# Davis Automatic Ink Stand



## surfaceone (Mar 23, 2011)

Good afternoon,

 This is one of my favorite bottles. It's from the second big dig I ever did. I've spoken of it in the past, but never shown it.







 So there I was, years ago, scoping out an urban renewal project in the early stages of landscape rearranging. I acquainted myself with the excavator, and to my delight was given the green light to "knock yourself out." The project was nearly a city block in scope. There was dirt everywhere, glittery shards, marbles, and some bottles right on the surface.

 I was in old stuff heaven. I walked the site repeatedly and seemed to find new things with each circuit. The excavator Chuck was kind enough to run his D-9 all over the place and gouge out these swell cuts. He'd also assemble these lovely big dirt piles. Huge ones, big ones and in between ones. He was digging out some old basements and cellars. There were sandstone block mountains.

 I didn't have a probe yet, nor had I ever heard of one. Where to dig? I spotted ash on some of those cuts Chuck had made. Yahtzee! I dug lots of stuff. Targets of opportunity. I tried to to decipher the patterns of shard scatterage in the wake of Caterpillar tracks. Is there any rhyme or reason to that? Found a perfect old string lipped champagne split nestled down beneath the the teeth of his tread. Untouched slick syndrome,staring me in the face, and I didn't even know it yet.

 Chuck dug the deepest hole to date on this site. Big as a house, twenty five or thirty feet deep. He had bisected an old brick four foot sewer line. It was flowing clean water. Certainly looked clean. This was looking like an underground oasis.

 Chuck had made the walls of this hole deeply perpendicular, at first, so there was no getting down there yet. I could only stand on the bank, and look down upon ashy layer after ashy layer. The deepest thickest layer was near the bottom. There was glass winking at me from the cuts of his big bucket. There was a whole bottle about 6 feet down the edge, just hanging in the ash. I had to go home and get my rake. Murray & Lanman Florida Water, perfect and this beautiful opalescent color.

 I combed through the nearby piles that had once been in the hole. Bottles and shards everywhere. Druggists, slicks, Sozodonts, sodas, beers. I swept my foot over an amber shoulder sticking outta the dirt, Ely's Cream Balm. This was great but I had to get down in that hole.

 Luckily, Chuck obliged the next day and created a dirt stairway to the bottom. I was trying to figure out the lay of the underground. There seemed to be stuff at nearly every elevation from about six feet deep, all the way to the bottom. There was a great ashy pile of debris on the opposite shore of the now backed up sewer line. I had a little lake! Paradise.

 So many places to scratch around. I really didn't know what I was doing yet. I experimented with scratchers. Came up with a bent tine barbecue fork that worked great, I thought. Some of the ash layers were real fluffy. You could fork through some ash. I was paranoid of breaking these bottles that had been buried all these many years. Still am.

 Chuck had thoughtfully knocked a tree trunk down the hole. and I now had a painless bridge to the far shore, and that ashy pile. It was so soupy at the bottom with that sewer running. T'would suck the boots right off yer feet, and it did. I came home covered in mud more than once. Quite the quagmire.

 That ashy mound held many swell treasures. Early on I was puzzled where to throw the dirt. Hadn't even begun to think about screening. It never occurred to me to do so until much later. I was throwing dirt into the wet parts. this worked for a while. I built a little penninsula along one edge so I could access more of the ash vein.

 What was this? It appeared to be a huge deep trash pit. I never found any evidence of wood or block walls, though there was lots of block and brick in Chuck's spoilage, and in the ash, dirt, and clay strata. This had been between the mansion and carriage house of quite the grand old dame of houses back in the day, I later learned.

 While digging, and scratching up a storm, I wondered about the people and all these bottles and trinkets they had left behind. The musings one has at the bottom of a hole, were running wild for me. This was long before I discovered the internet as a tool for finding bottle information. I didn't have a clue as to many of the bottles. "What the heck was this thing," was lighting up in little thought balloons floating outta that hole nearly every day.

 This place was between 2 major thoroughfares in the hood, and before it got all tore up, had many footpaths through the overgrown lots. There was a Burger King at the end of a cross street and a church. It didn't take long for some of the more adventurous citizens to start crisscrossing the site again. Only the most reckless would attempt a traverse in the rain or directly after.

 I got the occasional visitor leaning over the edge and yelling down, "What the hail are ya doin down there? Digging for gold?" etc. You've all heard it.

 **** I gotta go. Be back soon...****


----------



## kwalker (Mar 23, 2011)

I sure love stories like these. This is something everyone would dream to have the ability to do; have an excavator do the hard work for you []


----------



## surfaceone (Mar 23, 2011)

Hey Kenneth,

 Yes indeedy, ole Chuck is a great guy. I thank him for his kindnesses. He would say stuff like, "I saw some glass over there, made a pass with the blade down." He wasn't doing any recreational digging for me, but he was sure helpful and a super nice guy. He told me I didn't have to fill in any holes, while he was on the job. I've run into him only once since this project.


----------



## JOETHECROW (Mar 24, 2011)

> This is one of my favorite bottles. It's from the second big dig I ever did. I've spoken of it in the past, but never shown it.


 
 Awesome story Surfaceone....Is there more to add? Can we see your bottle...I love it too,..please show or tell us more.


----------



## surfaceone (Mar 24, 2011)

Ah, the impedimenta of daily life...

 I didn't know how good I had it in this hole. It was open for a long time, due to the fact that the sewer line that Chuck unearthed was not on any city map. Apparently this caused some kinda infarction within the city and water department. The job lay fallow for a long time. I had the place all to myself for the better part of two and a half seasons.

 Well, not entirely to myself. There were those occasional visitors. I would find stuff, and assorted garbage airmailed into the hole by passersby. I was busy excavating next to the very bottle in question, when a rock came down in the ash a couple feet away. Then, a whole buncha rocks came down, followed by laughing and taunting from above. I had grabbed my shovel to shield/defend myself after the second or third rock, dashed across my bark bridge and charged up the other side. I was doing some pretty good yelling myself. At the backsides of 4 or 5 boys hightailing it through the weeds. Thank goodness they paid me only one other call.

 Emry Davis made this dig stand out. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 But I was fickle. I had discovered a couple other projects after finding this one, and would go over and play around on these other sites for a while. Should'a, would'a stayed put and dug that guy till I couldn't dig no more. But, no, there were greener dirtpiles... After a rain it would be too muddy to navigate for a day or two. I've got no photos of this dig, as it was long before I had a digital camera. Maybe before such cameras became available.

 Anyway, after the boys pelted and ran, I went back to scratching with a bit too much intensity. I stuck that barbecue fork in there and in the course of the swing felt something, metal maybe, no... This Ink Stand thunked right outta the wall, at my knees. It was crusted in ash. Heavy. Metal capped. What the heck. I'd never seen anything like it.

 I swished it around in my little lake. Saw that it was some sorta moulded glass and metal cap. Was that bronze? The bath in Lake Quag made it a bit cleaner, revealed that it appeared to be full. It had a very small hole at the top, some kinda writing and a design all around. I stuck it in my sack and dug til dusk.

 Imagine my surprise when I washed it off at the tap later that night.









 These photos are pretty close to life size, though they are not quite capturing the essence, or the heft. 

 I dug for another season and some in this great hole. There were many more finds, but none quite as sweet as this.

 The landscapers on the adjoining property were trimming the evergreens that lined the fence and through all the limbs and trimmings down my hole. Then they threw a whole bunch more landscaping offal down. I think they were bringing it in from other jobs. I fought through it at first, but they were some dumpers. Besides, I had other holes to dig.

 As I think back on this dig. I surely wish that I had spent more time there. I did some research after I learned about Sanborns. Visited the Historical Society. It was the home of an early industrialist with a large family and servants. A much better class of bottles, dont'cha know.

 Chuck eventually came back and filled it all in, bladed it over. It still has not been "renewed" as that part of the project is still undeveloped. Maybe one day...

 Here's hoping.


----------



## old.s.bottles (Mar 24, 2011)

Nice find and pics[], ive got one of those ink stands, yours looks like its in better shape then mine tho.


----------



## cobaltbot (Mar 24, 2011)

Great story of your adventure, surf!  Cool piece to remember that one by!


----------



## JOETHECROW (Mar 24, 2011)

Great story and fantastic bottle Surface...Thanks for coming back and finishing your story,...I find myself with crystal clear hindsight on a few places I dug at years ago too,...If only I knew then what I know now.[8|] The giant brick sewer thing intrigues me,...flowing clear water, and no one knew it was there?...Our town is rumored to have a similar 'tunnel' type ancient sewer feature under our main st. Supposedly it could be accessed through a now restored notorious gangster hang out's basement. I've been in said hangout's basement,...didn't have a good flashlight to investigate. Thanks for a glimpse of your great find....any idea what made it "automatic"?


----------



## RedGinger (Mar 24, 2011)

Neato!  Which is more beautiful, the ink, or Elizabeth??  I guess I never realized how beautiful she was.  But I digress, great story, SurfaceOne.


----------



## JOETHECROW (Mar 24, 2011)

> Which is more beautiful, the ink, or Elizabeth??


 
 They say she had violet eyes,...it looks it in the pic.


----------



## surfaceone (Mar 24, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  old.s.bottles
> Nice find and pics[], ive got one of those ink stands, yours looks like its in better shape then mine tho.


 
 Hey Anders,

 I'd like to see it, please. I was so sure, I had the only one, too [8D], until I did some looking around. Did yours come out of that dig last season? I know I saw one on here somewhere, laying on the grass with some other guys. Thanks.



> ORIGINAL: JOETHECROW
> 
> Thanks for a glimpse of your great find....any idea what made it "automatic"?


 
 Joe,

 I'm not exactly sure. I think it is my only bottle with the word "Automatic" on it. Also my only glass & brass example. I'm missing the funnel piece.







 Kinda gives it a bit of a "My Favorite Martian" look, don'tcha think. I think it was supposed to work with both steel and fountain pens.

 I have this strong feeling that it did not work well. When I found it, it was full of ink. The ink had dried into little blocks, like charcoal. I brought it home, cleaned it up a little, showed it to the bride. She said, "Mine!" and has had it in her cabinet ever since.







From. There were several variants. Emry received several additional later patents for this one and others. 




From, They seem to be under appreciated, except by me, from a "value" perspective. 

 They were in a list of Congressional stores for 1893.






 "AN AMERICAN INKSTAND AND GLASS INKWELL
 Late 19th century
 Inscribed â€™The Davis automatic inkstand pat. March 19th Oct 22nd 1889 Feb 14th 1893 New Yorkâ€™
 7x7 cm
 (minor chip)

 200 - 150 412$. ×§×¡×ª ×¢×¥ rosewood ×œ×“×™×• ×•×›×œ×™ ×œ×¡×¤×™×’×”, 1930 ×‘×§×™×¨×•×‘. ×¢×™×˜×•×¨×™ ×¤× ×™× ×™×•×ª ×‘×”×™×§×£. ×–×•×’ ×ž×™×›×œ×™ ×–×›×•×›
 Sold: $184" From. An extra fancy model.

 Look at the footed rest on this one.


----------



## tigue710 (Mar 24, 2011)

Great story, excellent read.  I have to wonder if it is a ravine or stream bed filled into to level the lot... They often built a sewer for the river to run through when they did fill em in back in the day.  It sound much to deep to have been filled in by one family, more likely a dump...  I know towns cris crossed with such dump fills as they leveled out the streets and lots.  That ink is beautiful, and I actually dug one like the dome one pictured in the add.  Don't remember if it was marked, but it was clear, and the insert in bad shape.  I gave it to the person I was digging with... Again, really great read!


----------



## JOETHECROW (Mar 25, 2011)

> Kinda gives it a bit of a "My Favorite Martian" look, don'tcha think.


 
 LoL,...Surface, I was thinking along the lines of of Marvin...[] Thanks,...and hopefully you'll grace us with more of your cool dig stories...I still remember the "John Wayne" security guard dig.[8|]


----------



## rockbot (Mar 25, 2011)

Boy Surf that was good. Thanks for sharing. Brings back some good memories too!


----------



## old.s.bottles (Mar 25, 2011)

I'll post pictures of mine later today...might put it up in the member forum auction cause I'll be honest, I havent even cleaned it since last summer[sm=rolleyes.gif]  

 http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n163/madpaddla/?action=view&current=MOV06959.mp4&mediafilter=videos


----------



## surfaceone (Mar 26, 2011)

Thanks y'all,

 I appreciate the good words. I gotta agree with Joe, in that, I've got a nearly newsreel memory of those first few digs. I was real fortunate to have blundered on some great old sites. I'm gonna have to revisit the boxes all those old bottles are stored in. I've gotta few souvenirs from those early daze still around here somewhere.

 My first dig was a real treat. It was a combination trash pit, privies, and hill dump rolled into one freshly skinned riverside construction project. I drove up on this site one evening as the sun was setting. This hillside was just aglitter with 19th Century glass and pottery shards. I pulled over immediately. I knew what it was. Stuff everywhere. I've not found a site as good as either of these first few spots since then, but I'm still scouting...

 Hard to beat the pure wonder and mystery of those first great finds whatever they are.

 This one shows her eyes a bit. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 This one not so much.


----------

