OT: Antique bottles?

At one point, I was working on a site that had LOTS of old bottles to be found. I ended up with about a 4 drawer file cabinet full of them, and then some. That was after giving away duplicates. (Left them behind when I broke up with the ex, and if I know her, they're probably buried again, this time in the landfill. There's a lot of stuff even more valuable I ended up leaving behind, but that's another story.)

At one point, a collector had placed an ad in the Pennysaver, and I called him, and we spent an afternoon digging in an old drywell. He taught me a lot of good stuff, most of which I've forgotten by now. We found some interesting stuff that day, but nothing of any real value. There was one piece, just the side out of a rectangular bottle, that he said was from a bottle of "bitters", and that if we'd found a whole one, it would've been worth a couple of hundred bucks. Other than that, most of what we found, and everything else I'd found, was worth a buck or two, tops.

...at least one of them ... could not be made later than 1965.

Many of the ones I had dated from the 1800s and early 1900s, and they still weren't worth much in terms of dollars and cents. (Funny how long ago 1965 is now. The time I'm referring to was in the early 80s, so a 1965 bottle wasn't even 20 years old then.)

I'm gonna keep most of em anyway just cause they are cool.

Yeah, they are. That's why I kept em.

I did a little Googling, and this site came up pretty near the top. It's out of South Africa, but there's plenty of pics, and they confirm much of what I remember about old bottles: http://www.antiquebottles.co.za/Glossary.htm

On edit: Oh, I'd also have to say that many of the ones you pictured date from at least the early 20th century.

Originally Posted by Ditchdigger

I did a little Googling, and this site came up pretty near the top. It's out of South Africa, but there's plenty of pics, and they confirm much of what I remember about old bottles: http://www.antiquebottles.co.za/Glossary.htm

On edit: Oh, I'd also have to say that many of the ones you pictured date from at least the early 20th century.

Early?! Cool! I'll keep researching... And thanks for the link.

By the way, a few in the pile looked fairly recent. One looked like a Michelob bottle, another like your typical jam jar etc. Now I am curious whether the place where we found them was an illegal dump, a pharmacy or a small grocery store. Or something else entirely.

Originally Posted by ilyaz

Early?! Cool! I'll keep researching... And thanks for the link.

By the way, a few in the pile looked fairly recent. One looked like a Michelob bottle, another like your typical jam jar etc. Now I am curious whether the place where we found them was an illegal dump, a pharmacy or a small grocery store. Or something else entirely.

Not necesarilly an "illegal" dump, that is just the way it was done. Keep checking back there every year or after more heavy rain. It may just keep getting better and better.

Originally Posted by parrothead

Not necesarilly an "illegal" dump, that is just the way it was done. Keep checking back there every year or after more heavy rain. It may just keep getting better and better.

That's a great idea. I just need to make sure my digging does not cause another slide -- it might be years before archeologists find me.