# 20's - 30's era dump found in the woods



## RCO (Aug 8, 2021)

found this stuff on Friday night , had poked around this wooded area in town . not really any reason to suspect there'd be anything there as its not really near anything and wouldn't of been that easy to get to . but I had found glass on the hillside before

I followed the broken glass up the hill and eventually started to find more stuff until I got to the main area which wasn't really that big . bugs were bad and being Friday night I didn't likely find everything so will go back at some point

mostly a lot of broken stuff , some glass jars , condiment bottles , liquor , beer bottles , blue glass cup , green bottles

couple not broken bottles - condiment bottle , perfume , white " ponds jar "  , mini glass jar

also a broken clear dominion glass soda bottle with no name , small part of a broken " lankin " soda bottle which if you remember my earlier post is a 20's - 30's era soda from Huntsville Ontario

most interesting item was a damaged coca cola hobbleskirt from 20's I think , no date or city on it . semi aqua in colour , " trade mark registered " on front and min contents 6 fl oz on back , found a lot of coca cola over the years but don't have this one or ever found one in good condition


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## RCO (Aug 15, 2021)

i went back friday , didn't really find much , a lot of broken stuff which seems to be liquor bottles , glass jars , clear bottles , green bottles , smaller screw top bottle all from the early 30's era

more parts of a broken " lankin " soda bottle


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## RCO (Aug 15, 2021)

also went back Saturday which was actually more productive 

lots of broken ends for various bottles but no names or embossing , many liquor some green beer , unsure if any for soda's 

some broken glass jars , mini contents 2 oz bottle , Crown jar lid , broken blue china 

1 unbroken bottle for " the embalmers supply co - Westport Conn " 

another Lankin & Hathway soda bottle broken in 2 pieces so will try and glue it together and see what I get , its a tough one to find ( 20's - 30's era ) and local from Huntsville , this bottle also seems to break a lot or be damaged , nearly all I have seen are in some way


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## RCO (Aug 16, 2021)

the repair job appears to have been successful and the " lankin and hathway " bottle is now 1 piece 

although is a fair bit of damage , some cracks and chips , I'd consider it an example piece at this point as its fair hard to find and from what was a fairly small town back then


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## CanadianBottles (Aug 16, 2021)

It's always strange how common it seems to be to find _one_ embalming fluid bottle in rural dump sites.  That's really not the sort of thing you'd think anyone would be using one bottle of once.  I can only assume that there must have been some secondary, off-label use for the stuff but I'm not sure what it would be.


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## RCO (Aug 17, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> It's always strange how common it seems to be to find _one_ embalming fluid bottle in rural dump sites.  That's really not the sort of thing you'd think anyone would be using one bottle of once.  I can only assume that there must have been some secondary, off-label use for the stuff but I'm not sure what it would be.



it did seem like an odd find , it was well buried under some dirt and broken liquor bottles .

would agree there must of been some other use for it , not sure either what it would of been . I'd wonder what stores in a town that small would of even sold it back then , could you buy it at a hardware store , it seems like a special order item

as far as I know the only business area that existed in Huntsville in the 30's was " main street " would of been some small hardware stores , grocery stores , general merchants but not really much else


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## Canadacan (Aug 17, 2021)

Coke looks like a D19.... any diamond with 19 inside on the heel?


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## RCO (Aug 17, 2021)

Canadacan said:


> Coke looks like a D19.... any diamond with 19 inside on the heel?



I don't know its definitely an older coca cola from Canada but I don't see any markings or a D or any numbers 

based on the age of the other bottles in dump it would be from late 20's or early 30's 

its the only coke bottle I've found so far there


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## Mjbottle (Aug 17, 2021)

RCO said:


> I don't know its definitely an older coca cola from Canada but I don't see any markings or a D or any numbers
> 
> based on the age of the other bottles in dump it would be from late 20's or early 30's
> 
> its the only coke bottle I've found so far there


Cool coke bottle, those undated ones are definetly hard to find, probly 20's like you said


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## CanadianBottles (Aug 17, 2021)

RCO said:


> it did seem like an odd find , it was well buried under some dirt and broken liquor bottles .
> 
> would agree there must of been some other use for it , not sure either what it would of been . I'd wonder what stores in a town that small would of even sold it back then , could you buy it at a hardware store , it seems like a special order item
> 
> as far as I know the only business area that existed in Huntsville in the 30's was " main street " would of been some small hardware stores , grocery stores , general merchants but not really much else


I'm not sure if you would have even been able to buy a single bottle of embalming fluid over the counter.  Maybe the local undertaker was distributing it to other people for this mysterious second use?  

I'm curious, do other collectors often find single embalming fluid bottles in farm dumps?  It seems to be a fairly common thing to see on the Quebec forums, and I've found them, but not sure if it's a worldwide phenomenon or only localized around here.


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## RCO (Aug 17, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> I'm not sure if you would have even been able to buy a single bottle of embalming fluid over the counter.  Maybe the local undertaker was distributing it to other people for this mysterious second use?
> 
> I'm curious, do other collectors often find single embalming fluid bottles in farm dumps?  It seems to be a fairly common thing to see on the Quebec forums, and I've found them, but not sure if it's a worldwide phenomenon or only localized around here.



did it contain alcohol  or any other possible contents people would want 

not sure what was in it so tough to come up with alternative uses


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## CanadianBottles (Aug 17, 2021)

RCO said:


> did it contain alcohol  or any other possible contents people would want
> 
> not sure what was in it so tough to come up with alternative uses


Likely had some alcohol, but I can't imagine you could drink the stuff considering how much formaldehyde was in it.  And most of these embalming fluid bottles seem to date from after Prohibition ended, which would be the only time that it could conceivably make sense for anyone to be trying to drink weird and presumably not particularly cheap specialty products to get drunk.  Prohibition in Ontario was hardly strict enough to drive anyone to embalming fluid anyway, since wine could still be legally purchased quite easily and it was not particularly difficult to get a prescription for alcohol from your doctor - and that's ignoring the widespread illegal options.  I imagine that even under Prohibition alcohol was probably considerably easier to purchase than embalming fluid anyway.
I wonder if maybe these bottles didn't actually contain standard embalming fluid, but maybe some other product related to the embalming process which could have a secondary use?  But I don't know anywhere near enough about embalming to speculate on that.


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## RCO (Aug 18, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> Likely had some alcohol, but I can't imagine you could drink the stuff considering how much formaldehyde was in it.  And most of these embalming fluid bottles seem to date from after Prohibition ended, which would be the only time that it could conceivably make sense for anyone to be trying to drink weird and presumably not particularly cheap specialty products to get drunk.  Prohibition in Ontario was hardly strict enough to drive anyone to embalming fluid anyway, since wine could still be legally purchased quite easily and it was not particularly difficult to get a prescription for alcohol from your doctor - and that's ignoring the widespread illegal options.  I imagine that even under Prohibition alcohol was probably considerably easier to purchase than embalming fluid anyway.
> I wonder if maybe these bottles didn't actually contain standard embalming fluid, but maybe some other product related to the embalming process which could have a secondary use?  But I don't know anywhere near enough about embalming to speculate on that.



judging by the amount of broken liquor bottles at that site , they didn't have any trouble acquiring liquor at the time 

likely go back there again on Friday and see what else I can find , seems to be some stuff well hidden although mostly broken but may still be the odd non broken bottle


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## RCO (Aug 18, 2021)

Mjbottle said:


> Cool coke bottle, those undated ones are definetly hard to find, probly 20's like you said



found a lot of coke bottles over the years but don't have this version in good condition , also an odd aqua colour 

whatever reason the bottles from 20's > early 30's are hard to find especially in good condition , despite the fact coca cola was popular at the time


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## RCO (Aug 23, 2021)

i went  back on Friday but as you can see I didn't really find much 

only a couple un broken bottles , a ketchup , small screw top bottle 

some broken green beer bottles , glass jars , liquor , whiskey 

broken bottle bottoms which appear to be from milk jugs but no parts with names 

glass cup , broken china made in England 

if I'm bored and nearby I might still poke around at it some more in case there is anything else well hidden or an interesting broken shard to be found


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## RCO (Sep 2, 2021)

went back the other day and found more broken stuff , such as glass jars , liquor bottles etc

1 not broken bottle a small 4 oz glass jar , just seems like such an odd size being that small , not sure what they would of put in it

not sure what else is still there but conditions are better now than when I first found it , not as hot and no bugs , so might go back with metal detector and see if I can find any other areas with stuff


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## RCO (Sep 4, 2021)

went back yesterday and found more areas with broken bottles , more liquor , glass jars , some corked bottles , whiskey

a broken embalming fluid bottle identical to the one I found earlier

an odd " lady " print , very small shows a lady with brown hair ( pic is close to actual size )

a couple not broken bottles , white glass jar ,small non embossed druggist ( when I pulled it out was like please have embossing but no )

Tilley's Klean O - not sure what this one is for , never seen it before but is corked and appears older


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## RCO (Sep 10, 2021)

went back the other day but didn't really find much 

more broke glass jars and liquor bottles , part of a Philips blue magnesium bottle .

not broken screw top bottle , small glass ice cream bowl broken on bottom part 

my new theory is this stuff was not dumped here rather dumped somewhere else and brought to this location as fill . which is why so much is broken . the old town dump is nearby and think that's where it came from . its been dug into before and its a parking lot now and has buildings around it 

so I didn't find a dump rather fill from the dump which was used to put a small drive way into this lot which goes up a hill but is nothing here just trees . at some point in the past ? not sure when this was built but likely some time ago


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