# My first dig this weekend.



## mbsbox (Nov 2, 2020)

Brand new to the forum and to the whole vintage bottle world. I had passed by a swath of forest in my town hundreds of times by car and bicycle over the years but about 3 weeks ago I had reason to hike nearby on foot and strayed onto this land on my way back to my car. It wasn't long before I noticed dozens of clusters of glass bottles scattered all about and my first thought was that kids probably came back here to drink beers. Closer inspection revealed that there was definitely more going on here than just empties of Bud, but I still really did not know what was going on here until I ran right into a pile of broken milk bottles that had embossed logos of dairies I'd never heard of. Not 10 feet from there i dug up a green Canada Dry bottle that looked really old and a cobalt blue bottle with nothing but an "M" in a circle on the base. Having nothing to carry these in I just laid them against a nearby tree and decided I'd be back soon with a knapsack. That finally came this weekend and I unearthed about 40 bottles of various shapes and sizes and colors. I have a lot of them in a vinegar and baking soda soak right now and I've made ready to clean them thoroughly in the coming days. Thought I'd share a few pics of some of the stranger ones that came somewhat clean with just soap and water. One of them says "C.R. Bailey's Petroleum Jelly" but please, feel free to suggest some ID's for the others.  This newbie appreciates any  help at all.  Thanks !


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## RoyalRuby (Nov 3, 2020)

Sounds like fun!...welcome aboard and to the sickness of bottle digging!......


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## nhpharm (Nov 3, 2020)

Third one is shoe polish (1910's) and the fourth are olive bottles (also 1910's-1920's).  Looks like some fair age.


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## embe (Nov 3, 2020)

Nice finds, I'm not lazy but finding them on the surface sure beats digging.  What does the Canada Dry bottle look like?


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 3, 2020)

Looks like you're in a good spot, that C.R. Bailey's is definitely from a good age to be finding stuff from.


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## mbsbox (Nov 3, 2020)

RoyalRuby said:


> Sounds like fun!...welcome aboard and to the sickness of bottle digging!......


Thanks kindly! I'm going to post some more tonigh once i get them cleaned.


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## mbsbox (Nov 3, 2020)

nhpharm said:


> Third one is shoe polish (1910's) and the fourth are olive bottles (also 1910's-1920's).  Looks like some fair age.


He thank you for the ID's. Never would have guessed food items. They looked pharma to me. I'll have more pics tonight after I clean some more.


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## mbsbox (Nov 3, 2020)

embe said:


> Nice finds, I'm not lazy but finding them on the surface sure beats digging.  What does the Canada Dry bottle look like?


Thanks kindly! I just got the Can Dry out of the soak and dried it off. It's a small one, only 7 oz.  Looks like this:


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## mbsbox (Nov 3, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> Looks like you're in a good spot, that C.R. Bailey's is definitely from a good age to be finding stuff from.


Thanks kindly! More pics tonight as I get them cleaned. Cheers!


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## embe (Nov 3, 2020)

Cool Canada Dry, I hoped it would have the vertical writing on the neck, but still pretty clean.

I also agree only a couple olives would fit in those jars (unless my sense of scale is way off)


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## mbsbox (Nov 3, 2020)

Hello all! Just got all my first batch cleaned and dried and photo'd. Thanks to all past and future respondents to my posts! This bottle adventure for me might be one and done because I found this dump by accident and frankly I wouldn't know where else to look for more. But who knows. I certainly enjoy the Indiana Jones aspect of all this...exciting glimpses into the past to be sure!

Anyway, I put the next batch into the soak, so I'll have more pictures as the week goes on. But here's tonight's feature presentation.

First are the ambers.  The only one with any branding in this lot is the large fat one, "Oxol". The large one on the left says "Liquor Bottle" on the base, and the flask is clearly for whisky too. The others I couldn't say.  OH! Can't forget...the one in the front right is an Avon bottle (says AVON on the base), and it actually has maybe 10 drops of perfume still in it.  Comes complete with old lady smell! Reminds me of my granny, actually.

The second lot are the blues, greens, and some teenies too.  The large blue one says "Squibb" on the front, the medium one next to it only has a M in a circle on the base. The small round blue one up front says "Vick's VapoRub" on the base and the teeny blue one is octogonal and says "Noxema" on the base.  The clear one says "Chesebrough New York" and the milky white one has no markings at all.  The taller green one is "Canada Dry", and the small greenie is "Rolling Rock".

All always, all input, feedback, comments, and notions about ID are always welcome.

Cheers!


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## RoyalRuby (Nov 4, 2020)

Looks like quite a time period range, beer bottles are more my specialty, the "Steinie" amber bottle began life in 1936 and was used up in to the 60's, the little Rolling Rock is either late 60's or early 70's, the other bottles/jars look to be 40's through the late 60's time period.


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## mbsbox (Nov 4, 2020)

RoyalRuby said:


> Looks like quite a time period range, beer bottles are more my specialty, the "Steinie" amber bottle began life in 1936 and was used up in to the 60's, the little Rolling Rock is either late 60's or early 70's, the other bottles/jars look to be 40's through the late 60's time period.


Yes, I'm really eating up the history going on here, and so appreciate experts chiming in.  I can't for the life of me figure out what the deal with this patch of forest could be. I've never heard of forest being used as an official dumping ground, but this seems to go back decades to over a hundred years. Might reflect the early patterns of suburbia before there were huge subdivision developments and just a few houses scattered about off main roads. I'll have some pictures tonight. Thanks again!


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## Dogo (Nov 4, 2020)

The blue with the letter M is most likely made by Maryland Glass Co, probably for Bromo-Seltzer.  There are millions of them, but they can bring from  $2.00 to 8.00 depending on size.


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## mbsbox (Nov 4, 2020)

Dogo said:


> The blue with the letter M is most likely made by Maryland Glass Co, probably for Bromo-Seltzer.  There are millions of them, but they can bring from  $2.00 to 8.00 depending on size.


Thanks for that Dogo!  It figures though. I emailed pictures of all the colored ones to my mom last night and that's the one she wants the most to put in her curio window. Maybe I'll find another one.


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## Mjbottle (Nov 4, 2020)

Congrats on your first dig!


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## mbsbox (Nov 4, 2020)

Hello all. Thanks for all the friendly feedback!  Here are the pics of today's cleaned batch from the soak.  Sorry, all I have to do this in is a small igloo cooler so i can only do just so many each day. But it means I'll have some to post each night for the next few days.

Tonight are all clears. First picture shows: "Atlas EZ Seal", 2 different sizes of "Horlick's Malted Milk", 3 very similar slope shouldered squarish bottles, one says "Jergens Lotion" & the other two have no brand, and 2 different sized shaker bottles that both say "Tilch's" or "Filch's" in script on the base...hot sauce maybe??

Second picture shows a very interesting squarish art-deco looking bottle that says  "L&F Prod Co" (Google says they made Lysol), "ASCO Peanut Butter" (on the base), another art deco-ish jar with no branding that looks to me like honey maybe?, "Pepsodent Antiseptic" (on base) with intact cap, and "Jergens Lotion" (on base) with partially intact cap.

So, as always let me know what you think. I'll have some more tomorrow,

Cheers,

Matt B


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## mbsbox (Nov 4, 2020)

Mjbottle said:


> Congrats on your first dig!


Thanks kindly!


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## mbsbox (Nov 5, 2020)

Back again. I think I'll be sad when I don't have any more bottles to present to the community. Maybe I'll give the forest another look-see this weekend to see if I missed anything. But for tonight this is what cleaned up.

First picture shows 3 large clear containers. The one on the left has an intact cap that I think has a very faded "57" on top, so a Heinz product I presume. The other 2 have no branding but look maybe like Milk or OJ maybe? And the tall thin one could be olives? The 2 blue ones both say"Vick's VapoRub" but different sizes and different logos on the base so maybe different decades even. The small green one could be pharmacy.

Second picture shows "Pepsi Cola" (no idea how old), "Pride of The Farm Tomato Catsup" and "Hensler's, Newark, NJ" (Google says a defunct Beer company). The small one in front says "Bayer Co. Div", so aspirin I guess.

Now for the strange....I found this crystal piece half buried and at first thought it was a broken bottle but it came up whole as you see. My best guess is a cap of some kind because you couldn't stand it up on that needle point it comes to. No idea how old. It also is partially deformed on one side which thought very strange.

Finally is my real Indiana Jones piece.  A genuine piece of archaeology! It is a "Chesebrough" jar like the one I posted the other night. But this one has a partially rusted but intact cap....AND!  Well you can see it. That looks to be about half a jar of actual early 20th century petroleum jelly still in the jar. Should i be calling a museum? Kidding of course.

Thanks for your comments and compliments. As always, let me know if you have any ID's.

Back tomorrow.


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## RoyalRuby (Nov 6, 2020)

That Hensler's brewski bottle sure looks nice.......


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## mbsbox (Nov 6, 2020)

RoyalRuby said:


> That Hensler's brewski bottle sure looks nice.......


Hey Thanks! I'm in my 50's, lived in NJ on and off most of my life and never once heard of this brew until now. My uncle told me that Newark was a huge town for breweries up until the late 60's or early 70's. That and vacuum tubes apparently.  But you never dig those up.


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## RoyalRuby (Nov 6, 2020)

mbsbox said:


> Hey Thanks! I'm in my 50's, lived in NJ on and off most of my life and never once heard of this brew until now. My uncle told me that Newark was a huge town for breweries up until the late 60's or early 70's. That and vacuum tubes apparently.  But you never dig those up.


Lol.....I've actually dug a few tubes recently, pretty sure I have a can or bottle of Hensler's around here somewhere....


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## BF109 (Nov 11, 2020)

Nice finds, I really like the petroleum jelly bottle.


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## mbsbox (Nov 11, 2020)

Thanks kindly! I am going to have a few more pictures soon of the remaining items from that day. I have just been not happy how they have cleaned up so far. I ordered bottle brushes and copper scrubees from Amazon that are coming tonight. Stay tuned.


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Hello again A-B.Net Community:

Sorry for the delay since my last post but it was frankly a crazy week and the last batch of my bottles were just not coming clean with what I had on hand, so I bit the bullet and invested in some better brushes and copper scrubbees to finish the job. This will probably be my last go around on the forum on this first group of bottles, and so I want to thank everyone in advance who added comments and useful information to my thread. As always I welcome anyone to help with ID's as most of these bottles have no branding. I am especially interested in what they might have contained...liquor?....pharmacy?....food/beverage?....cleaning products? This will help me in any future excursions as well, so I might have some idea of what I am looking at.

The first group: Here there a bunch of clears of vaguely similar shape. In terms of branding, the tallest one on the left says "The J.R. Watkins Co." (a cosmetic company that still exists today), the second one from the left says "Mirrolike" on the base, and the fourth from the right says "Pinex - Trade Mark" (cough syrup maybe?). The 3 smaller ones on the right have embossed marks on their fronts that say "3i", "3ii", and "3iv", but I have no idea if that refers to the brand, the products, or the glass maker.

The second group represents the ones that feel potentially have the most age of all the bottles I found at this location. I could be totally wrong but the factors I am using beyond intuition are the quite non-modern appearance of the quality of the glass (like bubbles and waviness), the  mostly non-screw cap configurations (cork or other), and the fact that they were the most difficult to come clean.  As can be seen, the only one with any branding is the medium size one third from the left that says "Wm B. Riker & Son, 353 6th Ave, NY". Google says this was a late 1800's to early 1900's New York City pharmacy that was bought up by a larger chain, so this one probably has the oldest provenance of all my bottle from this location.  The others have the look of age to me but only glass maker marks to go by so lots of question marks for me.  The larger flasky looking one second from the left has an "O" in a square on the base which another website I was looking at a few days ago says is the Owens bottle company circa 1919-1929, so there's that. I'm including closeups of a few if anyone has any thoughts on these or any others I posted here.

Thanks kindly. I look forward to hearing from anyone who might want throw a few puzzle pieces my way.

Cheers,
Matt B


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Closeups of the "Wm B. Riker & Son" bottle:


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Closeups of clear flask with "O" in a square mark on base:


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Closeups of small bottle with interesting tex:ture on front:


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Closeups of tall ornate octogonal bottle:


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

I am also posting closeups of the Pepsi Bottle I posted last week. I would like any experts in the field to please give me some idea of how old this Pepsi bottle might be. If a year is too difficult to ascertain then an era or decade is fine too. Thanks everyone!


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## hemihampton (Nov 13, 2020)

The Riker looks to be the oldest, around late 1800-early 1900 like you said. Congrats on that one. LEON.


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## mbsbox (Nov 13, 2020)

Thanks very much Leon! I was a little bummed it had a small chip in the collar but after sitting in a forest floor for 120 years I should just be thankful it survived at all.


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## embe (Nov 14, 2020)

The Pepsi looks older than the 50-60's stuff I have, someone will surely chime in based on the pat # .  I'd guess a couple decades prior based on glass thickness alone.  Nice bottles.


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## mbsbox (Nov 14, 2020)

embe said:


> The Pepsi looks older than the 50-60's stuff I have, someone will surely chime in based on the pat # .  I'd guess a couple decades prior based on glass thickness alone.  Nice bottles.


Thanks Embe! I thought the same thing that the glass was really thick compared to contemporary bottles. My granny, who lived to 96, always used to joke about her grandkids who needed eye glasses...she used to say "those are as thick as Coke bottles", which was obviously referencing the Coke bottles she remembered as a kid in the nineteen-teens and nineteen-twenties.  Maybe a Pepsi guru will come forward with a more specific time range.


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## EdsFinds (Nov 14, 2020)

Hey! Welcome to the site. There are a lot of people here who can help give you good advice and help you identify any old bottles you find. I too just started to dig (or rather, "re-start") for old bottles. I started as a kid, but never did again until now, 30 years later. I just found a very similar site just like you. It was an old 70s liquor/deli that burned down in the late 70s in my town. Passed it all the time. Never thought there was anything left. One day, I was cycling through the back of the lot (now a wooded lot), and, same as you, saw allot of empty buds around. Just to satisfy the curios cat within me, I stopped and roamed around a bit...low and behold, I find a treasure trove of old bottles!


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## mbsbox (Nov 14, 2020)

Yeah, thanks. The area I found this stuff is adjacent to a walking trail of which there are a number in my area. There is a lot of "preserved open space" areas locally that are thickly wooded and a lot of it was former farmland. Unfortunately, most of these places, although designated as open space by the township, they mostly have "Private Property" signs posted everywhere, which is infuriating. No one really knows who actually owns any of it, and this time of year even if you decide to ignore the signs because there doesn't seem to be anyone around, you risk venturing into hunting areas which is not safe.  In any case in the last few weeks since I made my discovery all the fall leaves have come down in the forest making it pretty futile to keep looking. So I'll have to wait until spring I think if I want to take another look around.  It seems to me, people who really get into this as a full time hobby are probably doing their homework in terms of research and recon. That's probably more time than I have to devote, but I am not opposed to checking out other wooded lots in my area. Of course, you can bet I'm going to wait until deer season is over. Not looking to have my own personal Deliverance tales.

Cheers!


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