for bottle collectors

http://www.sha.org/bottle/about.htm


Historic Bottle Website Author, Designer & Content Manager

This Historic Glass Bottle Identification and Information Website was - and continues to be - prepared by Bill Lindsey, Rangeland Management Specialist (retired) with the BLM in Klamath Falls, Oregon, with encouragement and sometimes assistance from those noted below. As the author, designer, and content manager of this site, I take sole responsibility for all errors, omissions, shortcomings - and hopefully the good stuff also - found within these pages. I have tried very hard to make this site as accurate and reliable as possible, though it is inevitable that some will disagree with some of the interpretations and information, and that there will be some errors. Also, though I have a decent working knowledge of computers and web page basics, I am still a novice in that field. These pages were prepared using Microsoft's FrontPage 2002™. I've tried to make the pages consistent, workable, simple (as possible), and esthetically appealing but what is important to me is the content. I ask the user to please forgive my idiosyncrasies and novice web design features.

My Grand parents and my parents to some extent were bottle collectors. They dug in many an old dump or outhouse. The collectible market was hot for a while until fakes started turning up in large numbers. I still have a few of their old bottles. I would assume there are still a few good bottles to be found locally.
It's not a bottle, but kind of a cool old piece. It's a ring jug, most likely made in the Carolinas Circa 1870-1880s ?

Ring jug, never heard of that before.


This is interesting stuff. I had a, for me, fairly lengthy post but I screwed up and lost it.

I am not a bottle collector. I was just doing some research of some old stuff we are trying to liquidate.

When I first stumbled on that site I was going to go into full outrage mode. WTF is the BLM doing with our money. Further reading mellowed me out.

I had thought of bottle collecting as filling a need for people who have a compulsion to dust. I never thought of it as a way to date historical digs.

Did Grady say outhouse?

pacamom wrote: Did Grady say outhouse?

I did.

Old outhouse locations make great dig sites. Especially if you are looking for old whisky or " female remedies" bottles which were mostly alcohol. Seems both sexes liked to slip out and have a little nip or two before bed, or maybe before breakfast :Whistle

Not much to worry about in an outhouse that hasn't been used in 100 years.




The pumpkin seed flask pictured above was originally clear. Some old glass turns purple after prolonged exposure to the sun. As dark as this one is I would imagine it was "cooked" in some sort of a bottle tanning bed. I have one that is not near that dark.

I'm doing it wrong. I buy bottles with good stuff in them, I use up the good stuff, and then I throw the bottles away.

I have given some thought to buying a metal detector and making a comprehensive sweep of the 285 corridor over the next several years. Who knows, maybe I'll run across some of the Reynolds Gang's loot or at least several rusty steel beer cans.

otisptoadwater wrote: then I throw the bottles away.

:nono: You should recycle them.

otisptoadwater wrote: I'm doing it wrong. I buy bottles with good stuff in them, I use up the good stuff, and then I throw the bottles away.

I have given some thought to buying a metal detector and making a comprehensive sweep of the 285 corridor over the next several years. Who knows, maybe I'll run across some of the Reynolds Gang's loot or at least several rusty steel beer cans.

That's what they did, just drop it down the hole when they were done.

I have a few old handmade square nails I found in an old miner's cabin in the high country.

I have a couple of those old nails. Found them when I was metal detecting for a ring I lost. Never found the ring, but I did find a bunch of horseshoes, and those square nails.

As for the outhouse, I'm still not sure about that. LOL.

I have a little collection from my yard that is the town of Webster. The most recent dig I did came up with a big safe that had been blown up. I am sure it must have been the Reynolds Gang's doing's??
For twenty years my driveway has grown square nails and broken glass. The dirt here is made of metal, no detector needed.
I did do an outhouse dig where the old double outhouse once stood. The results were a little sh**ty. LOL