Back Yard Bottlin

[sodetraveler]

I just moved to a new area and was overjoyed to discover that there where bottles buried out back

When I first checked the place out I immediately noticed a few old peices of glass on the hillside. These were easily identifiable by an experienced bottler as common 1890's era stuff like Florida Water and Hood's Sarsa Parilla

 

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[sodetraveler]

OK, back on the computer for a bit and on with the story!

After finding a few old peices of glass I stumbled upon a couple of reasonably old bottles on the surface. One was a Higgin's Drawing Ink and the other was some kind of food (butter?) cup (shown next to an 1890's Miller's Crown Dressing found on my last trip to Hawaii). Unfortunately, these were both far newer than the shards and were ABM.

 

[sodetraveler]

Now I was hooked and started heading back there with my probe

My first time out I probed out a couple of bottles and plates, but again it was 1915(ish) ABM stuff. The whiskey flask looks nice and the other bottle has nice color, but I wanted something older

 

[sodetraveler]

So, my next time out I start probing heavily around the banks of the stream. I didn't hit anything, but decided to dig a test hole next to some china shards. I hit the jackpot and poped out my first BIMAL bottle almost immediately, a large blank medicine

I had no sooner identified it than I found that there was a whole pocket of bottles all in one spot

As it turns out, this pocket allowed me to accurately date the bottles due to the fact that they were a mix of BIMAL and ABM. There were two of the meds that obviously were for the same product (same size and shape) but one was BIMAL and the other ABM. There was also an AB Co. BIMAL beer (with the linked AB) that had to be from between 1905 and 1916.

I took them all down to the stream and cleaned them up....

 

[sodetraveler]

The next three times out I get skunked

I'm ripping apart this stream bank in the same area that all the bottles came out, but finding almost nothing - barely even a peice of glass!

The forth time out I decided to move allot of earth and dig deep. All the 1915 stuff was coming out of the top foot of soil, but I was convinced that there must be something deeper.

I dug for over an hour with nothing to show and then found this little beauty down about three feet all by itself

It's a Batchelor's No 1 Liquid Hair Dye. I've never seen any in Hawaii before and am wondering about it's age

I found some similar pontil'd bottles online and managed to determine that the company was founded in 1837 and still actively advertising in 1867, but I can't peg a date for this.

It does not have a pontil mark, but is very crude with a sheared lip and irregular embossing. I'm guessing it's somewhere between 1860 and 1890, but I'd like to narrow it down a bit.

Do any of you guys know how old this is? Please let me know! Thanks

 

[gleaner1]

Just missed the punty boy. I say 1865 to 1875. Keep diggin!

 

[jgas]

This is the pontiled versions:
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/3-open-pontil-batchelors-hair-dye-two-dif-1-sm


I concur, most likely 1870 range! Nice finds though and keep at it. I am sure some pontiled stuff will rise! jgas

 

[sodetraveler]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the help