Antique Bottle & Glass Collector – February 2022

$4.00

February 2022

Not Just Another Pipe Dream! w PAGE 34

IN THIS ISSUE:

Focusing Light on Purdy's Alcohol Lamp w PAGE 7

The Bevan Brothers: Three Lives in a Bottle w PAGE 8

Thoughts from a Collector w PAGE 11

A Country Home's Bottle Bonanza w PAGE 29

T h e Ma g a z i n e T h at Ke eps Yo u I n fo r m e d!

Seeking quality consignments for our 2022 auction schedule!

American Glass Gallery

TM

As a consignor, consider these benefits to help ensure your valued items reach their highest potential: w Competitive consignor rates and low buyer premiums w Broad-based and extensive advertising w Experience, knowledge, honesty and integrity w Attention to detail and customer service

Auction 31 Coming March, 2022!

Watch for these choice items, and many more, in our upcoming March, 2022 Auction.

American Glass Gallery • John R. Pastor • P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, Michigan 48165 phone: 248.486.0530 • www.americanglassgallery.com • email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

VOLUME 38, #10 • February 2022 FRONT COVER:

Amateur archeologist and bottle digger extraordinaire Rick Weiner takes us on his latest adventure titled "A Digger's Pipe Dreams."

Read all about it beginning on page 34.

Publisher John R. Pastor

In This Issue:

Editors: Ralph Finch Bill Baab Jodi Hall

Letters to the Editor........................................................................... 2

Managing Editor Libby Smith The Medicine Chest John Panella

Heard it through the Grapevine......................................................... 4 Focusing Light on Purdy's Alcohol Lamp......................................... 7 The Bevan Brothers: Three Lives in a Bottle...................................... 8

New England Review Mike George

Thoughts from a Collector............................................................... 11

Bitters Columnist Bob Strickhart

A Lazy Man's Bottle Story................................................................ 15

Spouting off on Mineral Waters Donald Tucker

Classified Advertisements................................................................. 22

Contributing Writers: Ralph Finch Kevin Sives

Show Calendar.................................................................................. 27

Design, Layout & Production Jake Pluta

A Country Home's Bottle Bonanza................................................. 29 A Digger's Pipe Dreams................................................................... 34 Bonham's Rare Sage Ball (again)..................................................... 41

ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR (ISSN 8750-1481) is published monthly by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Annual Subscription $35.00 at periodical rates, $49.00 at First-class rates and $4.00 per single copy. Canadian (First-class rate available only) $54.00 (in U.S. Funds). Overseas rates please inquire. Published

by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Periodicals Postage is paid at New Hudson MI and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. PH: 248.486.0530; Fax: 248.486.0538, Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com, Website: www.americanglassgallery.com. © Copyright 2022 all rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher.

Coming in March: Pond's Extract - The Peoples Friend, by Fred DeCarlo Nosy Writer Finch Wants to Poke Around Your Privates, by Ralph Finch Dr. E. Champlain's Ligneous Extract, by Eric McGuire & Frank Sternad Jacob & David Hostetter - Dr. J. Hostetter's Bitters, by Ferdinand Meyer V Humble Pie, by Jeff Mihalik And other very cool stuff!

February 2022

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LETTERS

to the Editor

A Nice Comment, and News of Brownies, Too? At the end of the year, Michael Beardsley of Chittenango, New York, sent this thoughtful note to the AB&GC: Dear John, In my humble opinion, Ralph Finch’s writings are the best part of AB&GC magazine. Love his humor, insights and easy-going style are a true pleasure.

day, most every day of the week, even a band of monkeys can occasionally produce something. Probably not “War and Peace,” but …

And I couldn’t do it for the fact that Janet does 99.9 percent of the work around the house, and I mean 99.9 percent! The tiny fraction that falls to me? Once a week I fill the sugar bowl! (Of course, Janet always adds, “You are the one who uses the sugar.” Picky, picky.)

I hope the new group realizes what he has meant to the magazine over the years and what a strong fan base he has among collectors!

Full Speed Ahead for the Annual National Bottle Museum, Saratoga Show!

PS: Boy, I turned up something that is right up your alley, I think. I've seen a very unusual fruit jar box that is beyond cool … if it is real? The graphics are insane, little brownies running off with Ball or Mason fruit jars and prying the lid off the box. Bizarre.

With so many shows either being canceled or up in the air, AB&GC received the following letter regarding their annual blockbuster Saratoga Show.

I’m in a heated auction battle for this beat-up box (one side is cracked, no lid, etc.). I’ll let you know if I am lucky.

Greetings friends and supporters of the National Bottle Museum.

Mike Beardsley casketeer@aol.com

We are sending this out to advise you that the Annual Saratoga Antique Bottle Show and Sale will be held on Sunday, June 5, 2022, at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds.

While contracts were normally sent out mid-January, we expect the date to be later. Contracts will be both mailed and emailed along with a letter containing any updated information about the show.

As always, we thank you for your continued support of our show.

Phil Bernnard Adam Stoddard Roy Topka Saratoga Show Co-Chairs

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Editor’s note: Good luck on the brownie bidding; it sounds like a real treat. If you get the rare jar box we’ll see if we can get the article in an upcoming magazine.

Talking about brownies, Janet will kill me when I reveal this, but … everyone thinks that she is soooo sweet, but once — as a little girl — she got kicked out of the Brownies. (She had a philosophical difference with the adult Brownie leader over the proper way of making a S’more.

Honest.)

Also, regarding Mike’s kind comment on my writing. True, spending six hours a

Will denatured alcohol work on Linda Conner's master ink crock? Jimmy Bray thinks it will.

Write This Down: How to Blot Out an Ink Blob Hi, John, Hope all is well. Regarding the inquiry in the January issue, Letters to Editor, from Linda Conner, on how to remove or dissolve a big hunk of dried ink in a Sanford’s master ink crock, she might try denatured alcohol. It should be available at most hardware stores.

Jimmy Bray Oglethorpe, Georgia

LETTERS

to the Editor

Bottle Quilt Dear John, You may recall that in my recent letter, I mentioned a bottle quilt that my wife and I made in the 1980s.

Here are a few pictures. The quilt is completely documented on the back within a large depiction of the American System Flask.

Sincerely, Dr. Curt Morse Searsport, Maine February 2022

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Heard it through the

Grapevine A Key to Riches (or Just a Skeleton Key?)

By Ralph Finch I was drifting around the internet when I floated across Lot 288, an R.M.S. Titanic White Star Line company key and ring with brass tag stamped “SERVICE FOR ‘E’ Deck.”

The seller said, “This highly important artifact was a master service key for access to the forward portion of E Deck, which provided steward Edmund Stone access to the crew-only passage ways of the ship.

Stone would have made frequent use of this key in the course of his duties to his First-Class Passengers.

“Stone could have also used the key to provide passage for crewmen and passengers during the sinking of the vessel as Third-Class accommodations were located in this area.”

The Baath, England, auction house estimated the key at £40,000-60,000 ($51,035-76,552).

Per the internet: Edmund J. Stone was born in Southampton in 1879, and was 33 at the time of the Titanic disaster.

His body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, body No 41, and was buried at sea (which seems a bit redundant). In his pockets: two knives, a pawn ticket, a silver watch, a pencil and keys.

Another small, corroded key for a locker on the Titanic has sold for £85,000 ($115,523). The key was used by Sidney Sedunary, 23, from Shirley, Southampton, a third-class steward. (If you think that’s a lot for a key that now can’t open a door, just about anything related to that ship goes for a boatload.)

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

FYI: The sinking of the Titanic was the biggest news story to break until the onset of World War One. If you search, you can find things sold (or still offered) such as: • A deck chair recovered from the scene by a body recovery ship. One of only seven known to exist.

• An extraordinary ticket from 1911, granting the holder access to the Harland & Wolff shipyard to attend the launching of the Titanic.

• A pre-sinking reverse glass souvenir painting intended for sale onboard the Titanic.

• An original negative from Mabel Fenwick, a Carpathia passenger, showing Titanic’s wreck site on the morning of April 15th, 1912.

• A pressed tin W. Ariel Gray & Co. cigarette case advertising Titanic’s maiden voyage. And, a prime reminder that smoking, especially on a ship, can be dangerous to your health.

• A pre-sinking advertisement for Vinolia Otto Toilet Soap, announcing its use in Titanic’s first class appointments.

• A religious pamphlet using the sinking of the Titanic as a propaganda tool.

r Editor’s note: As part of my plan to insert a bad joke in every story I include this: My grandfather was there just before the Titanic sank. He shouted three times that “It’s gonna sink!” … until they finally kicked him out of the movie theater.

TOP: The key found on Edmund Stone's body.

MIDDLE: The locker key from the Titanic that sold for £85,000. The locker was for life jackets.

BOTTOM: Photograph of Edmund J. Stone.

Heard it through the

Grapevine

The eBayer said: “This is a rare, sandy-colored, vintage brick salvaged in Paris, and found at the old bakery 1800s!” The brick would be shipped for $30 from Lutsk, Ukraine. Really?

Oooo, La La: I’m a Brick!

Ralph Finch admits: Despite the fact that an “alleged” friend said I was one brick short of a full load, I do admit that I am a brick collector, even if the Finches have less than a brick baker’s dozen.

I got started with a load of bricks under the heavy guidance of Roy Brown, a jar collector, a brick collector, a friend, and the Federation’s president back in 1976.

And, encouraged by Roy, I attended at least two most-interesting brick collectors’ conventions. (FYI, Roy was once a top official in the U.S. brick union.)

So, being a collector of strange stuff, the brick shown here offered on eBay caught my eye for several reasons. It is a brick that is debossed “PARIS” and is said to have been from an old bakery that dated to the 1800s.

However, it allegedly would be shipped from Lutsk, Ukraine, for a mere $30.

(ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ) Thirty dollars? It recently cost the Finches $500 to ship four ounces of glass from London!

At first, I thought that this was a scam; if it was, how would I get money back from the Ukraine? (Threaten them with Putin’s name?) However, the seller had a few hundred positive eBay reviews, and claimed it would ship around the world yet excludes about 150 different countries, including Canada, and, I am embarrassed to admit, a dozen countries I’d never heard of. Where the heck are Reunion, Comoros, Mayotte, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the list went on. I checked; those places do exist. Mayotte, for example, is a small territory overseen

by France.

I was tempted in part to get the brick, just to see if a brick can be mailed around the world for $30. But I was really tempted because Paris means a lot to the Finches; we danced on a Parisian sidewalk one warm evening, under a misty rain.

Probably produced by S. Reich & Co, Vienna, circa 1900, these mold-blown sealed blocks are all marked FALCONNIER. This large group was originally used for two large windows in a building erected in 1890, and dismantled in 2014. This set was auctioned in 2015 for $5,600!

Are You a Blockhead?

By Ralph Finch (he’s been called worse) I know that a lot of people collect clay bricks — we have a few in our garden, along with a couple large globs of slag glass — but this combines two interests.

Offered late November on eBay was “One Falconnier glass building block, model No. 9. Excellent Condition ...

“In the late 1880s, architect/engineer Gustave Falconnier (1845-1913) of Nyon, Switzerland, invented a novel type of glass building block or ‘glass brick’ (Germanglasbaustein or glassteine, Frenchbrique de verre). Falconnier’s bricks were blown in a mold, like bottles, but had the original feature of being sealed air-tight with a pastille of molten glass while hot; after cooling, the hot air trapped inside contracts, forming a partial vacuum. Their sides were recessed to take mortar and were laid up like ordinary masonry bricks, with or without embedded metal reinforcing.”

“Falconnier's sealed, air-tight design was a prize-winner at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and 1900 Paris Exposition.”

The minimum (opening) bid on eBay was $110. Did it sell? I didn’t follow it, sorry.

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When You Discover Good Bottles & Glass... Send Them to Heckler’s!

We welcome your conversation to discuss consignment options for a singular item, group or entire collection.

www. hecklerauction.com 860-974-1634 79 Bradford Corner Road, Woodstock Valley, CT 06282

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Colorful, and interesting. Purdy was bright, but Edison was brilliant. Here are a few of Purdy’s choice of colors and sizes.

Focusing Light on Purdy’s Alcohol Lamp

By Ralph Finch

O

ver the years as a target ball collector, I often came across glass orbs that were touted by uneducated eBay sellers as various things, usually as target balls (wrong), often as oil lamps (close), and — occasionally — as alcohol lamps (correct). They also are found at glass shows, but don’t buy one!

And they almost always are labeled “rare” (wrong), or even “unique,” and the now meaningless word: “vintage.”

The balls themselves are common, since they are made of thick glass and can survive forever in a dump. The glass is thicker on the bottom than on the top, and we’ll get to that later.

The lamps, designed by John H. Purdy of Chicago, are rarely found complete, and that means with all six parts: the metal cup base, the wick holder, the attached (by a little chain) snuffer and the wick.

The orbs are embossed with one or two patent dates. If one, the date is “Patd Sep

14th 1880.” If two dates, the second is “And March 14th 1893.”

upper half, and providing greater stability in the base.

The lamps are commonly called jeweler’s lamps, used by anyone who needs close-up light, such as watch makers. And despite the illumination, the balls cause confusion with dim-witted people who don’t take time to Google information.

On the bright side, the balls do offer something special, as they were made in a variety of colors: amber, green, blue, green and clear.

Perhaps after working long hours at night with his lamp, Purdy also made an improvement with his third patent on May 31, 1910 (959,804), for a method to fuel the lamp without the need to remove the burner.

The round balls fit loosely in the cup holder, to allow the user to change the flame to any position beneficial to the task at hand, either vertically, or at some other angle by rotating the ball within the semi-circular cup holder.

In the period from 1878-80 Edison and his associates were given 1,093 patents, and during that time worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Edison’s “New Type Edison Lamp, patented May 4, 1880, pretty much left Purdy in the dark … or, at least, in history’s dust.

Purdy claimed certain improvements for regulating the flame. His 1893 patent addressed the problem of keeping the sphere from moving in the holder by making the bottom of the sphere thicker, thereby giving it more mass than the

Again, while they are not target balls, I am a packrat and felt the need of acquiring these orbs in all colors and all sizes.

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The Bevan Brothers: Three Lives in a Bottle

By Jack Sullivan

T

he mid-19th century amber bottle shown here (Figure 1) is accounted a singularity with nothing like its shape and decor before or after in American whiskey annals. It was the product of the Bevan Brothers — Ebenezer, Thomas and Benjamin — immigrants from Wales who during their foreshortened lives fashioned a thriving liquor business in East Central Pennsylvania and established their reputation for fair dealing.

The Bevans originated in Blaenavon, a town in southeastern Wales, lying at the source of the River Afon Lwyd in historic Monmouthshire County. Shown here as it looked in the 1800s (Figure 2), parts of the Blaenavon are now a U.N.-designated World Heritage Site. The brothers were the sons of Philip and Rachel Lewis Bevan. Ebenezer, born in 1824 was the eldest, followed by Benjamin, 1826, and Thomas, 1828.

Receiving their education in the schools of Wales, the Bevans also had some work experience behind them when they immigrated to the United States during the late 1840s. They settled in Pittson, a town in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. It gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a bustling anthracite coal mining city, drawing a large portion of its miners from European immigrants, many of them from Wales.

The early years in Pittson for the brothers may have been in the mining industry.

Benjamin (Figure 3) possibly drawn by

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, then left the family and went to California in 1849. Whatever his occupation there, when he returned two years later he had sufficient cash to help set the brothers up in business. Thus in 1852 the wholesale wine and liquor house of “E. & B. Bevan" was born.

The eldest brother, Ebenezer, was the president of the firm and owned the building that housed it. The structure was two stories, and covered a site of fifty feet of front and 135 feet in depth on Pittston’s Main Street (Figure 4). It was capable of holding multiple barrels of liquor. As recorded in a press report, the Bevans’ company prospered, achieving “a splendid reputation throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, both for the character of its transactions and the quality of its work.” The 1860 census put the net worth of the brothers at the equivalent today of a half million dollars.

While also dealing in imported and domestic wines, brandies, and liqueurs, the brothers were specializing in whiskey.

Pennsylvania was rife with distilleries, many making rye- and corn-based liquor.

The Bevans were buying their products by the barrel, likely “rectifying” (i.e. blending), and selling whiskeys said to be “remarkable for strength and purity.”

Although many U.S. liquor dealers were content to market their wares with labels on plain flasks and quarts, the Bevans determined to issue their “I.X.L. Valley Whiskey” in a more costly uniquely shaped, embossed glass container. They possibly designed and definitely commis-

sioned a Pittston area glassworks to craft the special bottle that opens this post.

Blown in a mold and bearing a pontil scar, the whiskey bottle features a small cylindrical base with a larger octagonal paneled body tapering at the shoulders into a long neck and applied double collared mouth. The embossing features the name of the whiskey and company along with four five-pointed stars. There is a pontiled base (Figure 5). The color varies from a brilliant amber to darker hues (Figures 6,7,8).

As they were growing their liquor trade, the Bevans also were having personal lives.

Not long after his arrival in America, Ebenezer wed Jane Rowlands, a woman six years his junior, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Accounted “a woman of beautiful character,” Jane, like her husband, had been born in Wales. They would have seven children, three boys and four girls.

Meanwhile, Benjamin had married Mary Ann Jones, a Pennsylvania-born woman seven years younger. They would have eight children, four boys and four girls.

The two Bevan families lived next door to each other in Pittston. According to the 1860 census, Thomas Bevan, still unmarried at 32, lived with Ebenezer’s family.

The Bevans increasingly were being recognized as progressive, civic minded additions to the town and surrounding region. Said the Wilkes Barre Times Leader: “From the year 1852, the family of Bevan has been a prominent one in this community and has done its share in procuring the development of Pittston’s capabilities

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6

February 2022

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father for her children, and became Jane Watkins. Almost immediately Benjamin assumed control of the business, renaming it “B. Bevan & Bro.” FIGURE 7

FIGURE 8

and resource.” Unfortunately, the brothers had limited time to enjoy their joint prosperity and local acclaim.

Ebenezer was the first to go. At the age of 44 in 1868 he died while still guiding the fortunes of E. & B. Bevan. With his extended family grieving by his graveside, Ebenezer was buried in Pittston’s Forty Fort Cemetery (Figure 9). At the time, four of his children were still minors. His widow married again, perhaps to have a

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

That brother, Thomas, who had been part of the firm from the beginning, was said to be “widely known and respected throughout the county.” For the next eight years he worked beside Benjamin at the liquor house as the business continued to prosper. He also married. Throughout his life, however, Thomas had been plagued with depression. The crisis came in April 1876, when he left home one morning and was found three hours later hanging from a beam in the Bevan & Bro. Company warehouse. Age 48 at his death, Thomas was buried near Ebenezer in the Forty Fort Cemetery (Figure 10). He left behind a family of five young sons.

With Thomas’ death, Benjamin became the sole proprietor and the company name changed to “B. Bevan.” This brother expanded his entrepreneurial skills to other areas, and for a time was president of the Niagara Engine Company and a director of the Pittston streetcar line. Benjamin’s health began to fail late in 1880 and took a turn for the worse in January 1881. He rallied sufficiently to witness the marriage of his eldest daughter but died several days later, leaving three minor children. His obituary in the local paper, accounted Benjamin as “a man generally esteemed for his genial manners and kindly nature.” At the time of his death he was 54 years old, and was buried near his brothers (Figure 11).

At Benjamin’s death ownership of the liquor house devolved to his widow, Mary Ann Jones Bevan. She was assisted in managing the firm by C. W. St. John, a son-in-law, who continued to operate the business successfully for a number of years.

The last directory entry that I can find for the liquor house is 1888. The legacy of the Bevan brothers, three immigrants from Wales, is embodied in the iconic whiskey bottle that bears their name. Eagerly collected, one recently sold for $2,691.

Notes: Key information for this article was a piece on the Bevan liquor business that appeared in an October 1888 issue of the Wilkes Barre Times Leader and the newspaper obituaries of Thomas, Benjamin and Ebenezer’s widow, Jane. Matt Wheeler, a descendant of Thomas Bevan, provided me with additional information, the portrait of Benjamin and the photo of the company, for which I am most grateful.

FIGURE 9

FIGURE 10

FIGURE 11

Who am I? Really Lucky.

What (else) Do I Collect?

As a departing editor on the AB&GC staff, allow me to say hello AND adios to the few people who have been fortunate enough to have not met me Ralph Finch shares some autobiographical musings

R

ecently I received an email from someone who asked what else could I cram into the Finch Funhouse? I replied, but Janet, my personal editor, stated, “You can’t write that!

It sounds like bragging.”

Most of what the hobby collects can be a hundred years old, or if we visit the right museum, can be a few thousand years old. All of this should remind us that we are but caretakers of these treasures. Yet, what will we leave behind us? What have we done beyond being a caretaker, an occasional duster of pieces from the past.

Some collectors have gathered great collections shared with others; some have dedicated large chunks of their lives to produce books, articles, newsletters, etc. for the enjoyment and edification of others who share our interests.

In time, other generations may pick up a book (or a catalog) and, for a moment, wonder just who was Watson, or Blaske, or Ring, Blakeman, the Kovels, McKearin, Wilson, balsam queen Betty Blasi, fruit jars’ Alice Creswick or Jerry McCann or Alex Kerr of target balls and fruit jars, John Wolf and his cures, and so on. And I have been so fortunate to have known, or at least met, so many of them.

And knowing Hal and Vern Wagner when they put on the St. Louis Expo, or Adam Koch when he produced his incredible Toledo Expo, and Phyllis Koch, for printing so many club newsletters or books on glass. My On Target! target ball journal couldn’t have survived without her printing skills.

Or knowing the great Vuono family, or the Heckler family.

And if I close my eyes I can feel the warm smile of Burton Spiller, hear the laughter of Roy Brown, and hear that southern drawl of Tom and Mable Hicks of Georgia.

And glass magician Don Spangler, whose last name became part of repaired bottle history: Spanglerized. And glass artist Bob Villamagna.

And New Yorkers Dick Vanderlaan, Jim Whetzel (whose bottle shop in New York State dates back to the 1960s) and Jack Whistance, Leigh Beardsley and …

I keep wanting to add more to the list.

Who can forget ephemera king Kit Barry of Vermont, with his quarter-million pieces of paper? And Laurence Cooper of Portobello Road’s market in London.

(And my favorite stories about Kit or Laurence? Hard to pick just one.)

As I look at this ever-expanding list of names I almost want to cry, for all the other names that should be included.

Aren’t we all obligated to leave this world, and this hobby, just a little bit better than when we found it?

And the other early pioneers of the Federation: Norman and Junne Barnett of Indiana, Jerry Jones of Ohio, Dave and Barbara Robertus, Gene Bradberry, Randy Haviland.

Now, who am I? I’ll tell you, and, is this bragging? Maybe it is, but I’ve made mistakes in my life, so can’t I share the successes? I am proud of what I’ve achieved, and it hasn’t always been easy.

But, let me begin.

And Bob Mebane, Ben Swanson, and all the California names: Frank Peters, Louis Pellegrini, Barbara Coggins, Elmer Lester, Peck Markota, Frank Brockman.

“Mr. Lucky” is the name of a 1943 romance film starring Cary Grant. It also could be the title of my life (except for my many visits to casinos).

And George Herron, and William Covill.

Many decades ago I started collecting February 2022

11

glass, and it led to travels across the country and to various countries, especially 20 trips to England. (I even went to an antique glass shop in Melbourne, Australia, and out of the blue the shop owner asked me if I knew Jerry McCann of Chicago.

It’s a big, and small, world.)

Then, at a meeting of the Metro Detroit Antique Bottle club, decades ago, I met the most wonderful woman in the world.

(And that’s not bragging, just the truth.)

And after collecting glass for well over 50 years, I have acquired good stuff. And fun stuff. And how did it happen? Hard work, meticulously searching through antique shows and auction houses, and spending a lot of money.

How? I have never spent one penny on tobacco in my entire life (antique snuff jars don’t count), nor a penny on alcohol (once again, old liquor bottles are acceptable).

How one spends money is an individual thing, and I am almost 82, and have never owned a new car in my entire life.

(My first car cost $125 plus my extra pair of army boots plus taking the seller’s day of KP duty.) You want a new car or an old bottle? The choice is simple.

Life’s a series of choices, so to answer the question, “What do I collect?” Wow, this will be a challenge; it’s not going to be easy.

Some collections are extensive, and some are only an item or two. It reminds me of bitters trade card king Joe Gourd of Illinois. Years ago he said he was a collector of Binninger bottles. I asked him how many he had and he replied that he was waiting for the first one, yet still considered himself a Binninger collector. (He later got up to 12.) Joe, a good and close friend, was one of the first Detroit bottle club presidents, and now owns thousands of bitters trade cards.

And how did I get started? At an antiques show. It was set up at a shopping mall.

Out of curiosity I picked up a random piece of glass — I wasn’t a collector —

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

and a pretty blond in a red sweater asked: “Do you like old glass?” I said, “Um, yes.” And the next thing I knew I was attending meetings of a group of collectors.

Soon, in my apartment, the group met and formed the Detroit Bottle Club.

Here we go, but first, let’s list the collections now history. I started out with rare pint fruit jars, but they’re long gone.

Then, G9-10 scrolls in a variety of colors and Jim Hagenbuch sold them. Next, Old Sachem Bitters barrels: Jim sold them, too, and how bittersweet that was. Following were 111 Sandwich glass colognes. Norman Heckler sold those sandwich items for a lot of dough (I also collect bad puns.)

OK, target balls. The total was 250 different ones, even though a few balls were represented in several colors. Most were American, many British, plus others from France, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, Canada. Was there a larger collection known? Not that I’m aware of.

In fact, I doubt it will ever be matched; I started early, when many, OK, some, could be acquired at a reasonable price.

Their value? I’ve paid $30 for one, and $30,000 for another (spending my new wife’s life savings). There is little in the way of target ball, or target shooting, ephemera, but what exists, I had a good portion of it. My favorite item was a large, circa 1880 poster of famous ball man Ira Paine shooting a walnut off his wife’s head, and target balls that she tosses into the air. (In Paris, I visited the hotel where he died; he was staying there while showing off his skills shooting at the Folies Bergere.)

Also, I probably had the largest collection of glass ball traps, maybe 25, and they are much harder to find than a good ball. Also, with eBay and the internet and traveling frequently to Europe, I’ve had advantages that Alex Kerr, the godfather of target ball collecting, did not. (Alex was a member of the Kerr glass family.)

And all this target ball stuff was sold by John Pastor’s American Glass Gallery.

Now to the present. Rare painted and non-painted demijohns; etched Scottish bottles; a variety of early glass, plus 1880s alcohol lamps; ketchup bottles; glass canes (we have more than a hundred); and portrait tiles, advertising items/signs and even late 1800s wooden clothespins (thanks to the late Elma and Dick Watson).

And bricks, thanks to FOHBC’s first president, Roy Brown of Kentucky, and another collector who exhibited bricks at a New York show. (I’ve attended several really interesting shows just for brick collectors … heavy, dude.) If you visit, check out the few bricks decorating the flowers along the sidewalk. Also along the walk are large globs of glass in clear and aqua, rescued from old glasshouse dumps.

I have a large and interesting (or so I say) collection of rolls of early toilet paper (honest). About 60 different rolls at last count — even a roll of Nazi-era toilet paper, including a reproduction roll of Nazi toilet paper! (Is there anything that isn’t sacred? Or reproduced?)

And, of course, related toilet ephemera.

My favorite is a 1940s’ children’s musical toilet roll holder that, when used, plays Whistle While You Work.

Oooops, I’d be flushed with embarrassment if I didn’t mention my two salesman’s samples ceramic toilets.

And even glass fly traps, maybe 125, in a variety of colors and shapes from around the world, as well as mechanism-driven wooden fly traps. They’ve come from the U.S., Europe and Australia.

And hair bottles and related items. There are 100 to 200 hair bottles on the shelves, but nothing major.

And things with crabs on them.(Oooops.

Janet corrects me again. They are NOT crabs, but stuff with lobsters on ’em.)

And circa 1800 snuff bottles (Janet is my snuff queen).

And ketchups? OK, I’m not sure who has more 1800-to-today ketchups than I do.

They are all over the house; plus trade cards, early advertising and more ephemera than Heinz had 57 varieties.

Some of my hard-to-acquire items are rare ketchup jugs, crocks and wooden shipping boxes.

Twice, my ketchups have been featured in TV documentaries in the U.S., and a third time in Russia (isn’t everything red there?) And several times some of the ketchup bottles have been exhibited at bottle shows.

And so many books on antiques, and signs, everywhere: cardboard, metal, painted glass. My favorite is the large wood sign over my desk, over my computer, the one that fuels much of my writing: “FERTILIZER OF ALL KINDS.” (Forty years ago I had my photo taken in front of a sign at a farm in rural England. It read: “Chicken Manure, 3 Pence a Pound.” It seemed like a bargain, but I don’t know how I would have gotten it through airport customs.)

Ooooops; it just popped up in my head: Old toasters; they are hot.

And did I mention glass twine holders?

And a charming grouping of eclectic Victorian pitchers (wanna see a picture of the pitchers?)

Here a tweet from a Finch: A large antique birdcage filled with birds carved out of wood.

And the house has a variety of leaded glass, in windows and lamps, of which Janet made. About 35 years ago, Janet was hired to make a lamp shade to hang in my previous home’s kitchen. It now hangs in our current kitchen.

But of all the great glass, of all the travel, of all the great people and of all the won-

derful rewards the hobby has given me, the best part is re-meeting Janet (then Loik), who in 1977 I interviewed about her collecting, which included target balls. I knew her in the 1970s and ’80s and thought she was delightful. We then went on to our separate lives. Almost 30 years later, with both of us divorced, I called to say “Hello.” We had several delightful phone conversations and, to make a long story short, Under the Whispering Gallery of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, *England, I proposed to the most remarkable woman that I have ever known. Six months later, in Las Vegas as Elvis walked her down the aisle, we were married at the Graceland Chapel, and the hobby continues to be wonderful.

After re-meeting Janet, I discovered that I was the happiest and luckiest man in the

world. I love her, and not only that, so does everyone who meets her. (*I make a distinction, since we also have been to London, Ontario, Canada. The first time followed the time I mentioned to Janet that at the rate our friendship was going, we’d soon be in Paris. And we were. There is a small city called “Paris,” not that far from London, Ontario.)

Do I have other interests that are NOT glass or hobby related?

Travel is a big one. It would take me a few minutes if I had to list all the countries I have visited. The big ones, of course, Canada, France and Great Britain. I’ve had the good fortune of having visited England at least 20 times. And most all the countries around the MediFebruary 2022

13

terranean, and around central America and around the Caribbean, including Haiti. And believe it or not, fifty years ago Haiti was a treat to visit … even if it remains hell to live in.

And Mexico. And on the other side of the globe, Russia was a delight, Australia, too. And more than two years in Japan, courtesy of my uncle (Sam). Oh, yes, Cuba, before it collapsed, was fun.

Another big interest is the theater. We’ve had season subscriptions to at least four theaters. I have enjoyed “The Phantom” at least 55 times, in Detroit, London, Toronto and Melbourne, Australia and even Vegas; even a local high school’s production. I’ve seen Les Miserables about 30-plus times, and hope to enjoy it again.

There is a large drawer bulging with hundreds (and hundreds) of tickets to live theater shows from across the U.S., Canada, England and even Australia.

14

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

One favorite ticket stub is 61 years old, when I saw the Mills Brothers (popular forever is the U.S.) in a theater in southern Japan. And the Trio Los Panchos, too.

And I am the only person in my group of friends to have seen live one of the Spice Girls: Melanie Chrisholm, also known as Mel C (“Scary Spice”), appearing in Blood Brothers in London.

Had I not a weakness for musical theater, my glass collection would be at least twice the size it now is.

And we have theater posters on the bedroom walls (along with souvenirs of Japan, including photos, maps, posters, and photos of Toshiro Mifune, even a shot of me standing at Toshiro’s star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. (He appeared in more than 150 feature films.)

Two and a half years living in southern Japan allowed me a chance to grow up, and to appreciate life.

Again, life is a series of choices. I’ve spent a fortune on glass, and my former best friend spent a fortune on tobacco, not counting the money spent at hospitals trying to save his life. He’s gone now, and never went to many places; and I have great memories, and great glass.

But … friends have been so important to my life, and almost all of them have come through the hobby. I’ve met most of the “big names” in the hobby, people whose collections were later auctioned off in bound-printed catalogs. I’ve been fortunate to have been to the homes of many of them, or even had them in my home. So many collectors, and so many of them are now gone.

Let’s lift a glass (old or new) in remembrance of them all.

D

A Lazy Man’s Bottle Story Slothful Ralph Finch hits a new low I’ve got maybe 25 stories that I have started but not finished. It is a sunny but chilly winter day and I’m in my blue fluffy bathrobe (my pink one is in the wash), and I have just enough energy to figure out a way to write a story without actually writing one.

Here is the AB&GC magazine’s first do-it-yourself bottle story. I will hand you enough illustrations and if you are interested, you can research and write it yourself. I am taking a “hibernation” day.

If you have material to add to this, please email me at rfinch@twmi.rr.com and I’ll update the story in a later issue. Now, it’s time for a nap — I’m 81 and that’s what old(er) folks do. Zzzzzzzzz PHOTOS (clockwise, from top left): Haskins Trade Card: If a round-eyed geisha doesn’t sell it, add two butterflies. (In the eyes of western men, images of Japanese women and butterflies are often linked.); Trade Card reverse: Use this — for 25 cents — and pain cannot exist!; Haskins Patent: It could be worse. The next patent was for suppositories! Morris R. Haskins’ “What Is It?” bottle from Belvidere, Ill.

February 2022

15

R E N O 2 022

FOHBC RENO NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION WESTERN REGION

Thursday, July 28 - Sunday, July 31, 2022 Antique Bottle Show & Sales, Bottle Competition, Early Admission, Seminars, Displays, Awards Banquet, Membership Breakfast, Bowling Competition, Silent Auction, Raffle, Children’s Events and more... $5 General Admission Saturday and Sunday half day

Go to FOHBC.org for hotel booking information, schedule and dealer contracts. Hotel rooms will go fast!

Richard & Bev Siri (Show Chairs) rtsiri@sbcglobal.net

Eric McGuire (Seminars, Keynote Speaker) etmcguire@comcast.net

John Burton (Displays) JohnCBurton@msn.com

Ferdinand Meyer V (Marketing & Advertising) fmeyer@fmgdesign.com

DeAnna Jordt (Show Treasurer) dljordt@yahoo.com

Gina Pellegrini (Event Photographer) angelina.pellegrini@gmail.com

TEAM RENO

Info: FOHBC.org

16

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

9, 2022

February 2022

17

Publisher’s Corner Dear AB&GC Subscribers, Looking back, it is hard to believe how quickly the time has passed since we first took over the reins of publishing Antique Bottle & Glass Collector almost 12 years ago! It has been a privilege and honor. The magazine has been a cornerstone of the hobby for decades.

As the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors prepares to take the helm of publishing AB&GC effective with the March issue, we would like to take this opportunity to wish them continued success moving forward. They have a very talented board who, of course, are well versed in the publishing business. A number of enhancements are already in the works for the magazine. Many of these were detailed in January issue of the Publisher's Corner (page 18).

Publishing AB&GC magazine over the past 12 years would not have been possible without the assistance of a very talented and dedicated staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those responsible including Jake Pluta, our extremely skillful and dedicated layout / production guru. Jake has been with us since virtually the inception and has never missed a deadline getting an issue to the printer. Owen Neils, tremendously talented graphic artist and fellow glass collector who actually created the new format and 'look' of the magazine with the first issue way back in 2010. Owen has also been responsible for the beautiful cover art on each issue. Libby Smith, AB&GC / AGG office manager whom many of you have come to know over the years. If you have ever contacted our office with a question, subscription, classified ad or renewal, you likely talked to Libby. She has been the glue that holds everything together. And, of course, our very talented editors, Ralph Finch, Jodi Hall, and Bill Baab. Without them, the magazine would not be what it is today. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Ralph for his literally hundreds of whimsical, fun, edgy, and always interesting articles.

Without these folks, the magazine would not have been possible.

Most of all, we would like to thank YOU, the loyal readers, for your continued support. The magazine has been an important part of, what I believe we all feel is, the greatest hobby on earth! As noted in last month's issue, your subscription will continue uninterrupted. And, in addition to your subscription, a multitude of additional Federation member benefits will automatically accrue to each subscriber / member of the Federation. Your continued support of the magazine as it moves forward is much appreciated!

There will undoubtedly be questions and perhaps a few hiccups during this transition. You may be wondering who to contact?

• For questions regarding the February, or prior issues, please contact our office: 248.486.0530.

• For questions regarding the March issue, or your subscription / membership moving forward, please contact Elizabeth Meyer, FOHBC Business Manager: 713.504.0628; Email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com Again, it has been an honor to have published Antique Bottle & Glass Collector over the past 12 years. I look forward to the future of the magazine and the hobby. Together, we will all make the hobby stronger and better for future generations of collectors. Happy bottle hunting!

Best Wishes,

John Pastor John Pastor Publisher 18

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

WANTED

Greer #s of the mint state #1265 United States Syrup #1685 United States Syrup

9, 2022

#1383 Dr. Perkins’ Syrup #5 Arthurs Renovating Syrup #778 Halls / Palingenesia / Or Regenerator

Also non Greer bottles of the mint state Dr. C.W. Robacks Scandinavien Blood Purifier Cincinnati, O, IP

Write, Call or Email

John Keating P.O. Box 13255 Olympia, WA 98508 360-628-9576 johnkeating473@yahoo.com

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Subscribers -

Please don't forget to use your 60-Word FREE classified ad credit in the magazine.

Email, or "snail-mail" your ad to us!

Libby@AmericanGlassGallery.com P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165

WANTED: Clarke’s Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters, Sharon, Mass.

All bottle sizes & variants…pontil/smooth base. Also, ANY ephemera..newspaper ads, invoices, letterhead, etc.

THANK YOU. Charlie Martin Jr. 781-248-8620, or cemartinjr@comcast.net February 2022

19

**SPRING SPECIAL BOTTLE SHOW**

Friday, May 20th

9am Dealer Entry & Immediate Set-up Saturday & Sunday May 21st and 22nd

william03301956@gmail.com 20

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

FOLLOW US ONLINE : Antique Bottle & Glass Collector wants you to know that we are online at the following location www.facebook.com/ antiquebottleandglasscollectormagazine

CORRECTIONS — Antique Bottle & Glass Collector wants to correct mistakes appearing in our magazine. If you believe we have made a mistake, please call us at 248.486.0530, or e-mail us at: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

Remember: Advertising doesn’t cost,

IT PAYS! A display ad this size costs only $35.00 for one month. What are you waiting for? Call us today!

Also, check out our sister site: www.facebook.com/ AmericanGlassGallery

ATTENTION READERS: Due to COVID-19 precautions, a number of upcoming bottle shows have been postponed or cancelled. Please check with local show chairperson to see if your favorite shows are affected.

We will have further updates in future issues as new information becomes available. Thanks.

Remember: Advertising doesn’t cost,

IT PAYS! A display ad this size costs only $35.00 for one month. What are you waiting for? Call us today!

February 2022

21

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ADVERTISING

FOR SALE - SHOWS & SHOPS - WANTED - CLASSIFIED ADS

RATES

20 cents a word. 25 cents a word FOR BOLD TYPE. $3.00 minimum monthly charge. Each word, abbreviation, initial, and price count as one word.

AB&GC Magazine

All ads must be received by the 30th of the month for the next issue. Example: Ads received

by February 28th will be in the April issue. Copy should be typewritten, printed, or sent via e-mail. AB&GC will not be responsible for errors in an ad due to poor quality copy. AB&GC reserves the right to refuse any advertising.

Phone: 248.486.0530 Fax: 248.486.0538 Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

Near the deadline? FAX us your ad: 248.486.0538

Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165-0227

Remember: Advertising doesn’t cost,

IT PAYS! A display ad this size costs only $30.00 for one month. What are you waiting for? Call us today!

For Sale d FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please, if at all possible, include a name and phone number with your advertisements.

FOR SALE: STILL AVAILABLE: Georgia Straight Side Script Coca-Cola Bottles: The Complete 72 City Collection of JEFF WEINBERG, 152 page book. Over 750 crisp full color photographs, pricing and value tiers and interesting and important historical information. $49.95 + $6.00 shipping to PayPal FF oldhouse156@yahoo.com or mail to: JEFF WEINBERG, 156 Boulevard Athens, GA 30601. 3/22

22

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

All classified ads must be paid in advance.

DISPLAY ADS One column x 2 inches One column x 3 inches One column x 4 inches One-fourth page One-third page One-half page Two-thirds page Full page

1 time

3 times*

6 times*

$30.00 $35.00 $40.00 $65.00 $80.00 $120.00 $160.00 $250.00

$75.00 $90.00 $110.00 $180.00 $220.00 $330.00 $450.00 $675.00

$130.00 $180.00 $210.00 $340.00 $420.00 $630.00 $825.00 $1,300.00

Rates for longer periods available.Write, email, or call.

Maximum copy size (full page) 7.5” X 10”. One column 2.3” wide. Two columns 5” wide.

Camera-ready copy preferred but not a requirement. One time $12.00 additional charge for photos.* *Consecutive issues with NO changes.

FOR SALE: 1. Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure, Rochester, N.Y.,, amber, 9 1/4", $25 2. Warner's Safe Rheumatic Cure, amber/orange,, 9 1/4", $100 3. Warner's Safe Cure, Melbourne, Aus., London, England, Rochester, N.Y., USA, Toronto, Canada, Rochester, N.Y., USA, beautiful yellow, 9 1/2", $200 4. Bourbon Whiskey Bitters, 9 1/4", cherry puce, 2 imperfections on lip, beautiful in sunlight, $300 5.

Cathedral Pickle, 9 1/2", aqua, $125 6.

Warner's Safe Cure, red/amber, 9 1/2", $125. GRACE DESHOTELS, Phone: 337783-7391. 2/22 FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please, if at all possible, include a name and phone number with your advertisements.

Shows, Shops & Services d ATTENTION COLLECTORS (or the curious) - Don't miss the 54th ANNUAL GOLDEN GATE HISTORICAL BOTTLE SOCIETY'S BOTTLES, ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES SHOW AND SALE at the Contra Costa Event Park (Sunset Hall) in Antioch CA. Friday, 4/22: noon to 5pm ($10) and Saturday, 4/23: 9am to 3pm (free). You'll find bottles, collectibles and "go-withs." For more info, contact GARY ANTONE at 925-373-6758 or packrat49er@netscape.net.

3/22

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BOTTLE SHOW QUALITY ALL THE TIME! A large selection of Saratoga and other mineral waters, and the best selection of medicines, bitters, sodas, inks you will find in an antique shop. Come see us (CMK booth) at our new location a mile north of the National Bottle Museum: STONE SOUP ANTIQUES GALLERY, 2144 Doubleday Ave., Ballston Spa, NY 12020.

2/22 WELCOME TO 2022! Let's hope that it's a better year for all of us. If we all get our shots and stay well, we'll have our National Bottle Show in Reno - I hope! I hope to be there and I may have a few flasks to sell!

BEST OF HEALTH EVERYONE. JAY and MAXINE JACOBS 2/22 The Milwaukee Antique Bottle Club is excited to announce our 49TH ANNUAL MILWAUKEE ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND ADVERTISING SHOW will be held on Sunday, February 6, 2022 at the Waukesha County Exposition Center, 1000 Northview Road Waukesha, Wisconsin.

This is the largest show of its kind in Wisconsin and one of the largest in the Midwest. Admission from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm - $6.00. For more information contact: mabacshow@yahoo.com 2/22 Mark your calendars for February 18 & 19 and plan on attending the ANNUAL 2022 SUNCOAST ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTORS SHOW & SALE. This year we have a New Location at the Sons of Italy Hall, 3315 W. Lemon Street, Tampa, Florida. This year we're planning on 100+ tables of quality bottles and related items. Dealer set-up and Early Buyers ($20.00), Friday, February 18, from 1 to 6 PM; Saturday, February 19 is general admission ($3.00), from 9 AM to 2 PM. Free parking, plenty of food venues close by. We're planning on another great show. Come and plan to be a part of it!

For more information, please contact: GEORGE DUEBEN: 727.393.8189 (H), 727.804.5957 (Cell); or: CHARLIE LIVINGSTON: 813.244.6898, Email: mudfishy@aol.com 2/22

ATTENTION BOTTLE COLLECTORS from the beginner to the most advanced...

The DELAND ANTIQUE BOTTLE SHOW and SALE @ Turkey Creek in Reddick, Florida is March 25 and 26, 2022.

Address: 15323 NW Gainesville Road, Reddick Florida 32686. (Turkey Creek Auction Building). Early bird is $20 on Friday, March 25 from 1:00 pm until close.

Saturday, March 26, the show has free admission from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Dealer tables are $40 for an 8 foot table.

A great show with dealers from all over the South selling sodas, medicines, milks, fruit jars, insulators, crocks and jugs.

Two restaurants right by the bottle show!

For more information, please contact RONNIE MCCORMICK, PHONE: 352-262-8672, oldflabottles@gmail.com or: Louise O'Quinn 386- 943- 2766, edlouise210@gmail.com.

Wanted d WANTED: Hobbleskirt embossed Coca-Cola bottles: 1915's, 1923's, D-Patent's 6oz's and 6 1/2 oz's. Collector will buy or trade. JIM GEORGES, georges77@twcny.rr.com or 315-662-7729.

7/22 WANTED: PHILADELPHIA STRAPSIDED or Seamed Whiskey Flasks.

I collect and catalog these and also have an interest in Thomas H. Dillon (TD) Philadelphia mineral water bottles. Please contact me if you have any in your collection or wish to sell. ART MIRON, Email: jestar484@verizon.net, 215-248-4612. 6/22 WANTED: Colored Illinois and Missouri Sodas. Also Colored Fruit Jars. Top $$$ Paid. Call, text or email. STEVE KEHRER, kehrer00@gmail.com, 618-410-4142. 3/23 WANTED: Small town Florida bottles; milks, ACL soda bottles, drug stores, or any other pre-1950 Florida Bottles. Also, advertising (Florida), thermometers, clocks & signs (metal, porcelain, cardboard). Call or send photos. ALAN POPE, Jmarti27@tampabay. rr.com, 352-538-0945. 2/22

WANTED: EMBOSSED CURES WANTED: Including these pontils: Avery's, Benson's, Bernard's, Brown's, Bull's, Burt's, Cannon's, Flander's, Frambe's Geoghegan's, Hamilton's, Jacob's, Lay's, McAdoo's, McElroy's, Parham's, Rhodes' Prov. R.I., Rohrer's, Rudolph's, Star-in's, Stone's, Toledo, Woodman's. ALSO BIMALS: Anchor, Bavarian Bitters, Beesting, Bixler's, Bliss, Boot's Indigestion, Bowanee, Bower's, Bradford's, Bromo Mineral, Bronson's, Bull's (Baltimore), Carey's CholiCura, Clement's Certain (green), Collins' Opium (aqua), Cowan's Certain, Davis Indian, Detchon's Infallible, Edelweiss, Electrofluid, Ewer's Arcanum, Forest Pine (unpontiled), Francisco's, Frog Pond 8", Green's King's Cure, Large Handyside's (chocolate amber), Helmer's, Hilleman's, Hinderman's, Holden's (green), Hungarian, Indian Mixture, JBF, Kauffman Phthisis, Keeley's (opium, neurotine, solution), Large Kellum's, Kid-Nee-Kure, Lenape's, Lindley's, Long's Malaria, Loryea (green), Marsden, McConnon Cough, Amber McLean's (8"), Miniotti's (clear), Morning Glory, Murphy K & L. Pageapfel's, Park's (clear), Peck's, Pennock's, Peterman's (green), Rattail, large River Swamp, Scott's (bird), Streetman's, Tremaine's, Vosburgh, Wadsworth (goat), Warner's K & L Rochester (green, aqua, clear), Wildwest, Wilkinson's, Wilson Footrot, Winan's (no Indian), York Corn Cure. Looking for many others, especially embossed with label, contents, box. Also would like data on unlisted cures for future Cure Book. JOHN WOLF, ohcures@yahoo.com, 937-2751617, 1186 Latchwood Ave., Dayton, OH 45405.

2/22 WANTED: Any signage or milk bottle go-withs; “lids”, tin cans, porcelain signage, etc, that has the name Maxbauer, having to do with the Maxbauer Meat Market and Maxbauer Dairy in Traverse City, Michigan.

I have plenty of Milk bottles, but more interested in the other go-withs. Contact LIZ MAXBAUER at Liz@mcnamaraortho. com or call 734-645-5585. 12/21 February 2022

23

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WANTED: Someone reliable, to radiate clear bottles for me, on a regular basis. For my personal collection only, not re-sale. Fair prices paid for this service. Leave complete message. hawkeye751@outlook.com, 415518-4124. 3/22 WANTED: Antique Toy Marbles. BOB, RHGEIS@me.com, 410-299-2800. 2/22 WANTED: CABINS such as:

WANTED: KC-1 COBALT quilted Poison, base embossed USPHS sizes 1, oz. (3 1/4" x 1 1/4"), 2 oz. (3 3/4" x 1 1/2"), 12 oz. (6 7/8" x 2 5/8") and 1/2 gallon (11 1/4" x 4 1/2") with or without poison stopper. KC-1 TEAL quilted Poison base embossed USPHS and plain base size 4 oz. (5" x 1 7/8"). JOAN CABANISS, jjcab@b2xonline.com, 540-2974498 leave message.

2/22 WANTED: Taller Farley's Ink (vertical embossing) in good condition. Text or call me if you have colored, pontilled New England inks to sell. Thanks! DAN SHELDON, 339440-0383.

2/22

GVII 2 Harrison Tippecanoe Cabin P132 Prairie Plantation Bitters W160 Woodgates Bitters M42 Martins Bermuda Bitters C698 Pottery Ink C675 Cabin Ink L62 Lediard 1863 OK Plantation (no lettering) Wiggs Bros. Cabin Roehlling & Schultz Cabin George Ohr Pottery Cabin Bennington Pottery Cabin “The Log Cabin” Portland, OR BOB TERRY, 1 303-569-2502 llterryualusa@yahoo.com

WANTED: Always looking for Wistarburg and early south Jersey glass to buy and sell or trade. JOHN WAGNER JR, decemberjwagner@yahoo.com, Phone: 609-385-8212.

2/22

WANTED: Looking for older bottles from Charlotte NC for my collection. BOB MORGAN, BMORGAN0921@gmail.com 2/22

WANTED: All early bottle forms from York County Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.

LOUIE JORDAN, 717-862-1040. 2/22

WANTED: HOFFHEIMER BROS BAVARIAN Bitters Squares, Pre-pro, Cincinnati, OH or any adverts or other items with Hoffmeimer Bros. Will pay top dollar. MARCIA HOFFHEIMER, MHOFFheimer@gmail.com, Phone: 513418-1322 text only. 2/22 WANTED: Case Gins, American, Pre-1880.

Embossed, Labeled, or Sealed. ALEX, actiques@aol.com 2/22 WANTED: Modoc Beer Bottle, Embossed Indian Head & Shoulder - Color: Clear or Aqua - Would especially like to get one with wire bail and stopper. I live in Modoc County, California. I don't have email as I still live in the Horse & Wagon era. BILL REEVES, 530-279-6304 (evenings), PO Box 252, Cedarville CA 96104. 2/22

24

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

WANTED: Always looking for rare or unusual Dr. Kilmer items - Bottles, paper and ephemera. Bring Uncle Sylvester back home. JOHN GOLLEY, bygolley@msn.com, Phone: 315-652-8435. 2/22

WANTED: F.W. SEGERS / Columbia / S.C. mug base Hutchinson soda, no chips, cracks or fisheye bruises. Stains and light case wear is okay. JOE, panamacityjoe@live.com, Phone: 850-532-2505. 2/22 WANTED: Dr. T J Kilmers, Cure, Schoharie, NY. Top dollar will be paid. JIM BENDER, 518-673-8833.

3/22 WANTED: Harley bottles of West Chester, Pa. and Philadelphia, Pa. The West Chester bottles (3) display either J. Harley, James Harley or E.M. Harley. The Phila. Bottles (4) display Edwd. Harley, Schul (Schuylkill) 4th & Market St., Philada or E. Harley, 802 Market St. or E. Harley, West Market St. or Edw. Harley, 1838 Market St., Phila. BOB HARLEY, rwh220@yahoo.com, Phone: 215-721-1107.

12/22

WANTED: Donnenwirth & Anthony bottles, Bucyrus, Ohio. JOSEPH R. BLUM, jblum@woh.rr.com, 419-492-2829, 217 N. Center Street, New Washington, Ohio 44854.

2/22 WANTED: Greene County PA Bottles from Greensboro, Waynesburg, Carmichaels, Rices Landing, Dilliner, Mount Morris. Milks, Medicines, Beer, Soda. DON KELLEY, 724998-2734. 2/22 WANTED: Adirondack Springs, Westport, NY. Top prices paid for bottles in excellent condition, photos, postcards or other advertising. These springs are presently owned by my family. JIM TROMBLEE, jtromblee@ together.net, 813-633-8285. 3/22 WANTED: Cyrus Noble items, Nevada Calendars, Carnival Glass, Stretch Glass.

RUSSELL UMBRACO, russellu1@juno. com, 510-693-0550, 10195 Silver Knolls Blvd, Reno NV 89508. 2/22 WANTED: Open Pontiled Medicines from New Jersey. Also any Cream Sodas from anywhere! They're about 5 inches tall and look like a small blob top bottle. CHARLES DASCENZO, 732-270-0545, PO Box 595 Island Heights, NJ 08732. 2/22 WANTED: Wisconsin Bitters & Whiskey Bottles and Jugs. Pre-1910 embossed or labelled. HENRY HECKER, phantomhah@ gmail.com, 262-844-5751. 3/22 WANTED: 40 Year Black Glass Collector would like to correspond with similar collectors. JOE McCARTHY, Phone: 715-747-3124. 3/22 WANTED: E Young Pitts Iron Pontil Soda Dr. Young Wild Cherry Bitters. EDSEL YOUNG, edselyoung@yahoo.com, 936-5824993, 3030 Like Island Dr. Montgomery, Texas 77356.

2/22 WANTED: Soda Henry C. Hall - Manchester N.H. or other N.H. bottles I don't have.

RAYMOND TROTTIER, 603-934-3839, 52 Flaghole, Franklin, NH 03235.

2/22

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WANTED: Always looking for Somerville, Mass. Bottles, Go-Withs and especially Dairy.

PETER LESSES, pflesses@verizon.net 2/22 WANTED: Looking for Connecticut Milk Bottles, round, embossed quarts and Pyro Round Quarts. raymond3248@att.net, 203910-9811.

2/22 WANTED: Bottles from Fernandina Florida LUKE SRESOVICH, 904-764-7651, PO BOX 9434, Jax, FL. 3/22 WANTED: GI-94 for a "go-with" to a Glass House Bank Note. NM or M. RAY, rkrasze@ gmail.com, 724-420-1301. 2/22 WANTED: U.S.A. Hospital Dept. and any pre-1866 embossed food bottles, mustards, early Baltimore, Wheeling, D.C., Alexandria sodas, beers (stoneware or glass) damage free.

BRUCE, cwaddic@yahoo.com, Phone: 703307-7792.

12/22 WANTED: Milk bottles from these small California towns: Bridgeport - Mono Lake - Leevining - Mammoth - Bishop - Big Pine - Independence - Lone Pine - Inyokern - Ridgecrest - Atolia - Mojave. RICHARD OLSON, 760-920-3997, leave message. 2/22 WANTED: Please let me know if you have anything good from Lancaster. SAM NOLT, 717-807-4011.

3/22 WANTED: Warsaw Ice and Bottling Works Bottles, Warsaw, MO. M. HOLLOWAY, mrhtab@aol.com 3/22 WANTED: Top Dollar Paid for green embossed Western fifths and flasks. Rare Western bitters including Cassin's Grape Brandy, G.A. Simon's and Lacours Bitters.

I am also looking for New Almaden Vichy Water bottles and keyhole peppersauce bottles. STEPHEN HUBBELL, morpheus@ centurytel.net, 253-851-7036. 3/22 WANTED: Buying Erie & Niagara County NY all kinds. Call or send pics and description. GARY KAESE, 716-472-7616, bottlebags02@yahoo.com 3/22

WANTED: Virginia & West Virginia Mineral Water Bottles. SONNY SMILEY, lithiaman1@yahoo.com, 540-478-2005.

3/22 WANTED: Leadville, CO soda. 607-9730370. 3/22 WANTED: Any Stoneware from Crisfield, Marion, or Princess Anne, Maryland.

CALVIN DIZE, 410-430-3494. 2/22 WANTED: Amber Chicago Hutchinson sodas, Blob Beers from Dundee, Illinois MIKE DAVIS, mdp19577156@yahoo.com, 815-322-3047.

3/22 WANTED: Pontiled Soda & Beer Collections. Also buying small and large collections of pre-1880 embossed bottles, especially from the Mid-Atlantic area. Owner of BOTTLELAND.com since 1998, collector since 1968. DANIELLE, privygal007@gmail. com, 610-329-0055.

3/22 WANTED: Collector seeking Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin bottle and go-withs. Also unusual Janos Hunyadi or copycat bottles and advertising. kbencs@yahoo.com 3/22 WANTED: I. Brownell Cobalt blue pontiled soda water New Bedford. This bottle never sold. No stain or cracks please. SEAN COREY, scorey291@comcast.net, Phone: 774-327-9527. 3/22 WANTED: Looking for a nice GIV-32 Zanesville / Shepard flask with some green color, undamaged. Thanks. MARTY KUZMIC, flasks@roadrunner.com, 440-2857736, leave message. 3/22 WANTED: Fredericksburg, VA. Highest prices paid for rare bottles & stoneware.

KEITH LITTLEFIELD, klittl5191@ aol.com, 703-354-6544, 3902 Rose Lane, Annandale, VA. 3/22 WANTED: Always looking for Bitters (advanced collector). Also, I buy Fruit Jar collections. CLIFF MOORE, 315-877-0141, PO Box 203 Pompey, NY 13138. 3/22

WANTED: Most Pre-1960 Kent & Queen Annes Counties, Maryland postcards, ephemera, bottles, advertising, souvenirs, crocks, banknotes, railroadiana, maps, militaria, steamboatiana, cannery items, photos, matchcovers, signs. Primary towns: Dolchester (Beach), Betterton (Beach), Chestertown, Centreville, Love Point. MARK NEWSOME, 9265 American Legion Rd, Chestertown, MD 21620, 410-699-0893.

2/22 WANTED: Any labeled, pre-Prohibition spirits bottles from W.H. Jones and Co. Boston, Mass. that I don't already have.

PETER B. SAMUELSON, 603-960-4194, PO Box 281, Intervale, N.H. 03845-0281.

3/22 WANTED: Cornplanter Bitters -- Are there any out there? DON, 814-663-6090. 3/22 WANTED: Glass Lid and Zinc Ring for the Ball (BBGM CO) Fruit Jar (RB # 195-1) MIKE BEARDSLEY, casketeer@aol.com, 315-345-5094. 3/22 WANTED: Kadushin Dairy bottles and related items. Also, anything related to Mr. Kadushin's "Milky Way Ice Cream Bar." All were located in Nanuet, New York. hmpf@ manheim1762.org, 717-665-5560. 3/22 WANTED: These MONTANA Bottles Marsden's / Mountain City Cough Cure / Kalispell Mont. and David Drug Co / Barb Wire Remedy / Moore Mont. Any Montana patent medicine bottle. Also, for almost 50 years now, collecting OWL DRUG bottles.

MARC LUTSKO, letsgo@montanasky. net, 406-293-6771, BOX 97 - LIBBY, MT 59923.

2/22 WANTED: Art deco soda bottles. JERRY HIGGINS, higswalk@embarqmail.com, 919-553-3341.

3/22 WANTED: Permanent WANT: OWL DRUG bottles, tins, boxes, paper, anything from the Owl Drug Company. MARC LUTSKO, letsgo@montantsky.net, 406-2936771, BOX 97 - LIBBY, MT 59923. 1/23 February 2022

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Buy TradeClassified Ads

SELL

WANTED: Native Southern Californian still needs the sample bottle embossed, "FIRST WATER FROM LOS ANGELES AQUADUCT NOV 5th 1913". It celebrated the opening of the 235 miles aquaduct from Owens Valley to L.A. and spawned one of the most aggressive growth spurts ever! PS - "When in Montrose, CO, visit Richard Fikes "Museum of the Mountain West" outstanding bottle collection. *(Highlight of our trip to California this summer) MARTY VOLLMER, martyvollmer@aol.com, 803629-8553.

3/22 WANTED: Have a number of N.H. and ME Pharmacies for possible trade; Pontil Medicines or old VT Medicines or Spring Waters. Call evenings. KEN, 802-426-3811.

2/22 WANTED: Willing to pay reasonable price for quality fruit jars that are pre-1900 and not Mason or Ball variety. Private collector open to considering buying entire collection or just choice jars. JIM, 717-816-7439. 3/22

Publisher’s Note: Antique Bottle & Glass Collector is looking for great digging stories! Do you have an interesting digging (or diving), story that you would like to share with your fellow readers? Let us know, as we would love to include recent finds and funny stories in one of our upcoming issues. And don’t forget about the Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Writer’s Contest: you may also win a great bottle!

WANTED: Manchester Vermont medicine bottles debantonez@comcast.net 3/22

FOLLOW US ONLINE : Antique Bottle & Glass Collector wants you to know that we are online at the following location www.facebook.com/ antiquebottleandglasscollectormagazine Also, check out our sister site: www.facebook.com/ AmericanGlassGallery

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Send articles (and don’t forget to include plenty of good images) to:

Remember: Advertising doesn’t cost,

IT PAYS! A display ad this size costs only $30.00 for one month. What are you waiting for? Call us today!

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Attn: Editor P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165 Phone: 248.486.0530 Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

Show CALENDAR FEBRUARY 5

FEBRUARY 18 & 19

MARCH 20

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS, FLORIDA

AURORA, OREGON

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

The Emerald Coast Bottle Collectors Inc., 20th Annual Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show & Sale, (8 AM to 2 PM), at the DeFuniak Springs Community Center, 361 N. 10th Street, DeFuniak Springs, Florida 32433. Free Adm, Free Appraisals! Info: RICHARD KRAMERICH, PO Box 241, Pensacola, Florida 32591. Email: shards@ bellsouth.net, Ph. or text: 850.435.5425.

Oregon Bottle Collectors Association Antique Bottle and Collectibles Show & Sale, (Friday 12 to 5 PM Dealer set-up & Early bird admission $5; Saturday 9 AM to 3 PM, regular public admission by donation), at the American Legion Hall, 21510 Main St. N.E., Aurora, OR. Info: WAYNE HERRING, Show Chairman, Ph: 503.864.2009; or: BILL BOGYNSKA, Ph: 503.657.1726; Email: billbogy7@gmail.com.

The St. Louis Antique Bottle Collectors Assoc. is pleased to present their 52nd Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM), at Orlando Gardens, 4300 Hoffmeister (off Union Road), St. Louis. Adm. $3, children free. Info: PAT JETT, 71 Outlook Drive, Hillsboro, MO 63050; PH: 314.570.6917; email: patsy_jett@yahoo.com

FEBRUARY 6 WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN

FEBRUARY 18 & 19

The 49th Annual Milwaukee Antique Bottle & Advertising Show, (9 AM to 3 PM; early buyers 8 AM, $20), at the Waukesha County Expo Center, 1000 Northville Road, Waukesha, WI. Directions: I-94 exit 294 (Hwy J), then south to Northview Road. Adm. $6.

140 Tables, the largest antique bottle and ad show in Wisconsin. Info: mabacshow@ yahoo.com.

TAMPA, FLORIDA

FEBRUARY 6

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MANVILLE, NEW JERSEY

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New Jersey Antique Bottle Club (NJABC), 26th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM) at the V.F.W. of Manville, New Jersey, 600 Washington Ave, Manville, NJ 08835.

Admission $3, no early buyers. Info: KEVIN KYLE, 230 Cedarville Rd, East Windsor, NJ 08520. PH. 609.209.4034, Email: bottlediggerkev@aol.com or, JOHN LAWREY, 908.813.2334.

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FEBRUARY 13 COLUMBUS, OHIO The Central Ohio Antique Bottle Club's 51st Annual Show & Sale, (Sunday, 9 AM to 2 PM; early buyers 7:00 AM - 9 AM, $20), at the Doubletree Inn, 175 Hutchinson Ave., Columbus (I-270 & Rt. 23). Adm. $3.

Info: ROJER MOODY, PH: 740.703.4913, Email: rtmoody@juno.com; For contracts: BRAD FUNK, PH: 614.264.7846, Email: bradfunk@yahoo.com

New Location! The 2022 Annual Suncoast Antique Bottle Collectors Show & Sale; (Fri, Feb. 18, Dealer set-up and Early Buyers, 1 PM to 6 PM, $20; Sat. Feb. 19, Gen. Adm. 9 AM to 2 PM, $3), at the Sons of Italy Hall, 3315 W. Lemon St, Tampa, FL 33609.

Info: GEORGE DUEBEN, 727.393.8189 (H); 727.804.5957 (cell), or: CHARLIE LIVINGSTON, Ph: 813.244.6898, email: mudfishy@aol.com FEBRUARY 19 ROUND ROCK, TEXAS The Cen-Tex Antique Bottle, Jar & Collectors Club annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM; Early Bird, Friday, Feb. 18, 3 PM, $10), at the Old Settlers Park Events Center, 3300 E. Palm Valley Blvd. (E. US 79), Round Rock, TX. Info: JOHN REED, Ph: 512.468.5097; Email: compliant.relo@ gmail.com, or: GARY INGRAM, Ph: 512.461.0157.

FEBRUARY 26 GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN The West Michigan Antique Bottle Club presents its 30th Annual Show & Sale, (10 AM to 2 PM), at the Fonger American Legion Post, 2327 Wilson, S.W., Grand Rapids, MI. Info: STEVE DEBOODE, 616667-0214; email: thebottleguy@comcast. net, or: ROGER DENSLOW, 616-4479156; email: rogerdcoger@gmail.com

MARCH 20 FLINT, MICHIGAN The 52nd annual Flint Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show, (9 AM to 2:30 PM), at the Dom Polski Hall, 3415 N. Linden Road, Flint, MI 48504. Adm. $3; Children under 12 Free (No Early Admission). Info: TIM BUDA, Show Chairman, 11353 Cook Road, Gaines, MI 48436. Ph: 989.271.9193; Email: tbuda@shianet.org MARCH 25 & 26 REDDICK, FLORIDA The Deland, Florida Antique Bottle Show & Sale, (Sat. March 26, 8 AM to 3 PM; Friday, Early Buyers $20, and Dealer Setup 1 PM to 6 PM), at the Turkey Creek Auction Building, 15323 NW Gainesville Road, Reddick, FL 32686. FREE Adm. Sat. Info: RONNIE McCORMICK, PH: 352.262.8672; Email: oldflabottles@ gmail.com, or: LOUISE O'QUINN, PH: 386.943.2766; Email: edlouise210@gmail. com.

MARCH 26 DAPHNE, ALABAMA The Mobile Bottle Collectors Club’s 49th Annual Show & Sale, (Sat. 9 AM to 3 PM; Dealer Setup Friday, March 25, 3 PM to 7 PM), at the Daphne Civic Center, 2603 US Hwy 98, Daphne, Alabama 36526. Free Admission and Bottle Appraisals. Info: ROD VINING, 251.957.6725, Email: vinewood@ mchsi.com or Facebook: “Mobile Bottle Collector’s Club Show & Sale.”

February 2022

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Show CALENDAR MARCH 27

APRIL 3

CICERO, NEW YORK

BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA

Empire State Bottle Collectors Association 50th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM), at the Cicero American Legion, 5575 Legionnaire Dr., Cicero, NY. $3 donation; under 12 free. Info: All Dealers Contact: DAVE TUXILL, 315.469.0629; Email: dtuxill1@twcny.rr.com. Show Contact: MARK YATES, 315.560.2560; Email: mlyates@twcny.rr.com, or: GARY SCHAAP, 315.374.8105; Email: garysequipment@ gmail.com.

The North Star Historical Bottle Association Presents its 50th Annual Antique Bottle, Advertising, and Stoneware Show & Sale, (9:30 AM to 2:30 PM), at the Knights of Columbus Event Center, 1114 American Blvd. West, Bloomington, MN 55420. Info: JEFF SPRINGER, 651.500.0949; Email, springer_associates@yahoo.com.

APRIL 2 WHEATON, ILLINOIS DuPage Collectors Expo featuring insulators, lightning rod items, weathervanes, telephone & telegraph items, bottles, jars, and related items, (9 AM to 3 PM), at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton. Info: BOB STAHR, PH. 630.793.5345; Email: bob@hemingray.com, or: RICK SOLLER, PH. 847.782.8602; Email: com574@clcillinois.edu APRIL 3 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND NEW LOCATION – NEW DATE! The Baltimore Antique Bottle Club's Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM), at the Howard County Fairgrounds, 2210 Fairgrounds Rd, West Friendship, MD (at Exit 80, Interstate 70). Info: Show Chairman RICK LEASE, 410-458-9405 or email: finksburg21@comcast.net For contracts, call: ANDY AGNEW, 410-527-1707 or email: medbotls@comcast.net. Website: baltimorebottleclub.org APRIL 3 HUTCHINSON, KANSAS 15th Annual Kansas Antique Bottle & Postcard Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM), at the Kansas State Fairgrounds (Sunflower South Bldg), 2000 N. Poplar St, Hutchinson, KS. Info: MIKE McJUNKIN, PH: 620.728.8304, email: scarleits@cox.net, or, MARK LAW, PH: 785.224.4836, email: kansasbottles@gmail.com. Sponsored by the Kansas Territory Bottle & Post Card Club.

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

APRIL 9 KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club’s 41st Annual Show & Sale, (10 AM to 3 PM, early buyers 8 AM), at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds, 2900 Lake St., Kalamazoo, MI. Info: JOHN PASTOR, P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165, PH: 248.486.0530, Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com, or: MARK McNEE, PH: 269.343.8393.

APRIL 23 COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA The South Carolina Antique Bottle Club's 49th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 4:00 PM; dealer only set-up 7 AM to 9 AM), at the Jamil Shrine Temple, 206 Jamil Road, Columbia, SC. Entry: Donation at the door requested. Info: MARTY VOLLMER, PH 803.629.8553, email: martyvollmer@aol. com, or ART GOSE, PH: 803.840.1539, email: scbottlehunters@gmail.com APRIL 22 & 23 ANTIOCH, CALIFORNIA Golden Gate Historical Bottle Society 54th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM, early buyers Fri, Noon to 5 PM, $10), at the Contra Costa Event Park (Fairgrounds), Sunset Hall, Antioch, CA. Sat. FREE Adm. Info: GARY or DARLA ANTONE, PH: 925.373.6758, email: packrat49er@netscape.net APRIL 24 ROCHESTER, NEW YORK The Genesee Valley Bottle Collectors Association's 51st Annual Bottle, Table Top Antiques, Paper & Postcards Show & Sale, (9AM to 3PM), at the Roberts Wesleyan

College, Voller Athletic Center, 2301 Westside Drive, Rochester, NY. Adm. $5. Youth 17 and under FREE. Info: AARON & PAM WEBER, PH: 585.749.8874, Email: gvbca@ frontiernet.net, Website: www.gvbca.org APRIL 24 MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA Dunkard Valley Antique Bottle / WV Stoneware Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM; Early buyers 7:30 AM, $25), at the Mon County Extension Services & 4H Center, 270 Mylan Park Lane, Morgantown, WV 26501. Both inside and outside vendor spaces available! Adm. $2, 16 and under FREE! Info: DON KELLEY, PH: 724.998.2734, email: bonzeyekelley@gmail.com.

MAY 15 WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA The Washington County Antique Bottle Club 48th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM), at the Alpine Star Lodge, 735 Jefferson Ave, Washington, PA 15301 (Exit 17 off I-70). Adm. $3. Info: ED KUSKIE, 352 Pineview Dr, Elizabeth, PA 15037, Ph: 412.405.9061; Email: bottlewizard@ comcast.net MAY 21 & 22 ADAMSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA Special Spring Shupp's Grove Bottle Festival, (Sat. & Sun. 6 AM to dusk, Early buyers Friday, 1 PM to 5 PM, $20), at the famous 'Shupp's Grove', 607 Willow Street, Reinholds, PA 17569. FREE Adm. Sat. & Sun. Info: STEVE GUION, PH: 717.371.1259; Email: william03301956@gmail.com JULY 28 - AUGUST 1 RENO, NEVADA FOHBC 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. Information: RICHARD SIRI, email: rtsiri@sbcglobal.net, or FERDINAND MEYER V, email: fmeyer@fmgdesign.com. FOHBC National Convention – Western Region.

A Country Home’s

Bottle Bonanza

Cod liver oil fed, not cured, this addiction

By Frank E. Kurczewski

I

n 1966, I purchased a three-bedroom home on a dead-end street in the village of Marcellus, Onondaga County, N.Y. The street ended at Nine Mile Creek, along which, to the immediate north and south, were two abandoned woolen mills, the Upper and Lower Crown Mills, dating to the early 1800s.

Near both mills were dead-end streets, each with a row of mill houses dating to the 1880s or 1890s.

In 1966, I had given no thought to antique glass. Then, in May 1973, while walking along the abandoned trolley tracks on the east (opposite) side of Nine Mile Creek, I found an olive green threaded insulator with a star (and sizable chip) near the base among other broken glass bottles.

I excitedly ran home and grabbed an ordinary yard rake from the garage. I walked back across an iron I-beam of the old railroad trestle straddling the creek to the site where I had found the insulator, and began raking the soil. My time spent there that day was pretty fruitless, although I did go home with two machine-made bottles from the 1930s: an amber screw cap covered with fish scales and a fish embossed in the front panel, and an aqua snap-cap SCOTT’S EMUL-

SION, also with an embossed fish on the front, both partly filled with cod liver oil.

That summer I confined my search for old bottle dumps to the west (near) side of Nine Mile Creek between my backyard and the Upper Crown Mill. I first had to equip myself for the task at hand. Instead of using the unwieldy garden rake, I bought myself three potato rakes in case that I would dig so much the tines would wear down!

Next, I found a khaki WW II U.S. military bag that would hold a roll of heavyduty paper towels, work gloves, garden trowel and large knife.

Despite spending practically every nice day looking for broken glass or rusty metal on the west side of Nine Mile Creek, all I had to show for my efforts that summer was an intact but well-worn 1890s PAINE’S CELERY COMPOUND located under tree roots about fifty yards from my home. In early September 1973, while digging in soil next to the Upper Crown Mill, I heard the sound of broken glass and empty tin cans on the other side of the creek. Lo and behold there was a middle-age man on his knees with a short, arm-length rake, digging for bottles! I decided to ignore him.

Unbeknownst to me then, he was digging in a 150-yard-long dump between the creek and Limerick Street with its row of mill houses. I later found that this street dump contained mainly ashes, broken or cracked bottles, and badly rusted tin cans.

I waited until spring 1974, after the snow melted, before I crossed back over the trestle carrying my neighbor’s mongrel, Brownie, in one arm and my digging equipment in the other arm. I proceeded to rake the northern third of the dump as the southern two-thirds had pretty much been churned through.

After digging for a spring and a summer in the Limerick Street dump, I found many whole bottles but few keepers. The best finds from several months of digging were an amber DR. M.M. FENNER’S KIDNEY & BACKACHE CURE, FREDONIA, NY (1898) and a cobalt blue HARDEN’S HAND GRENADE FIRE EXTINGUISHER (1884). Most of the bottles were unembossed clear or aqua medicines, food or household containers, and “Warranted” or “Registered” flasks.

Such finds dated this dump to no earlier than the mid-1880s, and underlined the non-affluent way of life of the mill worker residents, and also indicated that some husbands imbibed now and then.

February 2022

29

The South Stoddard company thrived on the production of mineral water bottles from Saratoga during a period (1865–’70) when the Mt. Pleasant Glass Factory was moving to the Congressville Glass Works and evidently not in full production.

Bottles with Hotchkiss’ Sons embossment were made during the period 1866–69 or perhaps 1870.

Federal-style home on Old Seneca Turnpike, East Hill, Marcellus, 1974, where many bottles were unearthed.

The owners of this property in the 19th century included William F. Bangs and Joel Cornish.

Discouraged by the slim bottle finds in the village of Marcellus, I decided to scout the homes in the surrounding countryside that were abandoned or looked to be older than the Civil War. Driving up East Hill on the Old Seneca Turnpike a large Federal Period home from circa 1830 looked attractive, with its sunburst attic vents and arched front door. This home housed “Seven Hearths Antiques” and the owner was Bonnie J. McLeod Pelligra (1941–2018).

One day during the last week in September 1974, I stopped and asked if I could look for bottle dumps on her property.

She said that was fine except she would like to have any stoneware I found, whole or broken. She had stopped at our garage sale a year earlier and bought a fancy perfume bottle that my wife had priced at one dollar.

My first day searching through the scrub and field behind her house was highly productive. I found three matching pieces of a broken 3-gallon stoneware crock with blue design of a lion wearing a collar that the owner gladly accepted. Then, in almost bare soil with broken splinters of old wood, I noticed the ground was

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

The next several days of reconnaissance and excavation behind Seven Hearths Antiques were less successful but nonetheless productive. A swampy area many yards away contained a cluster of aqua, open-pontil medicine bottles, all intact but quite stained: LYON’S KATHAIRON; DR. KENNEDY’S MEDICAL DISCOVERY; PRATT & BUTCHER MAGIC OIL; and DR. DENTON’S HEALING BALSAM, AUBURN, NY.

slightly raised. After digging down only a few inches I unearthed two mineral water bottles, side by side, each halffull of water, with corks and wire bails intact. This was an area where a barn or outbuilding had been taken down, as the ground held little vegetation. I wrapped the two bottles, still dirty, individually in heavy paper towels and took them home, where I laid them on the kitchen floor, unwrapped them, removed the corks and wire bails from the bottle mouths, poured out the water contents, and washed and rinsed them.

It’s almost impossible to find pristine aqua, open-pontil medicine bottles in damp or moist soil, especially when they’ve been underground for perhaps a century. Based on bottle magazines, these open-pontil medicines dated to the 1840s and 1850s. Several yards from this group of open-pontil bottles in moist soil were an intact JOHN LINK, SYRACUSE, NY, redware 1-gallon jug (extremely rare, 1891); Queen Louise bisque doll’s head (German, 1885–95) in perfect condition; and several broken unembossed ladies legs in different colors (circa 1880s).

They were perfect, shiny and embossed CONGRESS & EMPIRE SPRING CO/ HOTCHKISS’ SONS / E / NEW YORK / SARATOGA. N.Y. Each cylindrical pint had an applied sloping collared mouth and offset lower bevel, smooth base, numerous seed and larger bubbles, thin elongate oblique stretch bubbles in the neck, and mild whittle marks. One pint was golden olive and the other orange amber in color. Upon further research these bottles were evidently made at a Stoddard, N.H., glass company, probably South Stoddard Glass Co., based on the shades of olive and amber colors and characteristic seed bubbles in the glass.

The next time I visited Seven Hearths Antiques the owner showed me a deep cistern at the northeastern corner of the house that was full of broken bottles and large rocks. Nonetheless, I decided to unearth the contents — a full day’s effort.

The several broken bottles were mainly mineral waters: D. A. KNOWLTON / SARATOGA / N.Y., quart, olive green (2, 1860–1865); CONGRESS & EMPIRE SPRING CO / C / SARATOGA N.Y. / CONGRESS WATER, quart, emerald green (2, 1871–84); CLARK & WHITE, quart, olive green (1856–65); CLARK & CO /NEW YORK, quart, olive green (1846–56); S. S. KNICKERBOCKER

(soda water) (1852–55), pint, cobalt blue, iron pontil, and unembossed olive, amber and aqua household bottles.

After several hours of excavation and at a depth of five feet I had only a single, common unbroken bottle in mint condition to show for my effort: CONGRESS & EMPIRE SPRING CO/E/SARATOGA N.Y. / EMPIRE WATER. pint (1871–84).

I had dug to a depth where my shoulders were at ground level. Finding only large rocks, no other glass and fear of a cave-in, I stopped digging.

Before leaving, the owner invited me inside to ask me questions about some of the glassware in her shop. After an hour, we moved from the showroom to the attic where I showed her openings at the edges of the floorboards where the builder would sometimes dispose of his empty bottles.

The next time I visited Seven Hearths Antiques she showed me a perfect example of a multisided S. SMITH / 1857 / AUBURN, NY [SODA WATER], pint in cobalt blue, iron pontil, that she found in a recess at the edge of an attic floorboard!

William Freeman Bangs is the first name in the early 19th century to be associated with this homestead. Bangs was born on Feb. 11, 1779 in Barre, Mass., died on Oct. 29, 1864 in the Town of Marcellus at age 85, and is buried in the Old Marcellus Village Cemetery. Bangs may have built the Federal period home as early as 1830, according to an old map and drawing of the Village of Marcellus and surrounding countryside.

William F. Bangs is listed in 1810–60 Town of Marcellus censuses. W./W. F. Bangs is resident on the property in 1852 and 1859 Town of Marcellus maps.

Bangs’ son, Dr. Franklin Bangs, a physician, had an office/residence on Main Street in an 1859 map of the Village of Marcellus. Following Bangs’ death, his wife Roxana, 83, moved in with Franklin and his wife, Sarah. The 1865 census shows Roxana, Franklin and Sarah Bangs all living in the Town of Marcellus. Bangs’ heirs sold the homestead to Joel Cornish

Map/drawing of Marcellus, East Hill, and Old Seneca Turnpike heading east from the village, circa 1830. The homestead where the bottles were found is marked by the white arrow.

in 1865, but this census does not show Joel Cornish and his wife, Delia, residing in the Town of Marcellus. The information in the 1865 census was derived from the previous year, 1864. Joel and Delia Cornish are living there in the 1870 Town of Marcellus census and 1874 New York State Historical Atlas.

Joel Cornish was born Feb. 6, 1792 in Simsbury, Conn., died Jan. 27, 1887 in the Town of Marcellus at age 95, presumably from falling down the stairs in this home, and is buried in the Old Marcellus Village Cemetery. He is listed in the 1810–65 Town of Onondaga censuses and 1870, 1875 and 1880 Town of Marcellus censuses. J. Cornish is the resident on Lot 112 in 1852 and 1859 Town of Onondaga maps, only a short distance from the Old Seneca Turnpike and 4.5 miles from his future homestead. His second wife, Delia A.E. Loomis, was born Feb. 8, 1825 in the Town of Onondaga, died Jan. 7, 1902 at age 76 in the Town of Marcellus, and is buried in Highland Cemetery in Marcellus. She is listed in 1870–1900 Marcellus censuses. Following Joel’s death Mrs. J. Cornish resided on the property according to an 1889 map of the

town of Marcellus, is living alone in the residence in the 1892 Marcellus census, and is living in the Village of Marcellus in 1898 and 1900 censuses.

Insofar as associating the bottles, stoneware and other items found on the property with particular families, the 1840s and 1850s aqua open-pontil medicines, 1850s and early 1860s mineral and soda waters (G.F. KNOWLTON, CLARK & WHITE, CLARK & CO., S.S. KNICKERBOCKER, S. SMITH/1857/ AUBURN NY), and unembossed household bottles were used by the William F. Bangs family. Dr. Franklin H. Bangs, their son, probably selected the brand of medicine. The later 1860s and 1870s mineral waters (CONGRESS & EMPIRE SPRING CO., HOTCHKISS’ SONS, E, pints (1866–69 or 1870) and C and E varieties (1871-84) and ladies leg bottles (1880s) were the property of Joel and Delia Cornish. Mineral water bottles at that time were returned to service and reused after their production and initial use. The JOHN LINK, Syracuse, N.Y. jug (1891) and Queen Louise bisque doll’s head (1885–95) were probably the property of Delia A.E. February 2022

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Cornish, who inherited the residence in 1887 upon her husband’s death.

The early settlers in Marcellus were mostly men possessed of comfortable means and able to pay cash for their farms. William Bangs and Joel Cornish were men said to be of moral and personal integrity and highly respected in the community. They or their wives may have been teetotalers based on the large number of mineral and soda water bottles and absence of labeled bitters or whiskey bottles and registered or warranted flasks. William F. Bangs and his wife seemingly lived a healthy lifestyle under the influence of their son Franklin, a resident Marcellus doctor. Born in Saratoga, a daily sip of mineral water may have been part of Franklin’s wife Sarah’s daily constitution. Living and working on a farm served both families well. Bangs and Cornish lived to the ripe old ages of 85 and 95, respectively, and their wives, 87 (Roxana) and 76 (Delia).

The premier quality of the bottles and stoneware from the 1850s through the 1880s and the impressive cemetery monuments, especially for Joel and Maryette Cornish and Delia Cornish, indicate that both families had exquisite taste in glass, marble and granite! The large homestead on East Hill on the Old Seneca Turnpike had the oldest and most impressive bottles of the thiry surface dumps, outhouses and cistern that I excavated in Marcellus from 1973–1982.

Gravestone of William F. Bangs in Old Marcellus Village Cemetery, with birth date, death date and age of deceased. Photo by B. Arnold, Find A Grave.

Side panel of the Joel and Maryette Cornish grave monument, Old Marcellus Village Cemetery, with death dates and ages of deceased.

Maps of Town of Marcellus in chronological order with gray arrows indicating owners of homestead in 1852 (W. Bangs), 1859 (W.F. Bangs), 1874 (J. Cornish), and 1889 (Mrs. J. Cornish). Courtesy of Joseph W. Stoll, Syracuse University; and Peg Nolan, Marcellus Historical Society.

FOLLOWING PAGE: Congress & Empire Spring Co. mineral water bottles found behind homestead (left to right): golden olive and orange amber Hotchkiss’ Sons / E / New York /Saratoga (1866–69 or 1870); emerald green / E / Saratoga NY / Empire Water (1871–84).

Photograph by Lukas Friedrich, Atlanta, Georgia.

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A Digger’s Pipe Dreams The sidewalk that led to bottle history

By Rick Weiner

T

he summer of 2021 was coming to a close, and I was ready for the cooler fall weather, but to jump ahead, I was not ready for the bone-chilling winter days approaching.

Now I can dig with more energy and vigor. I knew there was a reason why my prayers were answered. My wife likes to believe it was for the extra money, and I let her think that.

As I look back on the early years of privy digging I remember excavating yards in January and February and not being fazed one bit by the bitter temperatures. My younger blood was flowing much richer and faster then but I also had my trusty Carhartt jumpsuit and a set of lucky red long johns underneath.

The good part about the part-time gig was I worked the same days as I did landscaping, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Also, my Social Security was coming in October, so that was another plus. That gave me plenty of time to go out and try and get permissions and not worry about life too much because, after all, privy digging was very important.

To dig privies at that time of the year we had to find the pits in the warmer months, mark them, and return in the winter to dig. There was no way we were getting a probe through that rock-hard ground. It was hard enough to bust open a pit with a metal pry bar! Back then we had an overabundance of privies to dig so it was easy to set a few aside for the arctic months.

Too bad that was not the case these days.

I have to work hard and talk fast to get permission or we would not be enjoying the hobby of “crap-hole digging” at all.

My personal life was also changing a bit. I recently got out of a backbreaking part-time job as a landscaper of six years. I am retired from Allentown’s parks department after 24 years of service. I just turned 62 and the physical work was taking its toll. I did physical work most of my life. I often prayed for a part-time job that was less taxing on the body. Soon my prayers would be answered! I got a driving job delivering auto parts.

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

I often think ahead and try to envision what it will be like when I reach that ripe old age when it is no longer feasible to tackle a privy. Mostly everyone I know who digs for bottles is younger than me.

I often joke about how I would still be in on the action at 80 years old. My wheelchair would be equipped with a batterypowered cable winch that was attached so I could haul buckets from the privy with the push of a button. I would also assume this old guy would still be the “permission getter” because no one else does it now.

Or if I get lucky, I could win the lottery and buy a few large collections of colored historical flasks and sodas. Then I could start setting up and selling at bottle shows all over the world. Who knows what the future will bring. For now, I just want to continue to be an outhouse digger.

My luck in the permission game has been pretty good lately. I decided to try a little

1857 half cent

closer to home this time. I only live a few blocks away from this strip of 1870s houses. Once a week I cut the grass for an elderly lady on this row. We had dug her privy the year before. There was nothing whole at the bottom of this pit but it had the age. I knew there had to be a few privies with something other than pretty colored shards.

One day while cutting grass I took a break and began walking up the alley checking the yards out from the back to see if I had any potential targets. I was “yard shopping” basically. There were the typical ornament overload yards that had everything but the kitchen sink and a few pink flamingos covering ninety percent of the grass. I usually don’t ask these people because I already know what the answer will be.

As I walked to the next property I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my foot. I sat down on a concrete divider and proceeded to take my boot off. As I looked up I saw the perfect yard! My eyes scanned the grass and, low and behold, there was

a nice sunken spot next to the property line, as plain as the nose on my face.

I did not even think about the uneasiness of asking for permission, and as I turned the corner, there sitting in an old beatup cane rocking chair was a man in his late seventies just rocking away, drinking coffee and reading the paper. What happened next was a little shocking. I explained to the man about what I do in the bottle digging hobby, and after a few minutes, his answer was “Sure, when do you want to do it?” When the permissions happen that easy and with that strange of circumstances I know I am getting help from above.

The one person I could always count on to help me tackle a privy was the Badger.

He would skip a funeral to dig an old outhouse! I gave him a call and the date was set for the upcoming weekend. In the meantime, I did some more probing in the yard and found another pit on the opposite side of the property. I usually go with which one feels better on the probe first. If it feels good and crunchy then that’s enough to convince me.

A good reading on the probe means the probe is going through ash and other foreign matter put in the ground by humans in the 19th century. When the probe has that smooth suction feel and sound, it does not scream outhouse, then I will hold off and maybe do a test hole later just to make sure. After doing this hobby for many years you just know what is good and what is a dud.

So on that note, I chose the spot by the wall and sidewalk. It was that magic time again, and we were finally back in the 1870 yard ready to rock and roll. There was no traveling time for me with this one, it was literately three minutes from my house. I had an eye on this row of homes since I moved here five years ago.

It would be the second privy that we dug on this strip. The first one had the age but everything was broken. I shot up a prayer

that this one would be different. We got the tarps into position and now this project was in motion. We started to cut out the grass like we do on all the yards, making sure we had a nice thick piece of sod so it was easy to replace.

Joe, the homeowner, came out and started making some small talk. “Hey, every time I look out I see Badger doing all the work?” My reply was, “I’m the foreman, I have seniority.” Joe was a definite treat, we liked him right away. We needed more homeowners like him.

Soon, we were down about four feet and glass was starting to pop. The first signs were some clear bottle shards and stamped plate pieces from the 1880s-’90s.

The house was dated 1870, so we were hoping the bottom would match my research. As we got deeper, my wishful thinking did not happen. A lot of late ’80s and ’90s bottles were pouring out, but nothing near the ’70s, but at least there was glass showing up.

Then out of nowhere, Badger, a man of few words, let out a “Yo!” He reached down and picked up a nice light-green blob! That is the kind of stuff we are looking for. It was an “L &W Siegfried from Bethlehem Pa.,” a beautiful example with lots of swirls and bubbles. I was expecting more of the same to come out but, alas, that would not happen today. We were a bit disappointed, but that’s the way the privy game is played.

I love to be out probing yards and enjoying the day while most of the world was working; it gave me a sense of peace.

Only a true privy digger knows this feeling. Some of the yards that I was visiting I had probed many times before. I have this thing where if I probed something and it felt halfway decent but I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was a privy, I would go back over and over to reassure myself.

This one yard, in particular, had my privy indicator lights flashing every time I went there. I had exhausted every spot in the yard with the probe. There was not one square inch that I did not hit. It was almost impossible to get that rod in the ground more than four inches! It seemed like there was a layer of something hard throughout the whole yard.

One day I came back to the “Twlight Zone” property to see if I missed anything. My arms were getting tired so I decided to take a seat on the back steps to survey the area from a distance. Looking straight down the sidewalk, my eye caught

There was another chance at getting an older pit in this yard, the one by the wall on the other side of the property. That one seemed to probe pretty decently as well. This adventure would have to wait until the end of November.

We had a few months before we could go back and hit Joe’s place. But I had other permissions to probe and explore in the meantime. Gotta have something to keep this retired guy busy and out of the house right? So that is how I would spend my Mondays and Tuesdays.

The start of the dig.

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one of the huge sections of Victorian slate with an off look about it. The whole walkway was crooked and uneven, but this piece was sunken more than the others.

It would be a weird place for a privy but I had to try every idea that popped into my brain. I walked towards the big slab of slate and with one push of my five-foot probe, down it went, crunching all the way. It buried to the handle! Right away my first thought was “it felt like a privy but” when the spot is under a sidewalk that people walk on in the present time!?

I was going to do some research to bring some light to this mystery.

The owner of this property was a landlord, the first person I talked to about the history of the house. It turns out the build date was 1870. As I ran some questions about the house by him, I had a quick thought about the property next door. The reason for the interest in the neighbor’s spread was: If his house was older than 1870 then there was a possibility that the sidewalk was put there in the later years and the “possible privy” under it would be older.

With a little more research I found the house next door to be from the 1850s.

That would be close to twenty years before the sidewalk was laid out because the property was all one in the 1850s.

This would mean when the 1870 house was built, the sidewalk was put in covering the old privy.

Now at this point, I was only speculating and going by my research. But I had to have some kind of plan before I tackled this project. My next step was to get permission next door because I would need to be on that property to efficiently dig the sidewalk pit.

Sounds pretty complicated? I tried once eight years ago for permission but it was a PHOTOS: TOP and MIDDLE: Bottles magically appear as more fill is removed.

BOTTOM: Badger works around the pipe.

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resounding no. While I was sitting there talking to the landlord that day I had a brainstorm. Maybe he knows the guy?

You will never know if you don’t ask, and the next thing I knew he was looking up the owner’s number. With a quick call, the permission was in the bag!

Now that all of the formalities were out of the way, it was time to get down to the real business. I had to pick a day to start this sidewalk operation. But in the meantime, I decided to hit the yard on one of my days off and try to lift the slate section off by myself and maybe get an idea of what was going on under the slab.

I planned to use the 10-foot metal pry bar to lift it and then stick a five-gallon bucket underneath. Then maybe take a few shovels out and examine the contents to see if we had a privy.

I had all good intentions, but I never made it past the pry bar idea. That section of the sidewalk was three inches thick and five feet long, and the beast weighed three tons! (Or so it seemed.)

In my youth I could have lifted that with no problem. At 62 with semi-bad limbs, it was not going to happen without a trip to the ER. To get this thing up to a point where it could be safely stood on its side, I would have to wait until Badger came and helped.

There are times when I probe the privy and do a test hole myself. That takes away a lot of the guesswork before we start the dig. I am “semi-retired” and I have the luxury to be able to do this, and I truly enjoy it. It is part of the hobby and gives me a sense of accomplishment.

With getting permissions, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that goes along with the digging. If I get permission from a landlord who owns many properties, I will do little projects for him like landscaping-type tasks. I call this “putting in the work.” It pays big dividends down the road when the next permission comes into play.

I often use references like you would use for a job interview. People like to see that you have some pride and have taken the time to make the yards look like they did before you started. Sometimes we even make them look better.

If you truly think about it, when you are knocking on a door, someone you have never met in your life will answer, and then you will find yourself repeating these words: “Excuse me, I am a bottle digger and collector, would you mind if I look in your yard for bottles?” That basically sounds like you just escaped from an asylum, but it has worked for me many times over.

I go into more detail when I have their attention, and they start asking me questions about privy digging. Some diggers are too petrified to try and get permission to do a privy. But in my opinion, without door-knocking you will never reap the great rewards of 19th-century privy digging. That’s where the great old stuff sleeps. Getting permission is a numbers game, and it is also an art. To be successful you have to take the no’s and keep on trucking. Sooner or later someone will say yes. Never give up.

The day of the “sidewalk dig” was soon approaching. This would not be a weekend dig. Badger and I had plans for Saturday and Sunday. Or should I say our better half ’s had plans. Our wives had us doing chores. I don’t know who’s job was worse, his or mine. Badger had to go grocery shopping because his wife was working a double shift. I had to clean out the basement because there were “too many boxes of bottles and junk” in the laundry room. Come on! Where is a guy supposed to keep his bottles?

We knew we had to hustle if we wanted to dig on Monday. I have every Monday and Tuesday off. Badger takes off whenever I have a privy to do.

Monday morning, the sun was shining and the temperature was just right. I texted Badger and told him I would be at his house at 8 a.m. and knew that the dig would be really bad or it could be crazy good. If we look at it that way we won’t be too disappointed either way.

We arrived at the yard with a lot of tools; I even had a ladder. Today I was ready for anything. We piled the tools against the wood stockade fence, but we only needed one tool, and that was the 10-foot steel pry bar. As I started to dig the dirt away from the sides of the Victorian slab I noticed it was bigger than I originally thought. But now there were two people to move this thing up on its side.

When we got it to a certain point Badger stuck one of the shovels under it, gave it a hard push and we got it halfway up. Then in an instant, the shovel snapped! I should have never brought that wooden-handled piece of crap! We got it raised enough for both of us to grab it and secure it on its side. While Badger held it I went to the back of the yard and got some big rocks to secure it on the sides. We were now ready to take some shovels out and test the soil.

I have dug many privies in weird locations before and yes this one was strange, but if my calculations, research and probe work were correct, there should be an outhouse under this sidewalk. I wish I had the power to know what glass goodies were in the outhouse, but only God knows that.

And trust me, I was praying!

We had half of a 55-gallon barrel full of top fill and what we were seeing made us happy. Small shards of blue rim plates, wood ash, glazed pottery and a blown top from a medicine bottle. Usually, when we find old shards at the top and the fill looks undisturbed that meant they tossed PHOTOS:

The day had finally arrived, and we were about to find out what this sidewalk mystery was all about. It was early

TOP: Plenty of cool shards came out.

MIDDLE: Another blue bottle pops up.

BOTTOM: Rick makes peace with the pipe.

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in the trash when they filled this pit in. I had faith we were in an old undug privy from the 19th century. We never truly know 100 percent until we hit that first layer and that first whole bottle appears.

owners ran a three-inch cast-iron pipe from the house into the existing privy.

Every utility in the house that used water ran into the outhouse. This was before the sewers came into play.

I was in the middle of throwing up a shovelful when Badger chirped, “Hold up; I think I saw a coin!” Sometimes we find coins in privies but mostly they are down deep. This time some old chap most likely pulled his pants down too far before sitting on the seat, lost the contents of his pockets into the outhouse hole, and we had his near mint 1857 American halfcent! If that isn’t a good sign I don’t know what is. Now our spirits were soaring high and our motivation was over the top. It was time to dig.

When we hit a pipe it usually means the privy is cleaned out to the bottom and ready for a new phase of life. I have never dug a good privy with a pipe. We already had a lot of work into the pit so we kept going. I voiced my thoughts to Badger.

“Hey, at least we got an 1857 coin.” So we kept digging. After a few more buckets of fill out of the hole, there was an unexpected turn of events.

We had to keep checking on the raised sidewalk and secure it so it would not fall when we were in the hole. If that thing fell, it would give you one heck of a headache! The fill was coming out with little resistance. We know that usually changes as we get deeper into the privy, and this one changed in a big way. I spotted a big piece of wood in the corner so now we knew it was a wood-lined privy.

After a half-hour of digging, a huge layer of river rocks came into view, and now it was time to bust our backs. Digging out a river rock cap can test your nerves. The rocks were very tight and fused with sand. This fill reminded me of the fill we had in the big stone-liner two blocks away. It seems like they hired the same crew to fill it in. That stone-lined privy was a tremendous amount of work.

What a great dig.

We were only four feet down when I hit this hard object, and it wasn’t a rock.

With a little dirt removal, I saw the devil.

It was a big cast-iron pipe!

While uncovering the pipe a little more I discovered that it did not run into the privy at all, it went through the privy.

This changed everything. It seemed that the pipe was laid out like a drain of sorts running to the back of the property, probably in the 1930s. This means it would have had nothing to do whatsoever with the outhouse. I talked to the landlord later and he confirmed it.

My heart sank and the gloom set in. I truly hated pipes in privies. Everyone with a pipe that I dug around here sucked, to put it mildly. The scenario goes like this: When plumbing came in a lot of home-

We continued on our path to the bottom and everything was looking great. Soon the pipe was up to chest level but it was becoming a bit of a hindrance to dig. I already hit my head on it three times.

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I guess this old outhouse digger can never be happy, but with the next stroke of the digging tool, I would forget that pipe was even there (at least until I hit my head on it again). I spotted something peeking out of the sidewall: the top of a blue, doublecollared squat soda! I slowly scratched around it, praying it was whole, taking my time and savoring the moment.

Most of the sodas that we dug were whole because of their thickness, but there is always that chance of a broken disaster.

With a slow twist and a tug out it came, and what a beauty it was. Both of our mouths were jacked open when I turned it over. It was a nice, dark, iron-pontil soda! If the cards were in our favor today this would be an 1850s-60s privy.

The tarps were starting to pile up with good-looking fill. With our latest find, we had no reason to think this pit was dug by another digger. The layers were thick and tight. I was working on the back corner when I tapped more glass.

I loved that feel and sound. I could tell just by that if the bottle is whole, I proceeded with my instincts and began to uncover the green bottle.

As I chipped away at the hard fill I started to see some of the embossing.

I noticed the word “Wise” in a square slug plate. When I see the word Wise on a bottle it is usually on a blue squat soda. These are great bottles but they are common in our neck of the woods. Don’t get me wrong, they are still a desirable bottle because they are cobalt and they were made in the 1870s.

But there were many manufactured in that period.

I was about ready to pull the bottle out when Badger yells down, “Oh, my God, I know what that is. I have a broken one.”

I was starting to sweat now as I began to pull it slowly from its resting spot. Inch by inch I worked it out, then BANG! The top was broken off. I reckon the “feel and the sound” method for detecting whole bottles needed some work.

I wiped off the slug plate and read it out loud. “Wise of Allentown.” A bottle I have never seen. It turned out to be one of the rarest iron pontil local sodas there was. I can’t put up enough exclamation points to express how mad I was when I saw it was broken! I began to research on the phone and found out there are only three whole known examples.

I was much madder than sad. After I calmed down I realized even though it was headless, I still had dug a very rare specimen and maybe in the future, I would repair it. And the cool thing about this hobby, you just never know what will turn up in the next hole.

The one thing we could look forward to was that the privy had at least five more feet to go. The two bottles we found were basically at the bottom of the clay cap and the start of the use layer. It also verified that this pit was very old. I hoped and prayed that we would pull more whole bottles than broken ones from this pit. I had a few more minutes in the hole, but I was starting to get sciatic cramps. I dug a little faster because I needed the bathroom more than a bottle at the moment.

Sadness

Just as I was ready to forget the bottles and yell up “I’m out,” I saw the bottoms of two bottles. They were both green and what are the chances of another “Wise of Allentown?” I put both hands over the bottoms like one of those claw games in the restaurants where you pull stuffed animals out of the pile. With steady pressure, I pulled them both straight up. Bingo!

They were both whole.

With a little wiping I discovered they were both dark green double-collared squats. The embossing read “Khol & Beans Easton Pa,” another great local iron-pontiled bottle. I have dug many of these in the past. The crudeness always makes these bottles a pleasure to dig and add to your collection. I made my way out of the hole, which was just deep enough for this old guy to climb out; any deeper, I would have needed a ladder.

Some of the day's haul.

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The icing on the cake

By the time I got back, Badger was already in the hole. Badgers do love those holes. But in this one, he wasn’t there to hibernate. The bucket pulling had kicked into overdrive, we were at the halfway mark and the old trash was really starting to flow. Bucket after bucket was dumped revealing busted plates, cups, and lots of oyster halves.

We were seeing the signs of an old, wellused privy that we dream of. The 1850s and ’60s were the numbers all day long.

A half-hour went by and there was no excited talk down in the privy. Badger was quiet, he was just filling buckets at a steady clip. I was getting worried, I shouted down, “Anything?” Badger just chimed out, “The usual.” That meant shards and a lot of broken stuff.

The action was very slow so I decided to make a run to the alley and get some more water from the truck. As I stood up top and looked down into the yard I did a little reminiscing. I went back to the first time I probed this property, and recalled

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

how hard the ground was and how I could not find a decent spot in the whole yard that felt like it might be a privy. I also remember how frustrated I was. That yard was visited at least seven times while not finding anything. I knew there had to be a privy there somewhere!

I finally gave up on the yard and started to probe under the sidewalk. This was a long shot but it was all I had left. When I probed it for the first time and the rod sank to the handle my mind said, “Oh, it must be from the rain running down over the years,” because, after all, this is a weird spot for a privy, dead center under the sidewalk in the middle of the yard. But usually, the probe does not lie.

There was a void under there, and I thought I heard Badger saying something.

As I made my way down the crooked slate steps to the yard I started to make out what he was saying. “Oh, man! Rick, Rick! Check this out!” As I began getting closer to the privy Badger was out of view, but when I was about ten feet away he

popped up like a badger. In his hands was a box with three blue iron-pontiled sodas!

What a way to end the day. Those cobalt bottles were going to put the blue icing on the privy cake. A yard that started out as a “Pipe Dream” ended up being a treasure trove of lost history hidden under the sidewalk.

D

Bonham’s Rare

Sage Ball (again)

Battle cries were heard from across the U.S. to England (and Japan) and back A war dispatch from the front, by Ralph Finch

I

f you daily meander through the auctions listed on the internet, you may find a needle in a haystack.

Sometimes, twice. Now, try to follow this.

In London, last June 23, 2020: At London’s Bonham’s auction house on Montpelier Street, came TWO target balls.

One was a nice but uncommon yellow amber Bogardus. And the other? A very, very rare Sage ball in a very dark amber.

The estimates were high, yet I would have jumped at it years ago. Bonham’s valued the two at £1,500-£2,000 ($2,124$3,398) with an opening bid of £1,500.

The pair sold for way over what the Finches were able to muster. Sigh.

Yet months later, I found this auction of “Fine Glass, Paperweights and British Ceramics” closing Dec. 1, 2021, by Bonham’s (edited): “A very rare American glass target ball by E E Sage & Co and an A H Bogardus ball, dated 1877. Of moulded globular bottle shape with short narrow necks, the first in deep amber or brown inscribed all-over E.E. SAGE & CO PAT APLYD/ GLASS M’F’R’S CHICAGO ILL, read from bottom to top, the other in golden amber … the central band inscribed BOGARDUS’ GLASS BALL PAT’D APR 10 1877.”

But, wait! Weren’t these already auctioned, a few months before, and the

Finches bid on them and missed them by an English mile (or an English kilometre)?

The Dec. 1 description continued with this target ball background: “Whilst the sport never fully took off in Britain, it became very popular in the United States, driven most notably by Capt. A.H. Bogardus, who patented his first ball and trap on 10 April 1877. Edwin E. Sage subsequently patented a ‘superior’ advertising target ball on August 21, 1877, but a successful trademark infringement case filed

by Bogardus combined with failing health caused him to close his business and he left Chicago by late 1878.”

What’s in it? A dog house? A very large demijohn?

How about … another box, and in that, two target balls weighing about four ounces total. What a great job of shipping, but for $500, it should be.

there, and I would hold out for a complete ball. That opportunity came along.

Several times.

A little background. In the 2006-2007 auctions of Alex Kerr’s collection, a Sage sold for $6,100, and years later was resold in the Frobouck auction for $4,600. (I believe I was the winning bidder.) And my example was sold in John Pastor’s American Glass Gallery’s auction, lot No. 770 in Part 5, for $14,950.

“Sage target balls are incredibly rare, with only six or so recorded prior to the discovery of the present example, so this represents a remarkable survival.”

The “problem” with the Sage, or the frustration, is that not only is it super rare, it comes in perhaps five different and equally rare molds, but in several colors!

Now, as a once very serious collector, I must emphasize how rare and how unusual the Sage is. After I had assembled the most complete collection of target balls ever known, featuring 250 different examples (and I admit, a few were only color variations), I retired knowing that there were only a few balls that had escaped my greedy grasp. I admitted that one was the Sage ball — actually, four of maybe five different Sage balls. And once, on eBay, maybe 20-plus years ago, a Sage was offered, but too rich for me, since only about half of the broken ball was

I can imagine Edwin Sage, as he placed his order with the glass firm, saying: “145 years from now, this is going to blow some collector’s mind!” Well, it did mine.

On Dec. 1, Bonham’s Lot 167 was estimated at £3,000-£5,000, with an opening bid of £3,000. It sold for lots more, tons more, plus a hefty buyer’s premium. Still, less than my $14,950 example. And it was added to the Finch Funhouse.

And on December 16, I sent a note to a friend about how my day had been going: February 2022

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“A VERY GOOD DAY. About an hour ago the doorbell rang. There was a VERY LARGE box sitting on the porch, and in it, a smaller box. And in it, four ounces, maybe five, of glass. Two rare target balls from England arrived and they are U.S.made balls.

“It cost about $500 to ship them from England and back to the States, where I believe they began.” (And, part of the impressive shipping cost included a $43 Import Fee.) FYI1: Rare? Yes, except this is the second time that Bonham’s has offered this duo. A year ago the two were offered

by Bonham’s and sold for an extensive amount of money. And here they are again? (And, later, perhaps they will again appear in one of John Pastor’s 2022 glass auctions.)

We were exchanging emails with a Bonham expert, and he admitted that the lot had indeed been won by someone, in Asia, but the high bidder then decided he didn’t want it shipped to Asia. So … here they were again.

We had bid on the pair and despite the auction catalog saying that it would accept credit cards and most any money, they would NOT accept OUR credit cards, since we had not purchased from them before (which was incorrect, but our previous bid was years before).

Bonham’s suggested a bank draft wired to London, but if you have ever done this, IT IS A HASSLE! So Janet wrote to Bonham’s glass and British ceramics expert, Dr. Jim Peake, “to please accept our bids, and our credit card, and please take our money!

Jim, after many emails exchanged, became another of Janet’s “pen pals” and said they would be happy take our money, and if we needed to exceed the firm’s usual credit card limit of £5,000 to just contact him. So we did bid, in December, and we did win.

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

These two rare balls were sold last December by Bonham’s of London.

FYI2: What also is of interest to me is the amber Bogardus. At first glance, it appears to be a rather common ball, but in my extensive 250 different target ball collection, and despite having seen many thousands of Bogardus balls, the variant shown was only the second Bogardus I’ve seen with such a tall neck. (The other was in my collection, Lot 555, which sold for $1,610.)

FYI3: Buying in Europe can be a challenge. Once before (it wasn’t Bonham’s) we had to wire funds to a London bank.

Our local bank teller hadn’t done it before and had to research how to do it.

Then she couldn’t find English “pounds” (look up “Sterling,” Janet said). Then she couldn’t find “England!” (“Look up Great Britain,” Janet said.) We wired the funds, but in the two weeks since we had made the purchase the value of English money had shifted and our amount did not match the original bill, so the auction house wanted another wired fee of about $12 (with another bank charge). We told that auction house to forget it, and cancel the purchase! They then “kindly” accepted the $12 charge on our credit card.

Back to the Sage. Much to my surprise, Bonham’s had done its homework, describing the lots well and added: “Dur-

ing their short time E E Sage & Co. produced balls in both blue and amber glass with moulding in three variants. Their target balls are incredibly rare, with only six or so recorded prior to the discovery of the present example, so this represents a remarkable survival.”

This Sage example has embossing the reverse of the one in my collection. Also, the amber Bogardus was similar to one in my auction, where I said that of all the thousands of Bogardus balls, I had never seen one with such a tall neck. And, now there are two. (Come visit and see them here in Michigan.)

The bottom line is that these two rare balls are back in the U.S., and may perhaps be offered in a future American Glass Gallery auction.

r Comments? Email rfinch@twmi.rr.com

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February 2022

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WANTED -- REDWARE BETTER PIECES FROM NY STATE ESPECIALLY MARKED & UNUSUAL ALSO WESTERN NY STONEWARE AND BETTER WNY BOTTLES Vince Martonis, Gerry, NY vmartonis@gmail.com 716-208-1013

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

February 2022

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PO

6th, 2022

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PO

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WANTED!

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Irresponsible collector willing to pay reasonable prices for: Attractive, bubble-filled snuff jars, pretty snuff jars, or unusual snuff jars Ralph & Janet Finch, 34007 Hillside Ct., Farmington Hills, Mich. 48335 or e-mail rfinch@twmi.rr.com, or janloik@yahoo.com.

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

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