# I didn't dig them, but...



## houseman (Jun 29, 2010)

I ended up with them. 
 I was contacted by some good folks who are cleaning out their father's old farmhouse about some boxes of bottles they found. They offered to let me look through them to see if there were any I might want to buy. They pulled out several boxes of bottles they said their father had dug out of his field over the years. They were covered with mud and ash so I figured he must have been plowing along the edge of a dump. What threw me was that none of the bottles were from the area. The farm is in Snydersville, Pa, but most of the embossed bottles were from the Reading area. They told me repeatedly that he said he had dug them on the farm in Snydersville, although they couldn't tell me where on the farm!
 Oh well, who am I to argue? The guy got them somewhere and here they were! I looked through about 200 bottles and ended up taking home 17 of them. All of these bottles are from outside the are I collect so I'm not very familiar with any of them. I paid $30 for the group...how'd I do? 

 milks
 G.B Maurer / M / Reading, Pa. quart-2 of these
 Farmer's / Fairfield Dairy / Co. pint-Reading area milk?
 River Edge Farms / Guernsey Milk / Reading, Pa. half pint
 J.C. Ziegler / Co. / Reading half pint
 Zigler / Dairy Co. / Reading half pint
 St. Lawrence / Pasteurized / Milk / St. Lawrence Dairy Co. half pint-Reading area milk?
 H.F. Bush / B / Reading, Pa. half pint
 Allentown / Dairy Co. / Inc. quart and half pint

 sodas
 Empire Bottling Works / Reading, Pa. aqua squat
 H.P. Berger / Doylestown / Pa. aqua pony
 Smith's Bottling Co. / Allentown / Pa hutch aqua
 C. Miller / Chelten Ave / Germantown tall aqua blob top-2 of these
 Northampton / Brewing & / Bottling Co. / Northampton, Pa. tall aqua blob top
 A. Edw. Bittner / Manheim, Pa. tall blob top--nice light green!!


----------



## epackage (Jun 29, 2010)

I see a grand slam on paper, pic's would be awesome.....Some of the sodas alone might bring more than what you paid for the whole group IMHO.......Jim


----------



## green dragon (Jun 29, 2010)

Nice  haul.

  PICS please []

  what about the other bottles ? commons or what ? 

  sounds liek you need to get a permission to scout around and dig []

  ~ AL


----------



## houseman (Jun 29, 2010)

I'm soaking the bottles now. They were pretty cruddy. I'll get pictures as soon as I can.

 The rest of the bottles were slicks, damaged, or so common that even I knew they weren't worth taking home. It looked like someone dug out a 20's-30's dump, threw it all in boxes and stuck them in a basement. 
 I'm doubting the "dump at the edge of the farm field" story. These bottles were from over an hour away and there's no possible way dairies in Reading were delivering to this house! It looked like the guy just collected clutter. It was obvious no one ever tried to clean any of the bottles or organize them in any way, so he may have gotten them from someone else just to take up space in his basement!


----------



## David Fertig (Jun 29, 2010)

The Farmer's / Fairfield Dairy / Co.  should be a MD bottle.  They are all over in the shops in south central PA
 Ziegler is fairly common, however there is an earlier version that I need the 1/2 pint of.

 I might be interested on a few of these milks, so if they are for sale, please email me off site.

 Thanks,
 Dave


----------



## blade (Jun 30, 2010)

> A. Edw. Bittner / Manheim, Pa. tall blob top--nice light green!!


 I'd be interested in this bottle,e-mail me if your interested in selling or trading it.


----------



## houseman (Jul 4, 2010)

Here's a group shot of the semi-cleaned blob tops. None are damaged except the Doylestown pony...it has a chip inside the lip. The squat says EMPIRE BOTTLING WORKS / READING, PA. but I haven't been able to get enough gunk out of it to show up.


----------



## houseman (Jul 4, 2010)

I think this green one from Manheim is probably the best in the group. The color doesn't look so great in this picture. It's actually a much brighter green than it looks here. I don't collect bottles from this area. Is anyone familiar with it?


----------



## houseman (Jul 4, 2010)

Here are the half pint milks...the River Edge Farms and H.F. Bush are exceptionally nice!


----------



## epackage (Jul 4, 2010)

I say "WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER"...............GREAT STUFF !!!!!


----------



## madman (Jul 4, 2010)

sweet blobs and milks,got to love those old embossed half pints very nice!


----------

