# E.Priester Richmond Texas blobtop



## diggerdirect (Feb 21, 2011)

Heres another soda or beer dug here in upstate NY embossed E Priester Richmond. Tex., applied top, 'M' on base

 Any info on history of this guy or a time frame?

 Al


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## diggerdirect (Feb 21, 2011)

:


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## texasdigger (Feb 21, 2011)

Do not know much about it, but I would love the chance to buy it if you decide to sell.  I will research it some to see what I can come up with on it.  If you are thinking of selling please let me know.

 Brad


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## texasdigger (Feb 21, 2011)

Just saw you listed it on the bay.  Hope it does well.  There was a Priester saloon in Richmond.  This could be a beer I guess.

 Brad


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## diggerdirect (Feb 22, 2011)

Thanks for all the info. Yes it's listed. I'm more or less obligated to do so. Many of these bottles came from 'Contract Digs' I did last fall. I guess I'm pretty much considered a 'Black Sheep' by diggers, some collectors & even a few dealers, its nothing personal, but the way I work it is, I negotiate terms with the landowner, we sign a contract, I locate the dump or pits, I dig them, I inventory, clean & catalog the items, then sell them at auction, splitting the proceeds with the landowners on a percentage basis. I supply the landowner with listing numbers, urls, ect. so they can watch the items progress & view the results. Its actually quite exciting for many of them..!, on the occassion I turn up something they like, or that I want, the item is valued and just deducted from the end split, works for them, & for me.

 After 39 years of digging/collecting, its just how I roll.

 Good Luck on the bottle if your interested,

 Al  DiggerDirect


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## texasdigger (Feb 22, 2011)

I respect that.  Your bottle should do well.  It is the first one of these I have seen.

 Brad


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## texasdigger (Feb 26, 2011)

Congrats I knew it would do well.  I guess 300-350 so I was right in the area.  There is only one pontiled soda from TEX.  It is marked Conat New Orleans & Galveston TEX.  The only two examples were found in the walls of TEX home.  They are dark green aqua.  It surprises me that they only brought 600.00 or so when they sold.  That seems low to me for a bottle that early, and rare.

 Congrats

 Brad


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## CALDIGR2 (Feb 27, 2011)

If I lived in Texas that bottle would be mine. I hope that you didn't let it get away, Brad, it was relatively inexpensive.


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## texasdigger (Feb 27, 2011)

Nope I let it go. I know the collectors that were after it, and they have deeper pockets than me.  I really only collect Texas patent meds, but I love these blobs second best.  I am glad to see it do so well, and I know someone bought a killer bottle.  If I dug that thing here I would be elated.  Early bottles like this one are dug very very rarely in Texas.  I attribute that to the fact that nobody has ever seriously dug privies here.  The older dumps are near impossible to find.  In 20 years of bottle digging I have only known of 4 dumps that predate 1880 in Texas.  

 I have permission to dig the pits on some 1840-160 houses here in Texas but have not been able to locate the pits.  Either the home is not on any maps or the places that the outhouses are most likely to be are covered by buildings or concrete.  

 One day I will get to dig a pit, but alas the stars have not aligned for me yet.  Caldigs I know it is long shot, but if you are ever in Texas drop me a line.  I would love to have someone with experience like you take a look at some of the home sites we can't find the pits on.  

 I know one of these is just waiting to be unearthed in one of the many undug pits in my state.

 Brad


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## CALDIGR2 (Feb 28, 2011)

That is a WOW bottle! I can imagine that Texas privy pits were located in similar places as those in the rest of the states, so finding them would not be too difficult if sufficient open ground was available for probing. Like you, we have experienced more than our share of "unavailables". Many places are covered by outbuildings, thick concrete, parking lots, and, most of all, plain old no permissions. Some property owners go into palpitations when you mention digging up a outhouse in their yard. others see a gold mine and want you to show them where the pit is and dig it themselves. More than once I have been bilked by this kind of homeowner. You find the pit and then they turn you away and plow it themselves. Usually, though, their greed backfires because they have no idea how to properly excavate a privy and end up thrashing the bottles.

 How is the soil in your neck of the woods? Is it sandy, rocky, clay based, or nice loam like we have hereabouts? If the soil has a definite hard pan layer a few feet down then you know that anything you probe below that has been disturbed. I find that several probe lengths are needed to properly riddle a yard. Some pits can be found with a 4 footer, but some layers are much deeper and a 6 or 7'er is required. It isn't rocket science, it just takes diligence and a never give up attitude. Some times you can stab a piece of ground to death and not find it, but come back another day and, BAM, there it is. You think how in hail did I miss that before? Believe me, that's EXACTLY the way it goes with probing for privies. There are too many variables to list, but experience will tell you what to expect in your area.


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## texasdigger (Mar 1, 2011)

We have two types of soil mostly where I dig.  One we call black gumbo.  It is like sticky black clay when wet, and like concrete that cracks when dry.  The other is sandy red clay mix.  The gumbo seems like it would be the easiest to locate a pit in.  The place we dig that is clay has a 4' diameter depression about 30' from the back door.  We dug some square nails out at about three foot down.  All forms of life stopped right after that.  That house was built in 1846.

 We will keep trying, but it has not been easy.   I am going to look at a lot that backs up to a creek that had two large hotels on it that were built in the 1870's this weekend hopefully.  If I can't find a pit I am sure there is at least a dump on the creek behind where they stood.

 Thanks for your help!

 Brad


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## nhpharm (Feb 15, 2016)

Dug one of these Priester bottles yesterday...the first one I have seen in person and only the second example I am aware of.  Emil Louis Priester was born on May 22, 1835 and died on December 27, 1920.  He arrived in Galveston, Texas on July 8, 1852 on the ship Creole from Germany. It appears that he may have fought in the Civil War under the name Edward Preston, but I can't confirm that.  The next place he shows up is in the 1877 Houston city directory as a baker.  He then shows up in the 1880 census in Richmond under the name Emil Prester, once again as a baker.  In 1884, he is found running a "Bakery and Ice Cream & Soda Water Saloon" in Richmond, Texas.  After this, the trail goes a bit dark but it is clear that his family did live on in Richmond.


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## ACLbottles (Feb 15, 2016)

Awesome find! Could you post a picture? I'm curious to see it.


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## cowseatmaize (Feb 16, 2016)

It's on page 1.
Check out the 3 ads in column 5. First Emil, then the meat market and then City Bakery, Ed Priester Prop.. From 1888, just before the bird war.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth179348/m1/3/


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## nhpharm (Feb 16, 2016)

Thanks for the additional ad!  Edward Priester was born in Houston in 1858 and does not appear to have been related to Emil-must have been interesting having two bakeries run by unrelated people by the same name in a town of only about 1000 people.  I believe Edward actually also lived and had another bakery in Houston at the time.  The Jaybird-Woodpecker War was certainly an interesting incident in local history...maybe Kyle Terry brought the bottle I found to Galveston!  You never know.


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## truedigr (Feb 16, 2016)

You have been on a roll lately. Hope the finds continue for you. RC


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## nhpharm (Feb 17, 2016)

I hope so!  Sunday's dig was a good one though it only turned up one local bottle.  Had a long dry spell so nice to get back into the goodies.


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## Lordbud (Feb 18, 2016)

And I second the motion to include a pic of your recent find...?


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## nhpharm (Feb 22, 2016)

Sorry about the delay...attached are a few photos of the Priester bottle I dug.  Has a very fat blob top compared to the size of the bottle.


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## sunrunner (Feb 22, 2016)

hay free to do what you want , but this is a good example of how bottles have become big business and digging has become so mercenary . one for all ,and all for me.


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## nhpharm (Feb 22, 2016)

I assume that wasn't directed at me?  Or was it?  I'm not the person that started the thread...I just resurrected an old thread that already had some conversation about this particular bottler in the interest of keeping the information on the bottle in the same place.  The bottle I dug is not the same one that is pictured at the start of the thread.


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