# Strange Straight Sided Coca Cola Bottle & Other Digs



## nhpharm (Oct 4, 2016)

Went out this weekend digging...got into a privy right off that was circa 1900-1910 but it was pretty clean.  Just one local beer and a strange straight sided Coca Cola bottle in it...just has a big script "Coca-Cola" embossed near the base and the diamond with a C for Chattanooga Glass.  We dig broken straight-sided Coca-Cola bottles from Houston and Galveston fairly often (almost never whole) but I've never seen a generic like this one.  Anyone have any information?

After this, I found a strange 1870's trash pit where the outside of the trash pit had been lined with bottles placed neck down in the ground.  There were about 70 bottles, mostly big wines, big beers, big food bottles, and so forth, all from the late 1870's.  Mostly slicks, but I did find two examples of the TX280.5 hutch soda (both fitted with gravitating stoppers); this bottle was unreported until we dug a damaged example back in March of 2015.  I was over the moon to dig an intact example of this extremely rare local!  Also found a couple of Hostetters, a ring neck sho-fly style quart flask (I've been told these are Lyndeborough?), and a broken food bottle that is embossed "Mexican Gulf Shrimp & Fish Preserving Co. New Orleans" that I have never seen before.  Overall a fun dig!


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## ACLbottles (Oct 4, 2016)

Cool bottles! That Hutch is really nice. I've seen a few Cokes like that one, but I don't have a whole lot of information for you. I do know that those Cokes without cities embossed tend to be less desirable and therefore have less value, as you may already know. No idea where those more generic types came from.
Are you going to the Waco show on October 22?


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## hemihampton (Oct 4, 2016)

I think that bottle had a gravitating stopper because it looks like a gravitating stopper bottle, Don't look like a hutch? Nice bottle though. Congrats.  LEON.


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## ACLbottles (Oct 4, 2016)

hemihampton said:


> I think that bottle had a gravitating stopper because it looks like a gravitating stopper bottle, Don't look like a hutch? Nice bottle though. Congrats.  LEON.



It definitely does look more like it would use a gravitating stopper in shape, but it doesn't look like it has the base embossing which most gravitating stoppers have. I could be mistaken, but I believe they're classified as Hutches unless the base embossing is present (at least on Hutchbook).


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## RIBottleguy (Oct 5, 2016)

Great finds! I wouldn't trust hutchbook as the absolute authority on what is/isn't a hutch, they have listed a few from RI that definitely aren't hutches.


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## nhpharm (Oct 5, 2016)

I might make it to Waco...hard to say.  Our third child is due that following week so likely I'll be close to the house (which Waco is not).

It's classified as a hutch because of the lack of base embossing.


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## hemihampton (Oct 5, 2016)

I got 3 Gus Wolf bottles from Detroit. 2 I dug myself & 1 I bought at a bottle show. All 3 of these looked like gravitating stopper bottles, well 2 did & the other one did not look like a hutch or Gravitating stopper. All 3 did not have the Mathews Gravitating Stopper embossing on bottom. And all 3 came with intact original Hutchinson Stopper. 2 I dug out of a 130 year old Privy Myself so I know they are original. Because they were found with the Hutch stopper & no Gravitating embossing I had these listed on Ron Fowler's Hutchbook.com site. NOW, If I was to find all 3 of these with a Mathews Gravitating stopper in them, I might be more inclined to call it a gravitating stopper bottle. Just my opinion, Others may vary, No Insult Intended. LEON.


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## nhpharm (Oct 5, 2016)

Leon,

I know there has been a lot of back and forth previously on these transitional bottles...Ron had to draw the line somewhere and I think where he drew that line was a good choice.  TX0278, which is another Galveston bottle from the same bottler that is identical in profile to this bottle is nearly always found with a hutch stopper, though I've found them with a gravitating stopper and even found one with a gravitating stopper in the bottom and a hutch stopper in the neck.  Typically, bottles that had gravitating stoppers in them come to market minus the stoppers, so their original closure method is less obvious than bottles that still have a hutch stopper jammed in them.  My suspicion (and Ron's as well) is that this bottle was used by Cortes as a gravitating stopper bottle, but it was capable of taking a hutch stopper and does not have the gravitating embossing on the base, so it has been classified as a hutch for the purposes of the Hutchbook.


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## hemihampton (Oct 5, 2016)

Yes,. Me & Ron had a similar discussion on my Detroit Gus Wolfs. What I wanted to know was the Gravitating stopper bottle mold modified to eliminate the Mathews Gravitating embossing because they knew they were going to refit these older outdated 1870's bottles with the newer 1880's Hutch Stopper (Actually 1879+) ???????? LEON.


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## nhpharm (Dec 19, 2016)

Here is a photo of the "Mexican Gulf/Shrimp/And/Fish Preserving Co./New Orleans" bottle I dug a few months ago.  Can't find anything about these folks or another example of this bottle...dug in a late 1870's pit.  Wish it was whole!


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## sandchip (Dec 20, 2016)

nhpharm said:


> Here is a photo of the "Mexican Gulf/Shrimp/And/Fish Preserving Co./New Orleans" bottle I dug a few months ago.  Can't find anything about these folks or another example of this bottle...dug in a late 1870's pit.  Wish it was whole!



Cool as heck and would be on the shelf even if it is damaged.  Great embossing!


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