# Ravinna Air-Tight fruit jar



## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

I need some help...  I found a fruit jar out diving this week.  It was in a place where I have found pontils in the past but nothing this cool.  It is embossed on one side Air-Tight Fruit Jar and on the other Ravinna Glass Works.  The only thing I can find googling it is a Kovels with no info. Anything you know I would love to know.  How old how good...  It is so crude and very near mint.  It was deep in mud and still had the wax inside the rim.  

 If you need better pictures I will try in the sunlight tomorrow.  

 Thanks,

 Steven


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

Otyher side


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

Pontil


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

top


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## dewdog (May 20, 2010)

Wow!!  Nice jar--Red Book ( If I am looking right) lists it for about $2500 and up.........lol


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## tfredrich (May 20, 2010)

Steve, I told you this thing was sugar!


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## junkyard jack (May 20, 2010)

Very nice jar & very scarce also. It was produced by the Ravenna Glass Works in Ravenna, Ohio circa 1857-1867. Red Book 10 currently lists this jar as follows:
 Quart (Deep Aqua) $3,000 & up.
 Pint (Deep Aqua) $4,000 & up.
 Very nice find.


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

No freaking way!!!  This is the best bottloe/jar i have ever found!  Yes Tom you were right...  I am glad you were there!  Weekday diving. 

 WOW!  

 It is pint sized!  

 Steven


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## dewdog (May 20, 2010)

Most collectors only dream of getting one of those---you are very fortunate--congrats!!!!


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## junkyard jack (May 20, 2010)

Congrats on a great jar find. You have every reason to be excited about finding this jar. This is a superb jar & it has so many attributes that jar collectors love. It's got age (very early jar), good deep color, it is a figural jar (barrel shaped) & it is pontiled. What more could you want in a jar!
 As far as condition goes, the outer lip of the wax channel is smooth and the inner lip of the wax channel of these particular jars is usually quite rough (sheared) & for the most part should not be considered as damaged as this is the way these jars were produced.
 Jars of this caliber just aren't found nowadays. You should be quite proud of finding this jar as it is a very early & important piece in the history of fruit jar production.


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

Hey Dewdog and Jack,

 Thanks for the info. I went out for two and had great luck finding a couple of local meds and a few other interesting things.  Picked my buddy up at the launch and we got skunked for two tanks.  Last tank i found a piece of an antique stove that I recognized as a piece to one I found the base of earlier and I was just happy to have found that and not be skunked on the last tank.  I was working hard in deep mud but content to have at least done found something on my last tank and then BOOM!  Scary thing is I didnâ€™t know and just tucked it into my waistband on my BCD.  Safe but NOT safe enough knowing what I know now.  It still had wax in the rim when I found it.  I peeled it out because we have had bottles break in the sun from stuff in them in this place.  I knew it was good enough to swim over to Tom and show him but we had no clue.  

  It is a day and a find I will not ever forget.  I may not sleep tonight!  AND I left the memory card from finding in my work computer or I could post pictures from the boat that Tom took.  Hey waitâ€¦  I can log into my computer at work from home!
 Be back in a sec!


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## madman (May 20, 2010)

THAT IS A KILLER FIND! WOW! VERY NICE!


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## mrbottles (May 20, 2010)

this is just as i found it.  Like ten minutes after.  Tom who posted here took the picture.  Man Tom i am so glad you made it.  This picture is now one of my favorite all time bottle hunt images.

 Thanks Madman.  In ten years this is the once.  I have fond a lot of good bottles but this is far and away the best jar and the best piece of glass.  

 Steven


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## dygger60 (May 21, 2010)

WOW.....the "powers that be" have smiled on you....what a find!!!!  And PINT to boot....those early jars like that are almost unheard of in pint size.....wow......again congrats.

     David


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## cookie (May 21, 2010)

Congrats--that is one of the top jars...3000+  John


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## idigjars (May 21, 2010)

Congratulations!  Awesome jar.  If the book states $4000 & up for a pint I bet you will get at least  double that.  Pints are tough anyway and to be pontiled.  Now you bring bottle collectors into the mix as well as fruitjar collectors drooling over it.  Good for you.    Good luck finding more good items.  Best regards.  Paul


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## junkyard jack (May 21, 2010)

I tend to agree with idigjars. This jar is hard enough to find let alone to find it in the pint size. I think this one would fetch quite a bit higher than current Red Book value. Quite a few of these very early wax seal jars have had some degree of lip/wax channel resin repairs over the years. Finding this little gem virtually damage-free makes this a very desirable jar. Well done, indeed!!


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## crozet86 (May 21, 2010)

Steven, that has to be the most beautiful fruit jar i have ever seen.Congrats on the find and it is one im sure you will never forget.


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## mrbottles (May 21, 2010)

Thanks for all the incredible feedback.  I canâ€™t believe it.  I am going to dig with my bare hands to China in the morning.  It is likely one of but you never know.  It comes in green and amber too.  Maybe they had an outbreak of botulism and had to throw ten different varieties of similar pontiled fruit jars out.  Howâ€™s that for delusional? 

 I just spent tem minutes looking at every aspect of it with a dive LED light.  Like ten million candle power.  It is awesome!

 Steven


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## JOETHECROW (May 21, 2010)

Great find with that jar Steven...I remember seeing those jars pictured in early bottle books. WTG  Joe


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## surfaceone (May 22, 2010)

Hey Steven,

 Let me add my hosannas to the chorus. 

 Thought you might like to hear the words of Julian Harrison Toulouse, from his book; Fruit Jars, A Collectors Manual:

 "RAVENNA GLASSWORKS

 Circa 1850
 Tooled groove-ring wax sealer
 Handmade round barrel, showing hoops 
 but not staves, with tooled rather than 
 pressed laid-on-ring, with red-black
 bottom discoloration showing the use 
 of a bare iron pontil, in dark blue-green
 Front: three lines: 'RAVENNA,' 'GLASS-
 WORKS,' and 'OHIO'
 Back: 'AIR TIGHT' above 'FRUIT JAR'
 Ravenna Glassworks, Ravenna, Ohio.
 possibly circa 1850-57 or 64.
 McKearin,p. 232, and Kittle, p. 383, 
 discuss this company as the Ravenna
 Glass _Company_, as well as the question
 of an earlier operation than the known
 known dates of 1850-57. This might have been 
 as the Ravenna Glass _Works_.
 This might be the oldest _identified_ fruit
 jar herein listed, although other un-
 lettered and unidentified cork and wax
 sealers may be older." pp- 259-60.


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## Wangan (May 22, 2010)

EXCELLENT!


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## Plumbata (May 22, 2010)

Dude, awesome find! Beautiful jar and to not have the outer rim chipped or cracked is a blessing! I think you need to go back to that spot and carefully probe through every inch of muck in the area, because more may well be waiting for you.

 Woohoo! []


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## mrbottles (May 22, 2010)

Hi Plumbata and Surfaceonce,

 I got that loud and clear.  My two dive buddies are both away this weekend.  I went yesterdayâ€¦  Took the day off to do it and did seven tanks hard labor.  YES seven.  This morning I got up at 4:30 and did five more.  I had two more tanks with me but hands and forearms cramping and utter exhaustion had me done at five. I worked like a human backhoe! There has to be more.  Maybe not a fruit jar but something else of that vintage.  The town I am diving has a open pontiled medicine.  Only one broken example knownâ€¦  I found it privy digging seven years ago.  Alas where I am diving it is difficult to find the same thing twice yet I am fairly certain I spent seven tanks in the right place/area yesterday.  I found some crude bottles but no pontilesâ€¦  Well one it sort of and nothing tell tale that old.  I did find a half dozen oyster tins.  The stuff I have been finding is pretty incredible reallyâ€¦  Maybe I will start another post just about the other stuff.  I am going to take a few better pictures of the jar in the sun today and will post them if they turn out good.  Your info is awesome and I am very grateful.  Mine does not say Ohio.  Tom who posted earlier here speculated the Ohio was added to the latter version.  That is what happened to a number of the earlier sodas from Wisconsin.  Man the money makes me think sell but it is growing on me.  I would have thought there are embossed fruit jars that go back another hundred years.  

 Excellent and Woohoo are a good start to describing the excitement over this one.  

 It does have a few super tiny flea bites on the outer lip but I would say they are nothing to even consider.  If I was buying it I wouldnâ€™t bat an eyelash at themâ€¦  Iâ€™m a picky buyer.  

 One questionâ€¦  The description says red iron in the pontil.  Mine does not have iron but I did nothing to clean it at all other them rinse the mud out in the lake I found it in.  I have some pontiles soda bottles that have no iron either.  Does anyone know?  Was it there initially and wore off or do they sometimes not have iron in them?  I assumed with the one I have at sometime someone unknowingly removed the iron or something.  It is a house bottle.  This jar is exactly as found with no cleaning.  Another weird thing is it smells like privy glass in a way dive found bottles never do BUT it is virtually mint with no need to even tumble.  What gives there?


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## mrbottles (May 22, 2010)

First of new sunlight pictures.  this shows how crude the application at the top is.


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## mrbottles (May 22, 2010)

Air-tight side in sun


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## mrbottles (May 22, 2010)

The llne in through teh lip is a string of little bubbles...  The bottle has some huge ones right in the middle too!

 Steven


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## mrbottles (May 22, 2010)

Can anyone tell me why this pontil has no iron in it?  This is as found.  I have done nothing to clean it.  Was two feet under mud in lake bottom but the bottle is nearly mint...  No oxidization hardly at all.  You can still see some lake bottom inside of it.  i will clean that out soon.   There are 130 tin oyster cans in decent shape.  I don't think this bottle ever had iron in the pontil.  So how was it made?


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## Baydog51 (May 22, 2010)

You bring up an interesting question and of course I don't have an answer. But I just wonder if it's possible that over time in the water if the iron particles just rusted away? Is the water acidic or salty?  Gary


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## mrbottles (May 23, 2010)

Hi gary no...  This water is an inland freshawater lake.  A small one and for the most part everything is coming out in excpetional condition.  Underwater i stuck i felt the pontil but thought it might be nothing because it wasn't rough and i found a lot of bottles with serious kickups in the area tha were nothing 1900ish bottles...  Some sort of long necked unembossed clear glass junker bottle.  This bottle is pristine and i am finding 1870's tin in good shape.  There has to be something more to it.


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## Baydog51 (May 23, 2010)

Well my final guess is that it just didn't transfer any iron. Since we now know that it's defective, I'll still give $50 for it. (Ducking below my keyboard)     Gary


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## mrbottles (May 23, 2010)

Sold... NOT!!!

 I have a pomntiled soda that you can tell has never been cleaned... Like tumbled.  I allways thought someone used acid or something to get the pontil clean back in the day.  With this bottle i can tell you it isn't even cleaned yet and i know of at least a few IP's that came out of the water full of iron.  I have found maybe a dozen open pontils scube diving but never an iron pontil before this. 

 Steven


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## Fruit Jars (May 23, 2010)

Steve,

 Great find.  It would like awefully nice on my shelf.  I collect pint jars.

 Jerry
 "ikeda.jerry@gmail.com"


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## mrbottles (May 24, 2010)

Hey folks,

 I sent a link to this forum thread to a major fruit jar collector. I asked what it is worth and this is what he said. The numbers that people were throwing out here just didn't sound real.  I should have never doubted the experts.  

 "As for your Ravenna pint....I believe it could bring a very strong price, as no flawless examples have come to the market in the last 6-7 years. I would place a pre-sale estimate of 5000-10000. The only way to find out is to put it up for auction and let the market compete for it. Just let me know if I can be of assistance. "

 Pretty incredible.  After being back out there for 15 more tanks of air I am in awe this came out at all.  


 Steven


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## appliedlips (May 24, 2010)

I agree, redbook is often low on truly rare, high end jars. I have gotten over the high book price on every $1000+ jar I've sold. Good luck with it.


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## towhead (May 26, 2010)

JUST INCREDIBLE!!

 And just where exactly did you say this was found?  OHHH, you didn't say?   Heh Heh    -Julie


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## mrbottles (May 26, 2010)

Hey appliedlips...  How do you find more than one four figure jar?  We never find anything good in the jar category out this way.  Well...  Almost never.    Maybe it is just the good ones are not thrown in the water much.  

 HAHAHAHAHA!  Somewhere near Minnesota, relatively speaking.  I think I have nullified the need for secrecy by diving 20 tanks in four days on the spot but why get careless.  People knowâ€¦  They always do.   The best bottle divers in the state are my two partners and they know.  One was there when it came out.  We are all excited to just be getting out this weekend as a team.  I am bringing a shore lunch, Tom is bringing the NA refreshments and Jim is bringing his sorry ass up from the badlands south of the Wisconsin border.  No offense Illinois folks, I mean that in a loving way.  Yes the Midwest is competitive.  I do love Minnesota at least until my all time favorite football player retires.

 If I had to guess what the best bottle I would find this year and up until now would be a fruit jar would not have made the top twenty guess list.  It is really spectacular.  

 Has anyone ever used the national jar auction site?  I am going to sell it.  It belongs with a jar collector and I can parlay it into something very special for my own collection.  

 Steven


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## towhead (May 26, 2010)

Minnesota....your favorite football player....gee, wonder who that is?  Ha Ha.
 I think I need to go down to the Lake and find me one of those jars!  Maybe there's one here too! -Julie


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## Nickevlau (May 26, 2010)

I have heard rumors #4 might play again...., if you send me the jar[].

 Great adventure!!!


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## mrbottles (May 26, 2010)

Hmmm, we might be able to work out a deal.  If he will play in order to help close this deal Minnesota fans would be nuts to not each send me a dollar.  They fill a sixty thousand seat stadium with ol number four running the showâ€¦.  This might be a record breaking jar!  Think you can rally the fan base?  Iâ€™ll call Favre.  Cripes just for the karma sense they should be willing to pony up.


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## GuntherHess (May 26, 2010)

> Can anyone tell me why this pontil has no iron in it? This is as found. I have done nothing to clean it. Was two feet under mud in lake bottom but the bottle is nearly mint... No oxidization hardly at all. You can still see some lake bottom inside of it. i will clean that out soon. There are 130 tin oyster cans in decent shape. I don't think this bottle ever had iron in the pontil. So how was it made?


 
 That appears to be a perfectly good iron pontil scar, it just has no iron residue left, probably from being in water. Sometimes even ones in the ground have little or no residue.


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## mrbottles (May 27, 2010)

Hey Gunther, good to see you here.  

 I guess the pontil oxidizing off is possible but nothing metal down there seems to be that bad off and the glass is mint.  If it landed top down it may have sat exposed for a decade I guess.   Man to swim this place back thenâ€¦  A new pontil med guide?  Did my Fess pontiles from Milwaukee misspelled Milwaukie make it?

 Call this crazy but I will post pictures of the Ravinna fruit jar pontil and my Madison attic mint pontil bottle that has no iron this weekend.  I think they were made with the same pontil rodâ€¦  Is that possible?  It would be incredible to be able to determine who made a pontiled soda by a glass maker marked jar...


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## jarsnstuff (May 30, 2010)

national jar auction site?  Never heard of it.  Did you mean North American Glass, - Greg Spurgeon's site?  There's also Glassworks, American Bottle Auctions, Norman Heckler to name a few.  I'd think you could go with any of those & get good exposure.  -Tammy


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## glass man (May 30, 2010)

WHAT A BEAUTY!! JAMIE


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## appliedlips (May 30, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: mrbottles
> 
> Hey appliedlips... How do you find more than one four figure jar?
> 
> ...


 
    I assure you its not like we dig piles of great jars and we have to root through hoards of 58's and lightnings for every good jar. Here in the midwest we are blessed to have more good jars around than anywhere from pontilled era right into the 1900's.

    Good luck with your jar. Personally, I'd price it high and try to sell it privately first and then auction it if I could not get my price. There have been several major jar collections broken up and sold in recent years and collectors have alot to choose from sometimes allowing some to sell lower at auction because there is so much to choose from. As mentioned above, Greg Spurgeon would the go to guy if going the auction route but there are other choices. I have never used him to sell a jar but have had dealings with him, all pleasant. Good luck and congrats again.


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## cookie (May 30, 2010)

Hi- if you are looking to sell the jar and get the most exposure North American Glass Auctions  would be a great choice. Greg Spurgeon does a tremendous job promoting it and most collectors go on his site..........John


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## darrellp (Jun 1, 2010)

Hey - good for you!  Not too many of these around and they're really desirable.  For comparison purposes, ere's a pic of mine:

 http://www.darrellplank.com/jars/Individual%20Jar%20Pages/Pint%20Ravenna.aspx

 I just double checked and it's got a strong iron pontil on the bottom.  I think yours just dissolved in the water.  You may know better than me if you dive regularly for them, but it seems to me like I've seen this before on bottles brought up from dives.

 By the way, somebody claimed that these come in amber.  I wish!!!  The amber one is the Airtight - no "Ravenna".  A picture:

 http://www.darrellplank.com/jars/Individual%20Jar%20Pages/amber_airtight.aspx

 Get back out there and dig me up an amber one, please!

 Darrell


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## dygger60 (Jun 1, 2010)

I have to agree....NAG is probably your best bet....Greg offers nothing but premium jars and obtains what is probably the strongest prices.

    David


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## mrbottles (Jun 1, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

 Sorry I just took the weekend off of the webâ€¦  I rarely do but kids and the holidayâ€¦  We had a big party and I had to clean the house all Saturday. 

 Yes Tammy Gregâ€™s site.  John if I was going to auction it I think you are correct Greg has an established track record.  Plus four people have said that is the auction site for a jar.    

 Jamie, great to see you here!  It really is spectacular.  Strange because I am not a jar man and I am all Wisconsin but it is growing on me.  

 Appliedlips you are right on with how to sell.  I received some great information with names of some serious collectors today from a very helpful jar collector.  He said there is a 2010 price guide that lists the jar at $7500 and up! â€œThe Fruit Jar Annual 2010 lists your jar for $7,500+.  This is a price guide that comes out yearly by well-known collector Jerry McCann. 

 Darrell that looks familiar.  Is the other side of yours Air-Tight?  When people started looking this up it was confusing at first.  Every different style of the jar is worth tremendously more.  On the amber and green it is not for a lack of trying I havenâ€™t found them both.  My elbows are sore and my wrists are tight from doing the front crawl about 15 miles in two weeks in lake bottom mud.   If I do find one you will be one of the first to know.  

 Thanks for all of the information!  Next step if you know anyone who I should contact with this please let me know who they are.  Any more insight on the jar is welcome.  

 SOâ€¦  Appliedlips knowing what you know about the price guide what do you think that asking price should be?  

 Steven


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## appliedlips (Jun 2, 2010)

Steven,

      I am far from an expert on jar prices, some of the others ( that aren't trying to buy it) probably have better judgement than I. I do know I never get in any hurry to sell an item like that. Personally, I'd drag it to the Muncie, Indiana show and maybe a couple of others and show it and get some feedback. There is no formula on how much below or over book it should bring. If condition is mint other than the inner lip I wouldn't think of parting with it for less than the book price. IMO, the bare iron pontil is not as desirable as if it had full iron but on something so rare I don't think it will hurt. If Phil Smith isn't on your list of collectors he should be. He is a class act and collects pint jars. Pm me if you need his info. Good luck!


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## mrbottles (Sep 2, 2011)

After a year and a half i finally wrote the story of my greatest find bottle hunting.  This forum post is about it and everyone here was a major part of the excitement.  I am the pres of the Milwaukee antique bottle and advertising club.  I write stories for the newsletter every month.  This month it was this story.  Thanks to many of you for being part of the once in a life time excitement!

 Steven


 Air Tight 

 Given the power of the human imagination the title, Greatest Find is very likely the very next find.  Over the years my expectations for a bottle hunt have been on a gradual incline.  Early on, I dreamed of finding another pull up stopper bottle just like the one I found the week before.  What did the raised glass letters say again? Graf?  Yes, Graf, how wonderful would that be?  Another one of those and dare I ask God to assist me in finding one of those round bottom bottles just like my dive buddy found?  How many nights did I lay in sleepless anticipation of the next dayâ€™s treasure hunt with thoughts of round bottom bottles rolling through my head?  

 As time went on the bottle hunt target became more focused.  My imagination learned to ignore the common Graf and round bottom, I would most certainly find, with hopeful anticipation of something different.  Last May I knew I could find a blob soda bottle or a crazy colored bottle or super early beer bottle, I had many times.  The key was picking the right spot and hard work.  Any spot has potential limited only by the bottle hunterâ€™s imagination.  Every bottle diver worth their compressed air knows the difference between failure and success is only a matter of inches.  In looking back I can count thousands of pontiled rarities and extremely rare color variants I missed by the width of a pencil while scouring the murky depths.  I can count with my fingers and toes the times I didnâ€™t miss.    

 Unlike many divers I donâ€™t stick to the spots someone else found or that I know have yielded bottles.  I have spent hundreds of tanks of air simply covering as much surface area as possible hoping to find a spot.  After basic research or suggestions from friends exploration for the refuse of years ago is embarked upon.  After talking to Peter Maas six years ago I decided to try diving Silver Lake.  Peter said there were a couple of old houses on a little strip of shoreline on an early map he has.  

 The first trip was a very cold November day.  Tom Fredrick and Wayne Webber came along just to see what would turn up.  They sat in the dive boat in blustering winter winds with ice forming on the shoreline.   I worked up and down the slope of a gentle drop off my first tank.  The shoreline was very shallow with crystal clear water.  There was nothing to find near the shoreline where we typically focus treasure hunts.  Tom even poured coffee in my neoprene gloves between dives to help get some feeling back in my fingers so I could do a second tank.  It was near unbearably cold.  

 Utilizing my â€˜proprietary spot find methodâ€™ I covered surface area fast clawing as deep as possible into the bottom while clipping along.  The method requires a plunging test hole be dug until there is absolutely nothing man made below my reach in a four foot diameter trench whenever something symmetrical or manmade is touched.  This method is one of the biggest differences in results at the end of a hunt.  Many times, it seems to me, when I personally am unenthused or cold my result is diminished based more on effort than location.  i.e. same spot next dive, better prepared, I find the good stuff.  

 That cold November day I did locate a few trash piles with broken bottles.  I also found a dive knifeâ€¦  A sign of previous intrusion by divers.  Nothing chills the magic of a spot like leftovers from other divers.  The imagination goes from exploration of uncharted territory to drunken pirates smashing pontiled rarities as they curse and laugh at the respectable divers who will find nothing after their plunder.  One broken piece of glass was intriguing enough to mark the spot worthy of future rainy day exploration.  The broken piece of glass was a dark teal utility cylinder with a big open pontil and a killer crude application of the lip.  It was broken and considering the dive knife, this spot could wait.

 Flash forward to the summer of 2009.  Tom Fredrich cashed those rainy day chips in and headed out to Silver to see what that spot had to offer.  Tom found an old fishing reel.  We find them all the time.  This reel was different.  This reel was made with a very high nickel content alloy and was extremely rare.  Tom sold it for a whopping $1800.  Once I knew MY spot was being exploited I had to get back out there.  For non divers, yes, that is how we all thinkâ€¦  They are our spots once we find anything.   Doesnâ€™t matter who was there before or after us.  

 Jim Koutsoures and I ripped some pretty nice streaks in the bottom of that area fall 2009.  It was cold and the weather just would not cooperate.  One day in particular we got back to the boat launch freezing to discover my dive gear was not in the boat.  The very next morning, at the crack of dawn, Jim and I went out in search and rescue mode.  Jim found by BCD, tank and regulator twenty minutes into our first tank in fifteen foot deep water.  Right where I left it.  

 On one of the last dives of the year 2009 I found a box full of bottles as I was sucking my tank out of air at 25 feet.  I lovingly stuffed my cumber bun full of bottles, gently felt at least a half dozen more, stuck my float handle in the mud hard and headed for the surface to swim back to the boat and get a fresh tank.  Half way to the surface I felt a restriction on my assent.  I was horrified to realize my fin was caught in my float line!  This spot has an uncanny knack for playing this sort of trick.  At that point I had no choice but to continue to the surface.  When I surfaced a blustery 30 degree 20 mile per hour winter wind caught my face.  My float line handle was right next to me at the surface.  Disgusted and breathing freely again of surface air I reconsidered my â€˜choiceâ€™ grabbed my float line handle and headed down to anchor it anywhere close to MY lovely box of treasure.  Biting on my regulator I flipped upside down kicked hard and started my decent.  At maybe eight feet my pre-surfacing choice returned.  Continue, mark my spot and establish my rightful claim to this treasure chest, or turn back, LIVE,  and triangulate my position at the surface in hopes of finding the spot again. I have triangulated at the surface beforeâ€¦  I KNEW it was the wrong option IF I wanted the remainder of the mother-load.  On the other side of that coin:  I had no air in my tankâ€¦  NONE.  Going down was taking a real chance with my life.  I literally thought of my wife and kids and decided to take my chance with surface triangulation.  

 Insanely, because of a deceiving bottom structure, that box took me 25 more tanks to find.  After multiple trips out Jim consoled me it was there just waiting for me but I could tell he was becoming convinced I was mistaken.  I was overwhelmed with by the possibility Jim was going to find it and place a rightful claim on MY treasure chest.  The lake froze and all winter that box tormented my dreams.  When I finally found it April of 2010 it was delightfully stuffed with beautiful green pickle jars (See my collection on mrbottles.com) and a wonderful eagle embossed Oconomowoc medicine bottle.  As incredible as the box story is, in and of itself, the box and its contents are nothing more than an aside to this story.

 Flash forward to May 2010.  I went to my in-laws house in the morning to till their garden.  I did it by hand in record time.  I was dirty and sweaty so I headed home to shower before work.  I knew Tom was going to be heading out that day for a dive.  If I could make it we would hit Silver.  Work could wait, I called Tom on the way and we were on.  

 I hit Silver for one tank before he could make it then picked Tom up at the launch.  In the first two tanks I had a couple of large Race Oconomowoc medicine bottles and some interesting things including a really cool lid to a cast iron stove I had found different pieces of over many different dives (another very cool story) but nothing out of this world of its own merit.  I honestly canâ€™t remember what Tom found. I do have a good reason for that;

 On that third tank Tom was out deeper trying to relocate a pile of DSGC applied blob tops he had found on a previous dive.  I was working my method, on a cover as much territory as possible rout, heading toward Tom.  I was plowing about two feet into the soft silt when I brushed something hard yet smooth with just my finger tips where nothing should be.  YES, my adrenal gland fired off heart rate increasing, euphoria inducing endorphins.  Slipping my hand around the object revealed what was most likely a jar.  A small odd feeling jar.  This spot had yielded many un-embossed jars.  This one was not familiar as so many of the less desirable bottles are.  I carefully placed it in my cumber bun.  I stuck my hand deep in the mud again for bearing and immediately found a lamp with a bust of a lady in perfect condition.  I reeled at the prospect of having found the North American Atocha yet there was nothing more to be had.  I plowed in a circle as I always do after a find and bumped a box just as I felt the, now impossible to ignore, pull of low air in my tank I had been trying to ignore as I found the jar moments before.  I headed to the surface, put the lamp in my float, felt for then gently pulled the jar out of my cumber bun.    

 Not often does the adrenalin rush you feel when you touch anything deep under the silt get surpassed on the same find.  In this case, seeing the jar at the surface was dumbfounding.   I knew at first glimpse it was good.  By that I mean it was not in the realm of normality for a dive find.  It was deep blue aqua, barrel shaped, had an incredible crude applied wax seal â€˜lip thingâ€™ with wax still inside and was PONTILED!  My heart was in my throat as I swam for where Tom was diving just one hundred feet away.  I got there pulled on Tomâ€™s float line and waited the eternity it took him to ascend.  It is a long standing tradition to share the thrill of hunt days by showing your finds to your partners.  Very seldomly have a swam to a diver to show them a find while they are still diving.  

 When Tom surfaced I toyed with him as to what I found holding it underwater and making him guess.  He knew it was something good by my expression yet in a trillion guesses he would not have guessed it.  We rarely find jars and they are never good when we do.  When I pulled it out of the water and showed him, Tom simply said, â€œWOW that IS a good one.â€  I asked how good and he said, â€œAt least $600.â€  I said, â€œE lovingly Really you think that is all?â€  Tom said well, â€œMaybe $1000 or even $2000.  Would you sell it for two thousand?â€  I held it out toward him and said, â€œIs that an offer?â€ Tom laughed and said, â€œUh no.â€œ He congratulated me, I wished him luck on the balance of his tank, turned and swam slowly back to the boat  as I peeled funky wax out of the rim for fear it would heat up and damage the jar.  

 The jar is an extremely rare, half pint, barrel shaped (figural) Ravenna Glass Works, Air Tight Fruit jar in virtually perfect condition.  Iron pontiled, beautiful, deep, rich, lustrous glass without so much as a scratch and incredibly crude.  The kind of example collectors especially like.    

 We had no way to know what it was really worth.  I called a local collector with deep national knowledge, Jeff Burkhardt, on the way home from the dive.  Jeff thought it might be good but thought it sounded fairly common, like he knows they are out there. Tom thought I should post it on the antique bottles dot net forum and let those guys figure it out.  He said they love to look stuff up and figure things out.  

 I posted pictures and a description.  The first guy said $2500.  The next guy said no that is the pint not quart and it is worth $4500 and up but his Red Book on jars is pretty old.  After a few hours more a guy posted it is a historic American jar and very desirable AND is likely worth double or $8000! A couple of people messaged me from the site with the definitive appraisal coming from one who said the jar is listed in Jerry McCannâ€™s 2010 fruit jar buyers guide as having a value of $7500 â€œand upâ€!  

 I contacted Jerry who said yes indeed it is a super rarity and an excellent example.  He advised me, â€œIf you sell do not sell it for less than $7500.â€  He said, â€œIt will only be worth more in the future.â€  All I could think is $7500? WOW.  

 For now it is a cherished part of my collection.  The only non Wisconsin embossed bottle or jar of any significance.  Someday the Air Tight may find its rightful place in a fruit jar collection.  For now my Ravenna Glass Works Air Tight Fruit Jar is perched front and center, a vigilant reminder, the next one I will find is a lot less likely to be my greatest find.


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 2, 2011)

Really cool story and great bottles to boot!


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## surfaceone (Sep 2, 2011)

Hey Steven,

 Excellent story of a truly great find. We heard it here second, well maybe 7th, folks, but we heard it soon after. Thanks for letting us revisit the Ravenna Air Tight dive.




From

 What Ravenna iron might'a looked like...


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## rallcollector (Sep 2, 2011)

Looks like Greg has THE jar listed for auction on his site.  Here's the link;
 http://www.gregspurgeon.com/auction/detail.asp?id=2955&pic=0#img
 Would love to own it.  A very nice example.
 Paul


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## rallcollector (Sep 2, 2011)

OOPS!  Meant to imply 'a similar example'...not the dive recovered jar.  Once I posted it, I couldn't edit the words.


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## Wheelah23 (Sep 2, 2011)

That is an absolutely amazing, uplifting story! We can all dream of finding something so wonderful! Well written to boot. It totally conveys the emotions you were feeling at the time. Great job!


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## mrbottles (Feb 26, 2012)

Hi folks,

 I have decided to let this one go to the kind of collection it belongs in.  It is on eBay as of right now.  If you knwo someone interested please let them know.  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220963836663 

 Everyone here has been a big part of the story on this piece.  

 Thank you!

 Steven


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## georgeoj (Feb 26, 2012)

A great jar! I will get it started but the jar will go far above my price limits. Good luck. George


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## dygger60 (Feb 26, 2012)

Good luck with your auction.......may the sky be the limit......

    David


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## deenodean (Feb 26, 2012)

great story! all the best with the auction!


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## mrbottles (Feb 26, 2012)

Hi Georeoj,

 It is a serious bid.  You never know.  There are already 45 watchers.  Usually that means a lot of bids coming.  Thanks for rolling it out if that is you.  It took me years to be willing to pay anything for a bottle.  Now I regularly set records for Wisconsin bottles.  At some point I just came to think I want to appreciate what I have and thirty incredible bottles is more to appreciate than 1000 really good bottles.  Yes people go both ways on that one but I really enjoy the ones I had to sell hundreds to afford.  I hope you do win it if it is one you would love!

 Dean and David, thanks for the kind wishes.  It is one of those bitter sweet times.  Even though it is an incredible piece of early American figural glass it is not as awesome to me as the least of my colored sodas or pontiled Wisconsin rarities.  My collection is all Wisconsin.  The attraction to me is that it is so rare and I found it.  This one will be more appreciated by a serious fruit jar or early American glass collector than it is by me.  That is reason enough to let them have it.  

 It is one of the cooler bottle find stories i know of and an example of the power of this forum.  Is there anything the people here canâ€™t figure out or donâ€™t know?

 My best,

 Steven


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## bottlediger (Feb 27, 2012)

I once found an aqua mason 1858


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## bottlebuddy (Feb 27, 2012)

Verry cool Jar! Thank's for shareing. I'm droool'n.


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## mrbottles (Feb 29, 2012)

Hey folks,

 The jar auction is just about half over.  There are 103 watchers.  Anyone have a clue how watchers translates to bids in the end?  I think the most watchers I have ever seen on one of my auctions is about 40.  

 Steven


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## cookie (Feb 29, 2012)

It' s anybody's guess as far as watchers go...it's a fabulous jar.....I hope it does great.


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## JOETHECROW (Feb 29, 2012)

Steven...I remember when you posted that dive,...What a great find...I don't know jars that much, but it looks like it's doing pretty well. Best of luck with it.


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## epackage (Mar 1, 2012)

> ORIGINAL:  mrbottles
> 
> Hey folks,
> 
> ...


 There's no set ratio, many times a great bottle will get ton of views because people wanna check out Rare Bottles...


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## sandchip (Mar 2, 2012)

> ORIGINAL:  mrbottles
> 
> Can anyone tell me why this pontil has no iron in it?  This is as found.  I have done nothing to clean it.  Was two feet under mud in lake bottom but the bottle is nearly mint...  No oxidization hardly at all.  You can still see some lake bottom inside of it.  i will clean that out soon.   There are 130 tin oyster cans in decent shape.  I don't think this bottle ever had iron in the pontil.  So how was it made?


 
 Steven, more than likely your iron pontil mark is just as it was made.  Watching a blacksmith work would give you a good idea of what went on during its manufacture.  Rust is a form of iron oxide formed slowly, while the scale rapidly forming on red-hot iron is another.  One is ferrous oxide, the other is ferric oxide, and I'm not sure which one's which.  The scale that forms on a red hot iron ball on the end of the pontil rod lying in the furnace, becomes embedded in the glass on the bottom of the bottle being empontilled.  The hot, sticky glass pulls the iron oxide (scale) off the pontil rod, whereas a blacksmith would wirebrush it off the piece he's working on.  How much iron oxide remains on the bottom of a bottle depends on how fast the glassblower is working, the temperature of the pontil rod and how often he reheats it, the grade of iron in the ball on the end of the rod (which probably determines the color of the pontil marks on our bottles), and the timing of which lucky bottle pulls the oxide off the pontil rod.  A dark, heavy IP mark was probably on the jar blown immediately preceding the superfine jar that you found.  The rod was probably hot enough to adhere to your jar without having to reheat, but no more scale had formed at the time it was stuck.


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## mrbottles (Mar 2, 2012)

Hi Jimbo,

 That makes perfect sense and has been a hard thing to understand considering the jar is so minty and there is no iron AND i found two pontils loaded with iron in the same place similarly buried...  Both broken.  Also all of the old metal with little to no oxidization.  At depth in fresh water there is not enough oxygen to break metal or even paint on metal down.  

 I have another pontiled soda that looks the same that is actually attic mint with no iron too.  

 Thank you for explaining it.

 It is at 127 watchers right now. 

 Steven


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## mrbottles (Mar 4, 2012)

Hi Jimbo,

 A eBay user just asked the question you answered tonight.  Thanks for the information.  I actually cut and pasted your answer into the eBay reply.  

 It is up to 163 watchers.  For my auctions that is flat out an all time record times 4.  

 Should be a fun one to watch close at a little after noon central time tomorrow. 

 Steven


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## dygger60 (Mar 4, 2012)

It is doing nicely....I will be watching it end today that is for sure.....although well out of my ball park...I have always thought it a fantastic little jar....

              I think it is going to finish BIG....ya watch....the big boys are out there warming up there trigger fingers (or snipe programs in this case) either way....hope  ya have an awesome finish.....

       David


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