Does anyone post vintage glass bottles found while MD'ing?

JB Hunts

Full Member
Dec 21, 2023
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I'm starting to pay attention to old 1800's/early 1900's vintage glass bottles found MD'ing over the last year during my beach hunts. Most bottles are broken and are just washed up and found while I'm hunting. A few bottles however are found completely in tact!

A couple of bottles have been wedged into the sand, but a most bottles I'm finding right after major storms..

The designs and shapes are endless and offer an up close illustration of early Americana that I think is very adjacent to digging old coins...

Some of the more interesting glass bottle finds are a late 1800's /early 1900's "Formamint Tablets" amber bottle used for dust and throat irritation/bacteria, with cap still in tact... Zaney old medical cures for sure which was likely cutting edge at the time!

Another bottle is one that I dug a few months ago while swinging the coil, which from what I understand is the gold standard for vintage bottle Americana-- the cobalt blue apocatherpy medicine bottle-- this one from Squibb Medical Division with a "patent 1925" mark at the bottom.

And this Weekend I found a vintage condiment bottle with a unique loop design at the top of the bottle that just screamed vintage as soon as I found it laying on the sand.

I've also posted some other vintage glass bottles designs-- some with brand names that of course no one has heard of as 99% of these companies are no longer in business! One bottle is for malted milk, and another cobalt blue bottle is a late 1800's Milk of Magnesia bottle.

While not as exhilarating as finding old coins, many of these bottles that I've found are really neat snapshots into the era of quirky medical cures, extinct Americana products, and great industrial design!!

Just like coins, these are creative designs which are really cool to look at from he "I've never seen this" category!

Please share your thoughts on if anyone else has found these great glass bottle slices of early Americana while MD'ing!

Photos attached for more comments!

HH! JB
 

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Upvote 33

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I have hundreds but have never figured out what to do with them. They take up a lot of room.
You have found some nice ones.
I do woodwork and figure shadow boxes would convert a five buck bottle to a forty buck bottle with relative ease.

So many variations possible. For example:

(1) Flock the inside of the box.

(2) Add a printed note about the bottle history.

(3) Antique the note (flame, water).

(4) If a glass front (the ideal), glass etch the glass (floral, pin strips or what have you don in a common sandblaster using silica sand (breathing hazard-careful).

(5) The box could be barn wood, box joints or what have you.

Details all make the end value of the otherwise junk bottle higher.
 

Last edited:
I do woodwork and figure shadow boxes would convert a five buck bottle to a forty buck bottle with relative ease.

So many variations possible. For example:

(1) Flock the inside of the inside of box.

(2) Add a printed note about the bottle history.

(3) Antique the note (flame, water).

(4) If a glass front (the ideal), glass etch the glass (floral, pin strips or what have you don in a common sandblaster using silica sand (breathing hazard-careful).

(5) The box could be barn wood, box joints or what have you.

Details all make the end value of the otherwise junk bottle higher.
Post up a few pictures of the finished work if you could.
 

Post up a few pictures of the finished work if you could.
Unfortunately, I don't have any right now. I haven't made any boxes for a while. And I have a habit of getting things out the door without taking photos.

Just a few days ago, I sent an antique rocker home (interestingly, it went home in a cherry turquoise 57 Chev [Belair]). It didn't take before or after photos, but should have. It was a MAJOR save. The tenon going into a runner was gone, the front was splitting and so on.

Then yesterday I sent three skiing hydrofoil stands out the door with any photos.

Hey, I'm retired and don't work anymore. . . .

_________________
 

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