I have been really focusing on returning to all of the old Colonial cellar holes up here in New England I have on my GPS, & looking just for the trash pits rather than just surface hunting which we have already done hard at these places. Your really detecting for iron which is something most detectorists skip over, so there are trash pits out there with lots of valuable bottles to be had. But, they are very challenging to find. This season so far, I've done real well finding them with the F75 or T2, & getting out some whole bottles.....and of course some real "criers" always turn up broken too (but I'm getting pretty good at gluing them up for interesting additions to my treasure room).
[attachment 128429 CaptsBottles1.jpg]
This was a small Civil War era dump, & pictured here are a real nice black glass ale bottle which was the first one I recovered. Then after moving some logs out of the way, I saw this brown bump sticking right out of the ground I thought was a rock. Turns out it was this ovoid jug marked with the name "A. STATES". It had been sticking out of the ground for over 150 years, but sadly that led to it's demise as it must have got frozen & the top blown off
The other embossed bottle that came out perfect is a really nice aqua 1860's "Camm's Spanish Lustral Hair Preservative, Providence, RI."
Now the "criers"...
[attachment 128430 CaptsCriers1.jpg]
On the left is an open pontilled "Wayne's Compound Syrup of Cherry, Phila." The beautiful green bottle in the center is an iron pontilled "Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla" the second one in pieces I have found in a month (so I glued it to at least have something on the shelf)
The small amber pontilled base in front looks like a New England utility, maybe Stoddard? Finally, to the right, a real heart breaker & what would have easily been my oldest bottle ever. This is a circa 1700-1730 Dutch onion bottle. Look at the wear on the base, & there's even scratches on the side that show how many years it was used. It was most likely used in the family for hundreds of years till the day it was dropped in the 1860's when the rest of these bottles were dumped in the pit...
thanks for looking,
Bill
[attachment 128429 CaptsBottles1.jpg]
This was a small Civil War era dump, & pictured here are a real nice black glass ale bottle which was the first one I recovered. Then after moving some logs out of the way, I saw this brown bump sticking right out of the ground I thought was a rock. Turns out it was this ovoid jug marked with the name "A. STATES". It had been sticking out of the ground for over 150 years, but sadly that led to it's demise as it must have got frozen & the top blown off
The other embossed bottle that came out perfect is a really nice aqua 1860's "Camm's Spanish Lustral Hair Preservative, Providence, RI." Now the "criers"...
[attachment 128430 CaptsCriers1.jpg]
On the left is an open pontilled "Wayne's Compound Syrup of Cherry, Phila." The beautiful green bottle in the center is an iron pontilled "Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla" the second one in pieces I have found in a month (so I glued it to at least have something on the shelf)
The small amber pontilled base in front looks like a New England utility, maybe Stoddard? Finally, to the right, a real heart breaker & what would have easily been my oldest bottle ever. This is a circa 1700-1730 Dutch onion bottle. Look at the wear on the base, & there's even scratches on the side that show how many years it was used. It was most likely used in the family for hundreds of years till the day it was dropped in the 1860's when the rest of these bottles were dumped in the pit...thanks for looking,
Bill