# Texas Digging



## nhpharm (May 31, 2017)

It's getting real hot here in Texas, but I only make it out once every two weeks so I try my best to keep digging through the summer.  Sunday I made it out bright an early and probed a privy right off that sounded great.  Sadly, though it was loaded with bottles, they were all junk...slick whiskey flasks and ketchup bottles...privy was just barely pre-prohibition.  Filled that one in and found a second privy about 3' away (but across the lot line).  This one was a bit of a different story...a late 1860's and early 1870's privy with at least 10 broken cathedral pickle bottles in it.  Not much intact but I did find 2 umbrella inks, a fancy little cologne bottle, and a strange bottle that is identical to the C. Lediard 6-sided bottles that surface from time to time but completely slick.  Really a pretty bottle and just nestled in the very bottom of the center of the privy.  Filled in the second privy and moved on to a deep trash pit about 5' away.  The top of the trash pit was loaded with 1910's stuff and there I found my first intact straight-sided Galveston, Texas straight sided Coca-Cola bottle.  I've dug these from Houston and San Antonio before but never intact from Galveston...they seem to be quite scarce and I was very happy to find this addition to my Galveston collection.  Deeper in the trash pit things transformed to 1860's trash and I found a Leudemann barrel mustard, a pontiled multi-sided bottle, a small Wright cologne bottle, some jaw bones (maybe a dog?), and a few other odds and ends.  Overall a fun (but hot) day!


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## DanielinAk (May 31, 2017)

Sweet digs


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## hemihampton (May 31, 2017)

Those Inks are cool. I rarely find that style or type of Ink Bottle. LEON.


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## nhpharm (Jun 1, 2017)

I dig a lot of them...apparently a lot of literate people where I am digging!  Two of these have inward rolled lips and one has a ground lip which I hadn't seen on an umbrella before.  Nonetheless, I find most of mine in 1850's-1870's privies and pits.  In the 1880's privies and pits I find mostly the J&IEM turtles and in the 1890's-1910's privies and pits mostly the Carter's style cone inks.


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## botlguy (Jun 1, 2017)

Those are some really nice finds. Thanks for sharing. All I dig these days are post holes.  
Jim S.


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## bottlecrazy (Jun 1, 2017)

Nice finds!  I really like the 6-sided whatever it is.


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## sandchip (Jun 2, 2017)

Good going!  Is the Lediard's slick amber or puce?


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## nhpharm (Jun 2, 2017)

It's amber...quite dark amber.


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## nhpharm (Jun 14, 2017)

Made it out again Sunday to the same lot.  First hole was a small barrel privy that had a few broken bottles and a nice yellow amber bubbly Patent whiskey bottle (McCully base embossing).  Second hole was a very early square privy with just one bottle in the whole thing...a dip molded pontiled slick.  In the middle of the square privy a small barrel privy had been sunk and in it I found an early local pharmacy (fairly common but a size I did not have), a neat flask with a ring neck (I've been told these are Lyndeborough), and a few other broken bottles.  Filling in the hole, I found another pontiled puff and a early applied lip Hamlin's Wizard Oil.  Nothing earth shattering but real early stuff for Texas!


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## hemihampton (Jun 14, 2017)

Nice, I only dug one Privy old enough for Pontiled puffs & had a few in there (mostly slicks though). The stuff was from around 1860's. Very hard to find 1860's or older in Michigan. Even 1870's stuff pretty tough to dig. Congrats. LEON.


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## nhpharm (Jun 14, 2017)

It blows me away every time I get into pontiled bottles here in Texas.  Never imagined I'd be digging stuff this early here.  Still doesn't happen very often and the quality of the early stuff isn't usually too great but still fun to dig.


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## Bekbek1008 (Jun 19, 2017)

Still learning everyday....trying to get with the lingo. Whats a puff and a dip molded slick? Thank you gentlemen. I love reading your posts. Rebecca

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## nhpharm (Jun 19, 2017)

A puff is a small open pontiled bottle with no embossing, usually cylindrical, that would have taken just one puff of breath to blow.  They usually have very thin glass and thin flared lips.  A dip mold is a mold that looks a bit like a cup...the glassblower uses it to form the sides of the bottle but since it is cup shaped it does not mold the neck, which is effectively freeblown.  Slick just refers to a bottle with no embossing.


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## hemihampton (Jun 19, 2017)

Correction, only dug 2 1860's privy's. One had pontiled puffs & that super rare Newmans Indian Fruit Bitters (heavy damage) ect, ect while the other had 1 Tellers Ten Pin Cobalt Blue graphite pontil (heavy damage) & about 20 large Stoneware Pottery Ginger Beers all in little peices. dug a 1870's privy with a couple of puffs thrown in it. LEON.


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## Bekbek1008 (Jun 26, 2017)

Thank you so much for the valuable info. Sounds like your a pro...

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## nhpharm (Jun 28, 2017)

Went out again this past Sunday and had some good luck...first hole I got into just had a few marbles, so I went to a spot where I had probed out some deep trash and dug up a hock wine and an unembossed barrel mustard bottle.  After filling that hole in, I started probing and found a spot that felt real promising.  Dug it out and it turned out to be a nice big 1870's barrel privy.  It was fairly empty but in the bottom was one of my "Holy Grail" bottles...a very rare and crude blob top squat soda from Galveston embossed "Henry Cortes & Son/Galveston/Texas".  That had me hopping a bit for sure!  Before I filled the hole in, I probed the back wall and could tell there was another privy just behind this one, so I ended up digging it out as well.  It was another barrel privy from the 1870's but had some 1880's trash on the top.  Dug 4 local hutch sodas and 2 nice local pharmacy bottles from the mid-1880's out of this one.

Now for the heartbreakers.  In the fill on the top of the first privy, I found part of a front panel of a bottle that I didn't recognize, so I set it aside.  When I went to filing the hole, I found the other half of the front panel.  Page And Apfels/Kidney And Bladder Cure/Victoria/Texas".  Would have been a big bottle and a real beauty if whole.  I've been told it is a rare bottle with only a couple known, perhaps both damaged.  In the bottom of the second privy, I also found a topless Schultz Patent "F. Solyer/Galveston/Texas" bottle...these are tough bottles to find.

Nonetheless, it's always fun to find one of those bottles you never expect to dig and I did that Sunday!  That's what keeps me going out, even in the hot summer weather!


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## sandchip (Jun 28, 2017)

Wow, that Page & Apfels would've been a killer.


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## nhpharm (Jun 29, 2017)

Yeah...sure would have been.  As far as I can tell, Page & Apfels patented their medicine in 1892 and it is advertised in the Galveston Daily News as being sold by J.J. Schott in Galveston in 1894-1895.  I've still not found an 1890's era privy on the lot I am digging on (everything has been 1880's or earlier) so I will cross my fingers that when I do find the 1890's privy it will have one of these in it!  It's the dream that keeps me digging.


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## DanielinAk (Jun 29, 2017)

Outstanding bud


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## dollarbill (Jul 3, 2017)

Great finds!! love the inks. I have not dug in quite some time now and not many at least easy to find pontiled holes in Fl. So dig um up I for one love to see them.
Bill


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