Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

[West Jersey Detecting]

Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Bureau of Land Management's
Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website:

http://www.blm.gov/historic_bottles/index.htm

 

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[aa battery]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

nice and it didnt cost me a dime

 

[Ed]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Its great that the BLM is providing this and other type of research data & info.

I often use the BLM website for extracting historic data regarding original LAND PATENTS. I found it to be a great resource for historical data of particular locations (and old ruins) including HOMESTEAD documents.
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/Default.asp?Tab1=2&f1=CA&f2=&f3=

If you know topographical map data including a particular "township" & "range" & "section" , you'll find some great info. Or you can do a "basic search" with a "last name", you may be the legal heir of 100's or 1000's acres of property !

 

[TreasureTales]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Interesting thing about that BLM bottle ID guide is that the fellow who made the site is now selling old bottles from his own website and on eBay. I think it's interesting how we cannot remove bottles that are 100 years or older from BLM land (OUR LANDS), but this guy apparently can without any repercussions. Can there be any doubt what he did with the ones he found on those lands? I suppose he could have put them into a BLM display cabinet somewhere, but I kinda doubt it....

 

[downindixie]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

My goodness Treasuretales you sure are cynical.Do you have any proof of this?

 

[TreasureTales]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Cynical? More like disgusted with the double standards. Proof of what? That the same guy who made the bottle ID webpages for the BLM is also selling antique bottles? Well check out the BLM website thoroughly and you'll see his name is Bill Lindsey, Rangeland Management Specialist with the BLM of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Then check out the website www.historicbottles.com and you'll see the same brief history about his bottle collecting (40 years, Klamath Falls, name of Bill, etc. etc.). Then you can see his nickname on eBay which is "jfcutter" but before you go thinking that jfcutter is his name, look at the bottles listed on his "about me" section of eBay and you'll see that J.F. Cutter was actually a brand of whiskey and he has a bottle from that company. So maybe before you go calling me cynical, you'll do YOUR OWN RESEARCH, as I did. Have a great day, downindixie!!!

 

[downindixie]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

All I see that you listed are assumptions.Many people who start out as a hobbist become involved in historial projects.I know that jfcutter is a brand of whiskey and that their bottles are highly collectable,especially on the west coast and there are many examples of it.Just because a person is a member of the Archaelogical society doesn't mean that they can't dig and sell bottles on their own.I use to sell bottles on ebay,did that mean that I stole them? No! I would dig bottles on private land.I also attended bottle shows and purchased bottles that I later sold on ebay as does many dealers on ebay.Does that mean that I stoled them from the public? No! I have a friend who is in forrest management for the government,he collects and sells bottles and I bet my life he has never dug and kept anything that has come off our lands.My name on ebay used to be "pontil" and when I first started using that name I didn't own a pontiled bottle,I was just wishing.

 

[redneckinwayz]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

thanks for the link

 

[jfcutter]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Although this thread of messages was old (late last year) - and I usually do not respond to such things - I feel compelled to clear up some of the misconceptions and frankly slanderous remarks made by "TreasureTales" about me and the Historic Bottle Website. I just ran across it today in one of my occasional searches for where references to the website is showing up elsewhere on the net.

I'll try to keep this brief:

1. I have never taken bottles off of Public Lands and surely do not sell such things on my personal website. Making that leap simply because I work for the government and happen to have a website where I sell bottles is unfathomable...and wrong.

2. Most of the time spent preparing the Historic Bottle Website (HBW) was my personal time with some subsidized by the government over the past 5 years (less than a day a week).

3. ALL of the other costs of the HBW were bore by me - software, computer, hundreds of references, and most all of the bottles (some images of bottles have been contributed by other collectors and archaeologists).

4. Most of the bottles that I sell on my personal website were purchased to illustrate concepts and manufacturing features on the HBW. In order for me not to go broke, I need to sell them again to buy other things to illustrate the website.

5. Other bottles that I sell - not used directly for picturing on the HBW - are ones that I've owned for many years or purchased off eBay for resell. They form part of the body of examples that I've studied to help in my preparation of the HBW...a work that I've really been working on for at least 25 years (I planned on doing it as a book, but the interenet is a way better vehicle for disseminating the information). I am also pending retirement at the end of this year and plan on moving to a smaller house that we already own. I must sell much of what I've collected over the years in order to do this...I just don't have room for thousand+ bottles.

6. I am not an archaeologist or a member of the Society for Historical Archaeology (where the website is currently located). The SHA graciously offered to host the HBW since the BLM has been undergoing a major restructuring of their web presence, my pending retirement (and lack of access to BLM servers), and the appropriateness of that location for a website that is educational in scope. As "TreasureTales" notes, I am a rangeland management specialist for the BLM (and have been for almost 30 years). The HBW was a "special project" allowed me in the twilight of my career in recognition of my good service, knowledge of the subject of historic bottles, and to challenge me a bit. That it has been, though less "challenging" than bearing the slanderous and totally unfounded comments from the noted commenter.

I understand that people - bottle collectors in particular - have issues with the laws related to public lands and the removal of various antiquities. Whether I agree with them or not is irrelevant...I follow the law, especially since my career - which is WAY more valuable than any bottle I could ever find - would have been at stake for doing what the commenter suggested I was doing. If I had actually been doing what was alleged, I would have been fired long ago and likely be in prison...and a person who works for or really knows about the BLM would know this.

I have received some of these type comments before in emails and can understand the frustration of collectors in regards to the rules on public land. However, raging about what I'm doing - providing an educational tool for collectors, archaeologists, and interested people to consult - and somehow perceiving it as a "double standard" accomplishes nothing.

I thank "downindixie" for defending me without even knowing me.

Bill Lindsey
Author - Historic Bottle Website

 

[Cynangyl]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

I guess that clears that one up! Welcome Bill! I do believe I will go to your site and see if I can find any of these bottles we got last weekend!

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Thank you for the reply, Bill, and welcome to TNet!

I appreciate your reply. I wrote the original post for one reason. I think your website is a tremendous resource for those of us who are interested in bottle identification. I realize it takes a lot of time and resources to put together a site of that caliber.

For those of us who have issues with regulations on metal detecting, bottle hunting and other related hobbies on public lands, I would recommend getting involved in politics. Most of the laws against such hobbies are out of ignorance. The laws are based on the actions of a few bad apples who leave holes behind and don't clean up the trash they find. The government officials do not see the benefits simply because they have not been educated. I bet no official in Trenton, NJ or any other state capitol has ever seen the metal detecting code of ethics. The same land we are not allowed to metal detect on allows hunting! Why? Because the NRA is one of the largest lobbying groups in the nation. I do not agree with the regulations. That is why I am involved with both my local and my county historic societies. This is how I am able to educate about the hobby. I am now seen as an asset to the town and county, and have even been called on to help.

Thanks again for the reply, Bill!

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

jfcutter,

thanks for the reply.

Also, thanks for the work you have done
on teaching us all a bit about bottles.

Sorry that information, casting a shadow
on your work, appeared here.

Think one of our members was way off
base with the statements that were made,
and made you appear to be some sort of
charlatan.

Think it is a shame that the information sat
here almost a year, making you look bad.
So much for the great research we MD'ers
say we do.

Again, thanks for the work you have done.
I have used the site many times.

have a good un......
SHERMANVILLE

 

[diggummup]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

JFCutter, don't worry about Treasuretales. She hasn't been here since July. I never listened to her anyway, she's too confrontational. She "posed" as a man on here for 6 months or so before letting us know she was a she. I must have missed this topic because I see that it has been on here a while and this is the first time i've read it. I think your website is great and chock full of information for novice collector as well as for the more avid collector. I've used it quite often and learned a few things from it. It is in my list of favorites. Keep up the good work and don't be a stranger, stop in every now and then.

 

[jfcutter]

Re: Check it out! Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website

Wow! I really appreciate all the support from you all...and really love the fact that so many of you have found the Historic Bottle Website (HBW) already...Cool!

I was thinking after I wrote the message, that I should have just ignored it like the few others of the same ilk I've received. However, the responses since joining and posting my message have been worth it all. I had never tripped across this site before and am sure glad I did.

I began bottle collecting as a teenager in part because I was fascinated with both Western American history and treasure hunting. (I subscribed at 12-13 years old to several Treasure magazines...still have them.) Digging bottles in the West as a youth (and young adult) was Nirvana to me (and kept me "off the streets" as a teenager) and allowed me to indulge myself in both passions - the history embodied in old glass in the West and the "treasure" aspect of bottles.

Since the early 1970s I haven't really dug bottles (life gets in the way), but had always wanted to put together some type of work on bottle dating & identification that just was not available anywhere. The idea came to me after some years working in the BLM as I dealt with quite a few archaeologists and they didn't know anything about bottles dating & ID.

Once the internet rolled around, I knew my medium was here...a website. The BLM was very good in allowing me some time to facilitate initiation of the project 5 year ago and I will continue it in retirement (later this year) and until I drop... Many of the conclusions I come to on the HBW are based on my experiences as a digger and long term collector. Much of the rest is an amalgm of hundreds of references - both professional and avocational. (It must be noted - and I note it on the HBW - that collectors have written the big majority of good bottle books.)

Anyway, once again thanks for the support and I WILL be checking in on this fascinating website/forum. It is a flash to the past past of sorts for me since, as noted, I've always had a fascination with treasure hunting...though as noted I do not do it on public lands. I like my job if for no other reason. (Actually, the vast majority of the bottles - and other "treasures" - that were on BLM lands were picked up decades ago by collectors, cowboys, recreationists, kids, stomped by cattle, etc. I have never found much of anything...and what few bottles I have found of interest have been given to the BLM for displaying.)

Talk to you all later......Bill

p.s. The current location of the Historic Bottle Website is at this link:

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