familiar with.


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## Dabeel (Jul 24, 2009)

I really wanted  to keep this Boley & Co. Sac City w/ Union Glass Works on reverse but couldn't afford to buy out the guys I was digging with at that time[]

 It had a nice iron pontil on it too!

 regretfully submitted, 
 Doug


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## dollarbill (Jul 24, 2009)

Heres one I kinda wish I kept .American Oil from the first oil well drilled in America.
     bill


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## Lordbud (Jul 25, 2009)

This was brought up in another thread some months ago. I found a Log Cabin Bourbon Kuhls, Schwarke & Co. S.F. with an embossed log cabin (yep, a picture whiskey). It had a crack on the base, and a chip on the back of the lip missing some glass. Traded it for a Mayfield Soda Works hutch soda without damage. After this many years I guess I don't regret it so much anymore but about a month after the trade I realize the other guy got the better deal even with the damage.


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## phil44 (Jul 27, 2009)

this is one I wish I still had


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## pyshodoodle (Jul 27, 2009)

No better cure for drunkenness than Opium and Morphine! Ahh good ole fashioned "stepping stones"!  What a century to live in. No wonder there was a temperance movement!


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## LC (Jul 27, 2009)

Years ago when I was still green to the field of collecting bottles , there was a couple of guys dropped in and wanted to do some trading . I ended up trading a bunch of pontiled Cincinnati sodas for a bunch of lousey peppersauce bottles . I would love to have those sodas back .


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## GuntherHess (Jul 27, 2009)

Thats a great medicine Phil, you found that with Andy about 8 or 9 years ago if I remember right? Did you end up selling it?
 Did you ever do any research on it? It definately worth doing a posting on the medicine site.
 It has it all , cure, narcotics, and picture embossing[]


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## coboltmoon (Jul 27, 2009)

pyshodoodle that bottle is amazing.  Now its on my want list.  Any idea what it sells for?


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## pyshodoodle (Jul 27, 2009)

It's not mine - it's Phil's - I just wanted to look at it right-side up. 

 Phil - any answers for coboltmoon here?


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## phil44 (Jul 27, 2009)

Pyshodoodle, thanks for straightening the picture! The Tremaines bottle is in my top five dug items. The only reason I don't have it now is because I couldn't fathom spending the amount of money I had to spend to acquire my dream bottle. I begrudgingly sold it to the well known Ohio cure collector who advertises in back of the bottle mag. for 1000$ in 2003 or 4. He'd never heard of it until then.  To my knowlege there are no others.

 Gunther, by all means use this picture on your medicine bottle website. One of the reasons I posted it was in hoping you could find something out about it. It came out of was an 1880-90's brickliner in Baltimore. Not positive but Chris V another Balt. digger in on the dig did some looking in city directories and found a Dr.Tremaine in Balt. The bottle had a Pittsburgh glasshouse mark on the base Mc C. which went out of bussiness in the early 1880's.


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## JOETHECROW (Jul 28, 2009)

> ORIGINAL: dollarbill
> 
> Heres one I kinda wish I kept .American Oil from the first oil well drilled in America.
> bill


 


 Bill,...Would you know or remember which well? Was it Job Moses well, or perhaps the Drake well in Titusville? Cool bottle! Joe


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## jays emporium (Aug 4, 2009)

That Tremaines bottle is amazing.  If I found that it might get me back to collecting cures again.  I used to collect them but I too sold my collection of 200+ bottles to that Ohio collector about 10 years ago.  I somewhat regret that now but at that time I was not really interested in Cure bottles anymore.
 $1000. for the Tremaines bottle.  What do you all think it would be worth now?  I wouldn't doubt it might bring $5000 at auction.  Gunther, what would you think?


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## phil44 (Aug 4, 2009)

The photo of the Tremaines makes it look a little larger than it actually is. Between 5&6 inches. It seems that it would go for more now, how much is the question which was also the same question I had right after selling it. The best place to sell a bottle like that is in auction. I figured it went to the right place #1 cure collector.


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## appliedlips (Aug 4, 2009)

Joe, this link will give you the answers. They are cool bottles with alot of history.
 http://www.fohbc.com/images/American%20Oil.pdf







> ORIGINAL:  JOETHECROW
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## appliedlips (Aug 4, 2009)

Phil,

    That is a cool bottle, I had a chance to see it not long ago.  Your right it went to the right place, he is as big as promoter to the hobby and is as happy to share information as anyone I have met.


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## phil44 (Aug 5, 2009)

Doug,

 How prominently is it displayed? is it close to the top of his shelf?? John told me of a warners shaped cure bottle he has that's embossed with a locomotive was it next to that??? Your lucky I'd love to see his cures.


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## CALDIGR2 (Aug 5, 2009)

Too many to mention.


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## appliedlips (Aug 5, 2009)

Phil, They are all very nicely displayed but there are so many I cannot remember the location of any. It was pointed out as one of the favorites,however. The cure with the embossed train is crazy, never even heard of such a bottle before seeing it. It looks exactly like a Warner's, except with a different name and a locomotive driving out of the front of the bottle.


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## tigue710 (Aug 5, 2009)

all of them...

 listed a few more last night...


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## bobpatt (Aug 9, 2009)

Back in the 80's I sold four mini jugs (all of them marked with Texas liqour dealers) because I convinced myself that I was a medicine collector and they didn't fit my collecting category.  I sold them for about 60 bucks apiece.  Have you priced a Texas mini jug lately?   Sob!!!


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