# What was that first bottle you found that got you hooked?



## adshepard (Jan 28, 2007)

So what was the first bottle you found that got you hooked?  Mine was this nice _Dr. Manly Hardy's - Jaundice Bitters - Bangor, ME _that I pulled from the waters of Eastport, Maine.  Haven't found something as good since but I've been plenty happy with what I have found.

 Alan


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## Jim (Jan 28, 2007)

Mine was a common small-size clear Vapo-Cresolene poison. It was lying right on the ground along the river. I was 11 years old. To this day, it's worth maybe $5 on a good day, but it got me hooked! I still have it. When I find those things today, I often give them away, but that first one will always be special. ~Jim


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## wvhillbilly (Jan 28, 2007)

Mine was an old Schmulbach Brewing Co bottle I found in the yard, I had found some ACLs before that but they never quite hooked me.


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## bearswede (Jan 28, 2007)

The bottles that stand out from my diggin days (back in the early '70's), are:

  Bogles Hyperion Fluid For The Hair
  Cardinal inks
  C.A Richards (unlabled bitters)
  Congress & Empire Spring (Saratoga M.W.)

  Ron


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## tiqhuntr (Jan 28, 2007)

Hey Bear;  We must be close to the same age. My "hook" was in '68. I was helping my father paint his house, 15th of August. I had killed 4 squirrels that morning and told him I wanted to run out to the edge of town and complete my limit of 5 and be back to help. There was a huge hickory in the front of the woods that always had squirrels in it so that is where I headed. One was cutting on a nut and as I was backing around looking up I heard a crunch that sounded like glass. I glanced down and there was this blue bottle. After getting the squirrel I decided to take the bottle and see if he would like it. It was a strong cobalt open pontil with ground glass stopper. There was some others so I added them to the game bag and headed home. Dad was 15 foot up the ladder painting the eave when I sad "Dad check out this old bottle I just found". He came down the ladder faster than any squirrel I have ever seen unassing a tree. Painting was over and we went to the site and dug it out that day. I am hooked for life. Don't dig much any more, but since I have found this site I am getting the bug again.


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## capsoda (Jan 28, 2007)

Back in 67 or 68 I found an amber chemical bottle and a Real McCoy oiler cup. Shortly after a dam broke on a lake near by and revealed bottles from one end to the other from 1930s back to the early 1800s.


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## bottlenutboy (Jan 28, 2007)

the ones that got me werent mine and were found in the 70's they were my uncles he brought some to my house for some reason or other and i just fell in love they are mostly commons he had about 250 then and now he has more than that that was in 2005 so im still a "newbie" i guess but i know more than the average bear because in all that time i have dedicated my whole life to research and trying to find more i have learned a very huge portion of what is known about crown soda's which is where my real passion lies although i do collect other things that i find interesting


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## madman (Jan 28, 2007)

ithink it was a fletchers castoria and a sauders extract sticking straight up out of the ground mike


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## Road Dog (Jan 28, 2007)

Back in 1972 dug a SS Coca Cola Elizabeth City N.C.


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## bottlenutboy (Jan 28, 2007)

the first "good" bottle that i personally dug was a fletcher's castoria ca. 1890s in a TOC dump where everything was busted


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## whiskeyman (Jan 28, 2007)

The one that got me "interested" I found while seeking out a cave to explore. It was a Paul Jones, FedLawForbids flask...with the fellow in the Tri-corner hat...ships,etc.
 The one that "hooked me" was an amber BIM St.Andrews Wine of Life Root...a local bottle for me.


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## BRIAN S. (Jan 28, 2007)

Well for me ..... It was a 3 piece mold , sun colored amythest , unembossed Whiskey . That I found while looking over some small islands in Tampa Bay. 
 But I was always around bottles ..... as my Grandfather had been collecting even before I was born. So really I guess I should thank my Grandfather for the Bottle Bug !!!


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## southern Maine diver (Jan 29, 2007)

Hey Alan...

 Mine was a pink coraline algae encrusted 1/2 pint Stoddard "Double Eagle" from 22' of water in Kittery, Maine[8D]

 It got me more than hooked... I then became obsessed and I still am[&:]

 Wayne


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## zanes_antiques (Jan 29, 2007)

For me it wasn't just one bottle but a whole collection of milks. I stopped at a yard sale one day and they had over 500 milks set up all at $10 each. I knew some milks brought good money so I asked if they'd sell the whole collection for one money. I ended up paying about $3 each for around 2000 bottles. Once I got the bug though it spread to all other types of bottles and then digging. Thank goodness for that yard sale!


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## unclenutsy (Jan 29, 2007)

Unfortunately this was mine


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## zanes_antiques (Jan 29, 2007)

Now that's funny!


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## Precious Little (Jan 29, 2007)

My 6" brown BIMAL Cabot's Sulpho-Napthol, dug on the family homestead in Maine, 1972. I was 9, I think. My brother, sister, and I were hunting frogs or digging clay or something, and I happened to see this strange, rectangular brown bottle base in the streambed. Half an hour of excavation later, I had my first bottle and the bug. Happy to report I still have both.


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## lexdigger (Jan 30, 2007)

When I first got interested in collecting antique bottles I had found alot of newer stuff exposed on a construction site. I brought alot of it home and began to research to only find out that it was "junk" newer stuff. After a little more research I began to discover the world of privy diggers and bottle collectors. I was is awe of all the early glass they were digging. I made it a goal to try and find a place to dig bottles like that (toc and earlier). It took me about a year, but I finally found a dump with bottles sticking out of the ground. I didn't have a probe and had never dug, so I surface hunted it for many weeks finding marbles, stoppers, and small unembossed bottles laying around after a rain. I asked the property owner for permission to dig the site and was given the go ahead. On my first dig ever I created what would be equivalent to a test hole now. I only dug two keepers that day, but I was so happy to finally see some old bottles in my hands. The first keeper of the day was a nice little Turlingtons Balsom of Life. I also dug a Dr. Otto's Spruce gum Balsam along with several unembossed druggists and meds. I spent about six months digging in that dump. It ran about two blocks and went about 15 feet deep. There's a warehouse sitting on top of it now. I've dug thousands of bottles since then, some good and alot of junk, but to this day that first little med is still one of my favorites. I've only been digging for three years but have dug in many dumps, privies, and cisterns. I've also got a couple of friends hooked as well. I've been very lucky and had alot of fun! Chris


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## CrewelaDeVil (Jan 30, 2007)

Mine was an aqua strap sided flask-no embossing.  My mother and I found a victorian age dump for our town while hiking.  We dug it and got a lot of cool bottles out of there-nothing spectacular but we liked them. Then 5 years back I bought a farm and found the dump. My fave is a little bottle with a horse head embossed (screw-top) and the flasks and inks and meds lol  Mine are all packed away at the moment  (moving). Can't wait to open those boxes. I will post some pics when I do.


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## akronmarbles (Jan 30, 2007)

Here's mine - I found it at my grandparents farm in NY - latet my grandfather took me to the Batavia auction barn where he worked and he hooked me up with about 4 big boxes of bottles - all common stuff but I was in heaven.
 I have always wanted to find one like this that is pontiled - I love the shape of this bottle and how it gets wider at the very bottom.


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## epgorge (Jan 30, 2007)

God, I feel bad, I can't remember. I guess I have something to think about the next few days. They say the memories the first thing to go.
 Ep


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## crkgrl (Jan 30, 2007)

It was more the sites, than the bottles, that hooked me originally. Found some old bottle dumps behind the house we grew up in.  It was like a time machine and I loved it.  

 Best bottle found, would have to be the American Brewery ocean blue soda bottle, (1918), on the desert island last year.  After trudging around that muggy, god forsaken mosquito swamp all day; there it was.   Standing half buried, upright in the sand, just below the water surface. Pretty exciting, although it was a common bottle.


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## #1twin (Jan 31, 2007)

I was disking up a lane through the woods on our property in the country about 6 yrs ago. On the slope of the small creek bottom I noticed some cork top bottles that I had kicked up with the disk. They were all common, like Rawleigh's, Castoria and plain long neck slinder bottles, which I think were sauce or food. I grabbed a flounder gig and started poking the ground. I ended up with about 30 cork top bottles and made a bigger plot for the deer. I have been digging and obsessed with it every since then. I just wish I had started at a younger age like Warren did
  Thanks,  Marvin "the mole".


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## crkgrl (Jan 31, 2007)

What the heck is a "flounder gig"?


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## bottlenutboy (Jan 31, 2007)

its similar to a frog gig but for flounders


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## bottlenutboy (Jan 31, 2007)

it is a three pronged fork with a long handle for stabbing frogs with so you can collect up some frog legs for supper  lol but seriously


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## capsoda (Jan 31, 2007)

Down here it has to have 5 prongs and a 5" spread.


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## Bottleman (Jan 31, 2007)

Mine was a Triloids poison bottle that I dug from under the old smoke house on our farm when I was 12. Ever since I was a little kid I was always interested in finding artifacts. I still have the bottle but unfortunately itâ€™s broke into a couple of pieces now.


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## downeastdigger (Jan 31, 2007)

What a great thead!   I guess I'd have to say mine was a pint S.O. Dunbar Taunton Mass master ink.  I remember that it was at that point, when I was 12 years old, long ago, that I understood what a pontil was.  
 I had the bottle for a few months before I realized it was a master ink bottle when I found it in my Kovells price guide. It said it was worth $52,  I almost passed out!  I showed my Dad, and he said, "no one would ever pay that much for a bottle". I've been proving him wrong ever since.  I think I sold it for twice that.  Now I wish I had the bottle. Never sell any really good bottle that you dig, you'll never get as much as it's worth to YOU.

  Get that ground thawed out so I can DIG !


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## Gunsmoke47 (Feb 1, 2007)

The bottle that hooked me...... I didn't even dig!  My metal detecting buddy poped it out of the ground while we were looking for Military artifacts. It was an unembossed medicine ca.1880.  But what transpired in the months to come was awe inspiring. I have loved old glass ever since. I actually study it. I have spent $400.00 on books just to study it! How crazy is that? Unfortunately I live in an area where "OLD" glass is very scarce. One of these days I'm gonna take a two week long vacation and head East Noreast. I will expect my buddies on this forum to put me up for a night or two, take me diggin for some New England glass, and I'll buy the steaks and whiskey![] Whut da yall say?  Kelley


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## crkgrl (Feb 1, 2007)

Thanks for explaining the flounder gig.  Maybe we have a catfish gig here.


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## #1twin (Feb 1, 2007)

A flounder gig is a straight pole about 4' long with a pointed steel rod in the end about 8 or 10 inches long. Much like a probe. You walk along the beach at night, with a lantern at low tide, and gig flounders with it. You can pick up soft shell crabs at the same time. Man those crabs are good fried. It ain't no frog gig ya'll[][][]

 Thanks, Marvin


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 1, 2007)

You do know Ohio has some nice bottles too and I really like a good steak.


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## deepwoods (Feb 1, 2007)

A SS Amber Coca Cola Bottling Works Rochester, NY found in Oatka Creek while trout fishing in December (guess they dont call us nuts for nothin).


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## Gunsmoke47 (Feb 1, 2007)

Hey Zane, Ohio is East Noreast of me![] The steaks would be a done deal! The whiskey would be too as long as you didn't try to post something on this forum afterwards. HEE HEE.


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## DIGGER DAVE (Feb 1, 2007)

Davis Vegetable was the first bottle I fell in love with !!
 Very common I know but I still love any bottle with a " Davis " lip. Also no matter how many I dig I cant get myself to part with them. I enjoy comparing the differences between them !!! 8 MORE WEEKS TO HEAVEN GUYS !!! Best of luck to all !!!!!!!


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 1, 2007)

Hey now Gunny, Cap says he loves reading my drunkin' posts.


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## JustGlass (Feb 4, 2007)

The first corker I dug was when I was around seven yrs. old and if my parents ever knew I was digging in a pile of rusty cans and broken glass they would have grounded me for life. This neurosine bottle could have alot to do with my bottle addiction although it wasnt until my late 20s that I started getting serious about old bottles. Heres the neurosine bottle I found when I was seven, after all these years I still have it.


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## JustGlass (Feb 4, 2007)

Heres a bottle that really started getting my bottle blood flowing. I found this one in my late 20s and my collection grew from there.


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 4, 2007)

Nice early druggist.


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## logueb (Feb 17, 2007)

Here is a pic of the one that got me hooked.  Found it in a log crib where the house had burned years earlier.  The crib was packed full of bottles, jars and stone jugs.  I took this one and tried to locate the owner of the property.  At age of 15 years old I was reluctant to take more.  Before I could locate the owner, a bulldozer wiped out the crib[].  Broken glass everywhere.[X(].  I always say that I saved this one from the dozer.[]


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## logueb (Feb 17, 2007)

Close up of the base.


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## logueb (Feb 17, 2007)

Close up of glass seal.


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## alan23t5 (Feb 17, 2007)

the amber beer was one of the first bottles that really got me hooked, i wasnt feeling good that day and dug a hole 4-5 feet straight down, i about passed out and my buddy dug this up for me, and im really thxfull he got me into this hobby, u know who u r, hope u get that jackpot you've been waiting for down there


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 18, 2007)

Nice whiskey Buster


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## logueb (Feb 19, 2007)

Thanks Zane,  Any idea as to the age and value of the Paul Jones whiskey.  Is this a mold-blown or free-blown bottle?  When you hold it to a light you can see the rings up the sides from the blowing process and there are no mold seams anywhere.


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 20, 2007)

Maybe it's a "Turn-Mold". I'm not sure of the process involved in making them but your bottle appears to have a mold mark on the bottom (raised bump).


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## epgorge (Feb 20, 2007)

Hey guys,
 Here is a great site for seal bottles written by Richard Morcom.
http://www.glswrk-auction.com/034.htm
 Joel


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## logueb (Feb 20, 2007)

Thanks EP,  So the seal was like an applied label where the stamp or impression was pressed into a blob of molten glass and then pressed onto the bottle while still hot. If the bottle was blown in a turn mold as Zane suggest then no embossing would be possible.  Was the use of glass seals widespread in America?  

 Zane, Is it possible that the raised bump could be an improved pontil? There is also that little string of glass next to it. Sort of like something was pulled off.


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## treasurekidd (Feb 20, 2007)

Great thread! I've been an avid metal detectorist for a few years, and loved hunting coins, jewelery and relics, but had never given bottles much thought. About 2 years ago, while hunting with my friend in some woods on his property in the boonies of CT, we stumbled on a trash dump loaded with metal that made the detectors scream! Started digging, and out came the bottles. First some 1950s Cokes, Pepsis and other sodas, and some common unembossed medicine bottles. The last bottle that came out of the ground that day was the oldest, a beautifully embossed aqua W.P. White's Bottling Works, Danielson, CT soda (1920 or so) and as soon as I saw that, I was hooked. Wish I had a pic, but that one stayed with my friend, as it's from his town! Been digging that dump, and a few others we've found in the same area, and buying RI bottles ever since. Here a WP Whites hutch I bought off eBay last year.


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## lexdigger (Feb 21, 2007)

Hey Buster, I dig here in Lexington Ky. not far from Louisville. We dig alot of Paul Jones whiskey bottles and the one you have is definatly the best. Paul Jones started in the 1880's and your bottle is from the 80's or 90's. They are pretty common and not very valuable, but still a great find. It's one of the few sealed whisky bottles from this area. There are actually two of them for sale on ebay right now. You should run a search and watch these auctions to get an idea of what they are generally going for. What state did you find that one in? Chris


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## logueb (Feb 21, 2007)

That one made it all the way to Georgia.


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## lexdigger (Feb 22, 2007)

That's pretty cool. Whiskey and Bourbon have always been one of our most exported products. Chris


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## bevyn (Feb 25, 2007)

i got OBSESSED around october 2005 when I found two bottles, a white house vinegar bottle and some pepsin syrup one.


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## stonemason (Feb 28, 2007)

1972,a small dump out behind the house my mother found while putting in a garden. My first find was a 1/2 gallon Buffalo Lithia Water, aqua and beautiful. Addicted erer since.


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 9, 2009)

Since I didn't reply to this thread,I thought id bring it back to life.
  My first love was the milk bottle,you might say I was raised on milks.[] I found a baby face milk at a dump with my grand mom since then I was hooked. 
  The story about my early bottles days is on my web site.
 Bottles in the blood 2


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## cyberdigger (Jul 9, 2009)

An excellent idea, Mr. Rick!!! I still have mine.. 5 years old, splashing down a streambed.. this was sticking butt-end out of a bank.. I've been looking for more ever since.. Monmouth is the county where I lived at the time, so it's "kinda" local.. and the cork is still intact.[]


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## mr.fred (Jul 9, 2009)

I like your site Rick----i go there every now and then------i have several of those glass tanks i dug---------------------------Like you my first bottles were MILK---they were the only things in that dump------I still have a thing for them----every time i dig one----i drag it home to live with me.[8D]  Fred.


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 9, 2009)

I sold a lot of milks over the years but I still have a local  from landsdale Pa where I grew up,and a few baby faces.


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## CWBookAuthor (Jul 9, 2009)

Okay, I'll finally tell you about my first bottles, believe it or not! 

 About 40 years ago, I worked for a museum in Alexandria, Va. We were digging out the remnants of a Civil War dump that we had located. While we were digging, a cobalt blue umbrella ink and then a small group of various pontiled and smooth base bottles rolled out. I had been interested in bullets and buttons, but the umbrella ink changed that. At the time. I had no idea of value, but certainly do now. It was life changing for me. 

 I began advertizing for bottles, opened a coin and relic shop, and began publishing many books (one was the first edition of _*The Collectors Guide to Civil War Period Bottles and Jars,*_ now in its 3rd edition). Yes, the umbrella ink changed my life.


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## blobbottlebob (Jul 10, 2009)

This is a cool thread. I became addicted when I held that first heavy hutch in my hands underwater. I think it was a John Graf - about as common as they get - but still, it was really heavy and cool and it had that inside stopper thingy. Everyone that I shared it with thought that it was incredible.


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## RIBottleguy (Jul 10, 2009)

Once when I was around 10 years old I found a small unembossed shoe polish bottle (1880s) at an old homestead.  It took me a year or so, but I eventually went back there and started to do some digging.  I've been at it ever since!


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 10, 2009)

Thats funny how some people will come across a old bottle and not blink and eye, not even think twice about it.But then you have the person who has that bottle digger hidden inside him,he stumbles on to a clear bim slick, and hes hooked like piranha who's just came off a diet.


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## E (Jul 10, 2009)

Hope you guys are doing well - been about a year since I last chimed in...

 Back in '69 I was 8 years old walking in the woods with my family after a pee-wee football game = still had my helmet and pads on.  We stumbled across a scratch dump and kicked the leaves to find an amethyst 3-piece mold whisky, Dr. Mile's Nervine, 3-in-1oils, and a T-giving Coke (in '69 a bottle patented 1915 seemed very old - now to think that the same bottle is nearing 100 years of age...).  My entire family was instantly hooked.  

 Some months later I found my first good bottle: a pontiled J. H. Overdick Cincy soda along the banks of the Ohio - certainly no longer among my "best" bottles, but I still pick it up and admire it on a almost a daily basis (only another bottle collector would understand).     

 Cheers, E


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## bottlegod (Jul 10, 2009)

Mine was a Hoffman ale black glass, from Rotterdam, Found behind a early country church. I pull back the sod and there it was.


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## glass man (Jul 10, 2009)

MY FIRST WAS A CRACKED SICK GLASS 1915 COKE BOTTLE. MAN I HAD TO PICK IT UP AND LOOK AT IT A LOT! WHAT A THRILL! I WISH SUCH COMMON BOTTLES OR ANY BOTTLES STILL GAVE ME THE RUSH THAT BOTTLE DID! JAMIE


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## appliedlips (Jul 10, 2009)

My first bottles that I remember finding were Reichert Dairy milk bottles in a dump behind my childhood home. My buds & I used to go play in that creek almost daily. At some point we drug a couple different bottles back to his house and found out the above bottle was a family dairy on his mother's side. She offered to pay us  for all we could find and the it sounded like a good way to fund my baseball card addiction so out came the shovels.. I started to collect different milks and sodas from my hometown,but left everything else in that dump.It is developed now and I hate to imagine what we had dug and tossed back. After years of not digging and losing interest my Father in Law again got me into digging, I don't remember the first ones as an adult but I do remember a J & EIM turtle I found on a rockpile dump on my way out of a deer stand.. You would have thought it was worth a million bucks by my excitement. I couldn't wait to get to his house and show him as he always wanted to find a turtle ink. I ended up giving him the bottle but by getting me back into bottles,he gave me so much more..


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## ombudsman (Jul 17, 2009)

It seems like I have told the story here, but apparently it wasn't in this thread. As someone else said, memory is the first to go...

 When I was about 18, I was exploring a gypsum cave in western Oklahoma with some friends. We rounded a corner in the passage and entered a room with a "skylight" (opening to the surface.) Under the 8" opening was a 5-foot high pile of washed-in dirt. Sticking out of the dirt was a little cork-top bottle covered with irridescence. I pulled it out and found that it had embossing - Dr. Bull's Medicine Bottle. I knew nothing about antique bottles and immediately pictured a man in tails hawking medicine off the back of a colorful wagon. This looked to me to be a truly ancient bottle.

 I was aware that some people collected old bottles, so I kept it. Back home, I called a lady who had been referred to me as a collector of old bottles. This gracious lady invited me over so she could examine my bottle. She showed me how to tell that it is BIMAL and taught me other fascinating stuff about bottles in general and those in her collection in particular. She loaned me some bottle books and I quickly became hooked.

 In those days, we could just drive down the country roads and stop at abandoned farmsites and pick up BIMALs right off the ground, in the storm cellars, and sometimes on the shelves in the houses and barns. It's not so easy anymore!!


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## bottle34nut (Jul 17, 2009)

i work for the phone company and was an installer in the early 90's.  i did a lot of work in montclair, nj,  a very old and wealthy town in essex county.  all the telephone poles are in the backyards to keep the street pretty(pain in the ass for the phone company) but i used to come across a lot of dumps in the backyards.  the first bottle i found that hooked me, and still have somewhere was a calders dentine.  it went all out of control after that point.  greg


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 17, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  ombudsman
> 
> It seems like I have told the story here, but apparently it wasn't in this thread. As someone else said, memory is the first to go...


 
 I said that,it wasn't that long ago thats why I remember saying it []


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## Just Dig it (Jul 17, 2009)

My mom had this giant  cobalt blue demi with a seal om it that she kept change in it was cylindrical and less bulky ..i used to love looking at the sun through it..it broke when we moved from Rhode Island to Florida..tough times wish i had it now from then on i loved glass


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## Lordbud (Jul 17, 2009)

I explored and dug the banks of a single creek starting in 6th grade. My friend Ted and I happened to be fooling around playing "War" down at this creek and saw a guy our age digging into the creekbank.  After he left we went up and looked at the hole he made and noticed glass, rusty metal pieces, etc. That's where it all started. The first embossed bottle I found was a 1930s milk Kern County 5(cents) Store Bottle amongst a bunch of 1930s/1940s unembossed screwtops. 30 yards down the bank I eventually found the dump of a lifetime about 6 months later...


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## PrivyCheese (Jul 18, 2009)

I havnt told this story to often but think that it is relevent. when I was 12 I had a freind who's father was a school teacher. In one of his classes there were some older kids in their late teens who were diggers and collectors.

   They invited us to attend the baltinore bottle club one meeting. I walked in and there were tables and tables of what looked to me like colored gems. Rows and Rows of bottles. Torpedoes, Colored sodas, This was the early to mid seveties. 
 The bottles that were being sold and traded at the club meetings back then rival any today at any major show. Blob beers, and blob sodas were kept under the tables as plain fodder.

   I was mesmerized, They were simply stunning to me. It wasnt just one bottle, It was love at first sight. For the next thirty five years off and on I spent hours digging, finding, tradeing those beautiful gems. Met some great people. Made memories and freindships that will last a life time.

   The funny thing is, When I was twelve years old I could have never imagined that one day I would be president of what I would like to think...the best bottle club in the world.

   Or maybe I did.....


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## RedGinger (Jul 18, 2009)

Antiquenut (Tim), it sounds like you're newer to collecting bottles?  If you ever want anyone to dig with, Joe and I are dying to come to Maine and we would love to dig with you.  Joe has good bottle radar.  He'd set you up with some more pontils pretty quickly, I think.


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## RedGinger (Jul 18, 2009)

Here's a pic of my great grandmother when she was sick.  Seeing this is what got me started on antique bottles.


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## cyberdigger (Jul 19, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  RedGinger
> 
> Here's a pic of my great grandmother when she was sick.  Seeing this is what got me started on antique bottles.


 []
 You turned kitty, didn't ya... didn't ya???


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## RedGinger (Jul 19, 2009)

What?  Are you drinking beer again? []


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## madman (Jul 19, 2009)

yo rg, your grandmother was a kitty cat? lol  have another hit of fresh air lol!


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## RedGinger (Jul 19, 2009)

> ORIGINAL: madman
> 
> yo rg, your grandmother was a kitty cat? lol  have another hit of fresh air lol!


 
 Madman, I am laughing!!!!!!!!!!!  It's actually catnip, and it's great grandmother[][]


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## cyberdigger (Jul 19, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  RedGinger
> 
> What?  Are you drinking beer again? []


 
 AGAIN?? Hope I didn't miss a day of it.. I better drink another just in case.. especially if your great grandma is a kitty.. whoa.. time to uncork the absynthe!!![]


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## RedGinger (Jul 19, 2009)

LOL


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## glass man (Jul 19, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  DIGGER DAVE
> 
> Davis Vegetable was the first bottle I fell in love with !!
> Very common I know but I still love any bottle with a " Davis " lip. Also no matter how many I dig I cant get myself to part with them. I enjoy comparing the differences between them !!! 8 MORE WEEKS TO HEAVEN GUYS !!! Best of luck to all !!!!!!!


      8 MORE WEEKS TO HEAVEN? I AM READY!!! HAS THE LORD TOLD YOU SOMETHING HE AIN'T TOLD ME?[:-]


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## glass man (Jul 19, 2009)

> have another hit of fresh air lol!


   YOU LIKE QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE TOO?


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## Poison_Us (Jul 19, 2009)

My wife and I's addiction didn't come from a find.  It came from a episode of Cash & Treasures on the travel channel.  They did an antique bottle episode and that did it.  Our fist bottle we got was a British poison, some clear commons and a lot of inks.  I'm not sure which one was actually first.  But we settled on poisons (American mostly) as we really like skulls. So it was a good match for us.  This was 2 years ago.  We have sense ventured a bit into medicines (Poison's yang) but we don't know nearly as much about them as we do about poisons. But now with me being unemployed and going to school, money is real tight, but yet we keep looking [:-]    Our collection now spans around 90 bottles of all sorts.  We have a near complete set of KU-17s.  Anyone have the 8"?  Didnt think so. But we have the other 4 sizes.  It's one of my wife's prize items in the collection (along with her KO-1) and the few english poisons we own.
 When we get the new hutch, I will photo document all our bottles and perhaps post them here.


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## willong (Jul 23, 2009)

Hey Buster,

 The Paul Jones is a common whiskey, but I have always been particularly fond of its form and porportions. I fellow soldier in basic at Fort Ord, CA, in 1971 told me that he had recently (then) found one lying in the open desert north of Ely, NV. 

 I probably shot up some collectible bottles while rabbit hunting in Southern California sage and chaparral country as a kid--used to encounter dumps in gullies and washes (I remember rummaging through an old discarded steamer trunk in one gully that was full of musty books with copyright dates in the late 1800's).

 Later, while a student at University of Alaska, Fairbanks, I watched a roommate pack old bottles in a crate full of popcorn (the real stuff--not styrofoam), so he could ship them home to his sister in Ohio. He'd just picked the bottles up from the ground at Fox, which was a virtual ghost town back then. When I ask him why he was going to all the expense and trouble, he told me that the bottles were valuable.

 About a year later, I was returning to camp near Loomis, WA, after a hot and uneventful morning of deer hunting in a public hunting area. I stumbled upon an old amber whisky bottle lying right out in an open field near the campground. I picked it up and found that the neck was crooked, the thickness of the glass was uneven, there were bubbles throughout the glass, and there were no mold seams. Wow! A handmade bottle, I thought. These things are worth money! Another fun and potentially profitable thing to do while prowling through the woods. When I got back to Western Washington, I started looking for old bottles in the woods near some property that my dad had bought near Arlington, an area that had alot of logging activity TOC. I found enough to get me interested, and I learned that my whiskey was a turn mold (more properly, a turned-in-the-mold) bottle. I never did find any bottles to sell, because I used any duplicates that I found as trading stock to acquire more bottles--(if my memory serves, one of the items I acquired in trade was a sample-size Paul Jones).

 To echo a common theme, slick though it be, I still treasure that first antique bottle in my collection. Now, if I could just get my butt out there to do some bottle hunting again.

 Regards to all you other addicts,

 Will


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## photolitherland (Jul 23, 2009)

First bottle I ever found (below), wasnt even looking for em, nor did I know anything about em. Now Im hooked. I found it just walking in a creek looking for some fossils. Later I would find that it was a Hutchinson bottle, a broken one but still nice since it has the towns name on it where I live. That was about 6 months ago and now I have a full fledged collection, about 150 bottles, and spend every waking hour thinking about bottles and where I can find the next big bottle gold mine lol.


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