My family owns a house and barn from 1807 and I've tried a bit of metal detecting on the property. This spring I began to detect along a tree line that also is some of the original stone wall. Looking through the woods I noticed glass is just everywhere. Pottery and glass.
Yesterday I began to poke around and stated to find old blue tinted glass. Lots and lots of bottle tops. All broken stuff. Finally a whole bottle then another. Searching more today yielded some more unbroken bottles. Lots of the glass is purplish colored too. And few dark green wavy wine bottle tops.
Stuff has been found in 4 different places in about a 25 sq foot area. And I've only gotten down a foot maybe in a small area, only inches down in most areas. Its all over grown with roots on top of glass. I'm pretty excited about it, I've never been bottle digging.
Here's the first pic. Also my first post here. So I'll try the one pic and the rest will follow if it works.
the plain blue bottle in my hand was my first full bottle find.
the bottles on the sink were found late in the day and some a kinda cool. one still has metal and cork held onto the top with a hole down the center of the cork.
Some great shards there, the pickle and the inks seem to hold up well which is why they remained whole. You have some really good potential for some great bottles, please keep the pic's and updates coming....Jim
Very nice stuff right there. I would be probing all over that place for the pits! I sure hope you don't stop searching there, you surely have the potential for some great finds! Good luck. jgas
dug in the rain today and found lots of broken bottle tops including most of an Udolpho Wolfes Schiedam Aromatic Schnapps Bitters bottle.
but most of all i found a very nice unbroken blue "J & IEM" turtle inkwell http://www.glswrk-auction.com/WebPic...est08-10-8.jpg
and identified 2 items found previously
- my ointment container I found... as a 1860ish RUSSIA WAR OINTMENT container with contents.
-an inkwell as a ZULU BLACK WRITING INK J&IE MOORE
all the stuff found Ive dated back to mid 1800s, ive very excited for the coming summer months.
btw I'm in MA near the NH border.
any one have tips on draining and excavating an old stone well? worth it? its very old and hand made right under the original part of the house.
In the very best scenario, and with a little luck, you may be on to a rather deep old dump with a center "heart" that is two or three or four feet deep or even deeper. Sometimes the dump site changed thru the years so they aint too deep, other times it was the same spot year after year, decade after decade, so you never know what you have until you dig it, all the way to the bottom and check it all out. Keep digging, the material you show looks decent. Try to find the deepest heart of the dump. Use saws, axes, shovels, limb loppers and buckets of elbow grease to get thru the roots, which are never really too deep, and rarely go thru the dump proper. On a good deep dump, you can easily undermine trees because roots hate dump material. If you keep finding dump deeper and deeper, you must keep going deeper and deeper, cut thru the roots and get to the very bottom of the dump. I wish I could join you this instant, I can dig my own grave in ten minutes with one arm and a broken shovel.
Federal Bureau of Governmental Redundancy Reduction Agency
Score! More bottles found. Went maybe a foot or foot and a half down in a small area and didnt find anything. But I need to check deeper in more areas. Whole bottles found in 3 different areas. Found 5 bottles today all in a new area I have found. They were mostly just under the leaves and a few inches of dirt.
My finds today are 2 small sized bottles. One says "CURRIER'S HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY" <-- any info on that one?
a larger dark green bottle with pontil break mark on the bottom. its also my first bottle with what looks like a rolled lip. the seams on the side go crudely inward as well.
my coolest find is a large "BURNETT'S COCOAINE" "BOSTON" hair remedy bottle.
also found half of a WELLINGTON Eagle Flask bottle. which apparently can be worth quite a bit.
Alright, as requested, here are a few more pics of stuff I have found on the property. This is just the best. I have two buckets of broken stuff too...
... here's a description of the bottles in the photos.
a broken Roger & Gallet perfume bottle, an A. L. Murdock LIQUID FOOD Boston USA & London 12.5 PER CENT LIQUID ALBUMEN bottle, a broken Willington Glass Co, CONN Liberty flask small size, a BURNETT'S COCAINE bottle, a very old olive green bottle, a tiny Currier's of Gurrier's HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY bottle, various unbroken plain bottles, a plain umbrella inkwell in a darker blue/green, a Boyd's Mason Jar top... and
can anyone guess what the white unopened container is? there is only a hard to make out symbol on the bottom. the contents are very white but small areas of yellow where it separated at one time. Kind looks like paint to me.
not shown are a few shards of a GEO. W. MORSE & CO. Juniper Tar Cough Balsam bottle
Thanks for the interest guys. I ended up getting kinda bad poison ivy from all the digging. It's going away now and I'm getting ready to do some more digging. Guess I need some gloves though...
Thanks for the interest guys. I ended up getting kinda bad poison ivy from all the digging. It's going away now and I'm getting ready to do some more digging. Guess I need some gloves though...
Get some gloves. Eventually, you will cut your hand if you don't. Damn! Sucks that eagle flask is broken. Those are nice ones!
Just what I do.. I take the old broken glass and make arrowheads out of them. Check out YouTube for some great how to vids. The old thick glass is great for it!
GTO-I really hope you realize that you have all of us bottle diggers drooling on their keyboards.....so cool to find what you did and be able to dig to your hearts content! Dig slow and use care and soon you'll get to even more unbroken ones you can use to make us jealous : )
I would rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it ~ Will Rogers
Alright, as requested, here are a few more pics of stuff I have found on the property. This is just the best. I have two buckets of broken stuff too...
... here's a description of the bottles in the photos.
a broken Roger & Gallet perfume bottle, an A. L. Murdock LIQUID FOOD Boston USA & London 12.5 PER CENT LIQUID ALBUMEN bottle, a broken Willington Glass Co, CONN Liberty flask small size, a BURNETT'S COCAINE bottle, a very old olive green bottle, a tiny Currier's of Gurrier's HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY bottle, various unbroken plain bottles, a plain umbrella inkwell in a darker blue/green, a Boyd's Mason Jar top... and
can anyone guess what the white unopened container is? there is only a hard to make out symbol on the bottom. the contents are very white but small areas of yellow where it separated at one time. Kind looks like paint to me.
not shown are a few shards of a GEO. W. MORSE & CO. Juniper Tar Cough Balsam bottle