OT: Antique bottles?

This is a bit off-topic since it's not about scrap or metal. But this did result from a "dumpster dive" of sorts so I'll post it anyway...

My son and I were participating in a community clean-up event this morning picking up trash along a local creek. We came across what looked like a mini land slide where a part of a steep and tall creek bank came crashing down after a lot of rain. It exposed what looked like a mini graveyard of old bottles, many of them intact. We collected a bunch and brought them home. Cleaning them now...

Here are some photos: http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Old%20bottles

According to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicquot_Club) at least one of them (http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/IMG_2374.jpg) could not be made later than 1965. Pretty neat!

Two questions:
1. What chemical can I use to clean the bottles? I tried scrubbing them both inside and outside with a bottle brush and an old toothbrush but some stuff I could not remove. Should I use Clorox? Some other chemical that's less nasty?
2. I am trying to learn as much as possible about these bottles. Some have markings but other don't. Do you recognize any of them, say, from your childhood or something?

Thanks!

In for answers.

I just came across some old bottles recently too. A lot of them had "federal law prohibits reuse/resale of this bottle" on them. My fiancée did a quick lookup and saw that the ones that had caps were really the only ones worth any money.

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

I would just soak them over night in dishwater and rinse the next day . If I remember the Milk Of Magnesia bottle was selling like that when I was little and I think the corked bottles are the ones worth more but do your research and try to sell on eBay ?

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. :rolleyes: 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.

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

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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.)

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

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

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.

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/a..._5957Small.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/a..._5958Small.jpg
I got a hold of this last week and was curious of the worth. After doing the research I found out it was a "round bottom bottle" (go figure) from the 1870's and only worth about 10-15 bucks. Came with a "lot" of stuff so it was basically a freebee. Quite a few $5 dollar offers today but just couldn't let it go for that.

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Originally Posted by scrap lap

I just came across some old bottles recently too. A lot of them had "federal law prohibits reuse/resale of this bottle" on them. My fiancée did a quick lookup and saw that the ones that had caps were really the only ones worth any money.

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

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Thanks SL. This one (http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_2387.jpg) actually has that stamped on it. My friend guessed that it was from the Prohibition era but the cap appears to be plastic and I don't think they started using it so widely until after WWII (Remember that moment in "The Graduate": "I have one word for you -- Plastics"?)

And I agree - they are cool. My wife paints so she's thinking of using some of them for her still life...

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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.

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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.

Try this website out. I have used it in the past when I couldnt find the answers I was looking for.

http://www.allexperts.com/

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Early?! Cool!

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Let me qualify that--I probably should've said some. The Brown Clorox bottle and the two brown ones behind it in particular look older to me. Some of the others, maybe not so much. (And I'm by no means an expert.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. :)

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Originally Posted by Ditchdigger

Let me qualify that--I probably should've said some. The Brown Clorox bottle and the two brown ones behind it in particular look older to me. Some of the others, maybe not so much. (And I'm by no means an expert.)

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DD, since these bottles were buried in sand, which worked like sandpaper, many of these bottles are scratched. Do you know if any scratch significantly bring down value?

Again, I'm no expert, and the fact of the matter is that of all the bottles I dug up, I never tried to sell any. That having been said, I'm sure a serious collector would pay more for one in pristine condition than they would for one that was a little beat up, but that's true of any collectable...

I recently dug up a dump pit from the 1900s and took out several bottles a like. Although I collect and don't sell they are worth a substantial amount of cash.

The old tall engine oil bottles are worth good money, $50+

I found one, then had it slip out of my stuff as I was getting over a gate, it chipped the top edge so I didn't sell it & now have it on display.

Does anyone know what type of canteen this is?

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...2/IMG_2509.jpg

It's about 12" tall. Do you think it's copper? I think it dates to between 1930 and 1960 maybe 1970, but can't pinpoint its age more accurately, at least not yet...

This was among all the bottles that I found. Still intact -- I poured water into it and it did not leak. So far did not find anything written or stamped on it. Considering cleaning the rust off but it might damage more than "beautify" so I might end up simply cleaning the iron/steel rust off and leaving the rest alone...

I am a bottle collector and my heart starts pumping when I see a pile of old bottles that came out of the ground like this. that said, most of the ones you found are more or less mid or pre-mid 20th century bottles. Clorox bottles are the bane of a diggers existence, they are so common. the little brown bottle is a Certo bottle, for jelly making. the clicqout club is a soda bottle, quite common. the most interesting item to me was that copper or brass canteen or flask. It is always worth looking carefully through an old dump, even if it looks newer like yours. Old stuff was thrown away with new stuff too. Look for old marbles, fruit jar lids, small bottles that are less likely to be crushed. Newer bottles have screw tops, the crown top soda, with a bottle cap, was invented early in the 20th C. Plus you will always find brass and other metal items.
the round bottom bottle KZ Bell showed is neat. Those were mineral water bottles imported from Great Britain and used as ballast in ship's holds. they were sold here in the US (they liked fizzy water back then too) and then cargo was shipped back over in their place. the idea was that the cork seal was kept tight if the bottles were kept on their sides, hence the round bottom.
A great website to learn about bottles is the Federation of Historic Bottle collectors http://www.fohbc.org/
Although there are millions of bottles that are not rare, many are beautiful and interesting, and there are some going for 4,5 and 6 figures.

Thanks tdean, my parents have tons of old bottles they found either on job site or on their land. I never knew how to date or even figure out what they were for.

I have some at my house and as for cleaning well, I've run some through a dishwasher and that doesn't even begin to touch the film on them.

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Originally Posted by newattitude

Thanks tdean, my parents have tons of old bottles they found either on job site or on their land. I never knew how to date or even figure out what they were for.

I have some at my house and as for cleaning well, I've run some through a dishwasher and that doesn't even begin to touch the film on them.

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Tons of info here: http://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/

Newattitude, that film on the old bottles from the ground is a deposit of minerals right onto the glass, we call it being "sick" While you can clean them a bit with various cleansers like CLR, and use a bit of steel wool or abrasive pad with a stick, but if its a really good bottle you can tumble them with abrasive material, including chopped copper wire, to polish them like new. There are people that have a set up to do this, its a great little business to set up, and you can learn more about it on the Federation site. There are some excellent home made tumbling machines people have built.

UPDATE: looks like the copper (brass, actually) canteen shown above is similar to one of these

I was able to partially clean and read the logo ("CELLO"). Not sure I can ever clean this up to make it shiny but it' still pretty cool!