Nice Stoddard? flask

[gleaner1]

Nice honey flask, QUART!, absolutely hammered, looks like stoddard stuff. Dug with a bit of sick, but no chips to speak of. Sadly to say, after 39 years of diggin bottles, this if probably my best find. I found it in an area that nobody ever thought to dig. This was in '95, I took alot of pictures of our finds, over a dozen crocks, jugs, and plenty of inks, medicines, etc, but the photo shop ruined the film. I also found a killer enamel beer sign, ask nice and I'll post a pic. I also found a broken bear figural whiskey, honey, quart, broken. I have never seen another one like it even on the web. Nowadays, I keep nice broken rare stuff in my "hall of shame" box.

In the old days, they were diggin stuff that made this flask look mundane. The notorious dumps were cleaned out in the 70's around here. Never could locate a pontil pit. I joined a club in the early 70's and I wish I had a camera back then, the guys were diggin iron pontiled sodas, figural and historical flasks, all kinds of goods. Also shown, a Massena springs qt NY, another one of my best finds (recent). This was found in a deep streak (3 feet) in a dump that I thought was dug out years ago, but I did manage it and a few other really nice ones. I am currently working on a good site, waiting for the water to go away, very wet spring here this year. Always dig to the BOD (bottom of dump) and best of luck to all.

 

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[mamabear]

love amber, & the next pic? what a beautiful bottle!! don't know nothin 'bout bottles but I do know those are beauties

 

[Harry Pristis]

Nice honey flask, QUART!, absolutely hammered, looks like stoddard stuff. Dug with a bit of sick, but no chips to speak of. Sadly to say, after 39 years of diggin bottles, this if probably my best find. I found it in an area that nobody ever thought to dig. This was in '95, I took alot of pictures of our finds, over a dozen crocks, jugs, and plenty of inks, medicines, etc, but the photo shop ruined the film. I also found a killer enamel beer sign, ask nice and I'll post a pic. I also found a broken bear figural whiskey, honey, quart, broken. I have never seen another one like it even on the web. Nowadays, I keep nice broken rare stuff in my "hall of shame" box.

In the old days, they were diggin stuff that made this flask look mundane. The notorious dumps were cleaned out in the 70's around here. Never could locate a pontil pit. I joined a club in the early 70's and I wish I had a camera back then, the guys were diggin iron pontiled sodas, figural and historical flasks, all kinds of goods. Also shown, a Massena springs qt NY, another one of my best finds (recent). This was found in a deep streak (3 feet) in a dump that I thought was dug out years ago, but I did manage it and a few other really nice ones. I am currently working on a good site, waiting for the water to go away, very wet spring here this year. Always dig to the BOD (bottom of dump) and best of luck to all.

I don't know much about mineral water bottles, but that looks like a good one to me!

It's amazing that your quart flask survived. I have seen pint flasks resembling your bottle sold on eBay as Stoddard, NH, pieces. Here's the one I have on my shelf.

My bottle was purchased at a bottle show. Originally, it had a very fine, tight wicker jacket. I am sorry now, decades later, that I removed the jacket. But, it still is a very attractive bottle.

​

 

[Road Dog]

Flask does look Stoddard. Nice Mineral water too! That one has sold between 100 and 200 bucks.

 

[gleaner1]

The Massena is listed in Kovels, last I looked it was about $250, but this piece is 100% sick inside and out. It has many little black specks in the glass and a minor ding on reverse at bottom edge. I needs to be tumbled, but I dont know who to send it to. l also found 4 broken amber quarts (worth a bit more than the one shown) in the same spot. Also found broken half quart olive amber Massena. The Massena springs was a large outfit in its day.

I found an attic mint Massena springs ST. REGIS WATER, brilliant teal green (not blue like the regular one shown), nice whittle, at a garage sale, paid 5 bucks, sold it to my good old friend for $40, then I find out its listed in kovels for $450, I was sick for about a year after that. He still has it, I hope to get it back if I offer $200 or so. I bet it could push $1000 at auction.

The dump I found the Massena in is about 200 yards away from the flask dump. We got lucky to dig out the flask dump because they built over it a couple years later. The Massena came out of a dump that was just the most killer dump around, the original diggers were alerted by a crew putting in a power pole in a swampy area in the late 60's. Rumors of Washington half pint and Phoenix bitters coming out of it in the early 70's. I talked to an old timer that dug it and he said he has never seen so much nice glass in a dump before or since. I found a broken peacock blue hair tonic and a couple beautiful teal green master inks (broken). We always hit it because the dump is so difficult to dig (lots of water) that nobody could get it all and it still coughs up goods. We rarely come home empty handed. Last year I found a complete clear sand-pontiled cologne in this dump. Not many pontils, just strays hear and there. The dump is about 1/4 acre.

I'll post a pic of ST REGIS along with my killer beer sign and other goods from both dumps soon. Best wishes to all and keep diggin!

 

[Road Dog]

I use to have quite a few Mineral Water Quarts. Still have a couple. Here is a pic of the best one I had. Sold it for 450 bucks. It is the harder to find variant of Oak Orchard Acid Springs.

 

[gleaner1]

Road Dog that's a nice one and nice pic too. Harry, that little flask of yours has it all, color, whittle, crude, bubbles its a beauty. You guys have some secrets to taking pics of bottles. I'm still experimenting trying to get the best possible results. I like the Heckler pics with the all white background, looks like studio professional work. Hoping to hit the dump soon if the rain holds off. Best regards, gleaner.

PS Harry, let me ask, does removing the wicker jacket lower the value?

 

[blindpig]

Thats a good point there Gleanerl ,... These boys do take some fine pic's of there glass !! Now , I've tried to get some good shots , full sun , shaded , inside ,.. just not happy with my pic's ! Bottles [glass] seem to play a game with the light ,.. I just havn't figured out the rules of this game ,... just yet , that is !!
Sooo,.... what are these pic "secrets" Joel

 

[gleaner1]

You just cant have too much light. Use a flash. Bright sunlight seems the best.

 

[Fla-Gal]

Beautiful bottles even IF a bit 'worn'...and thanks yall for the photo advice....
So, it would seem that the 'bottle' investors have not suffered the $$$$$ investment crash like in the stock market....and,yall get to enjoy these beauties as often as you want !!!

 

[gleaner1]

This is the beer sign, its round, 24" tall, and in shameful condition. Its a $3000 piece if in mint condition. This came out right next to the stoddard piece. We figure the dump must have been a railroad station dump, tons of inks, lots of broken platters, plates, cups, all of the same design, silverware, tons of beers, wines, many miniature whiskeys and wines, 100 yards from a big old train station. We even found intact eggshells and newspaper bits at the bottom. Absolutely no ABM found, but no punty goods. More pics of the 2 dump finds coming soon when the light is right. Dig deep and best of luck.

 

[Harry Pristis]

This is the beer sign, its round, 24" tall, and in shameful condition. Its a $3000 piece if in mint condition. This came out right next to the stoddard piece. We figure the dump must have been a railroad station dump, tons of inks, lots of broken platters, plates, cups, all of the same design, silverware, tons of beers, wines, many miniature whiskeys and wines, 100 yards from a big old train station. We even found intact eggshells and newspaper bits at the bottom. Absolutely no ABM found, but no punty goods. More pics of the 2 dump finds coming soon when the light is right. Dig deep and best of luck.

Great sign, 'gleaner1'! I believe those signs can be restored. We'll be looking for more images!

'Road Dog' and I use different arrangements to make images. He uses a sunny window as a background and some foreground light (flash?) as well. I use artificial (color-corrected) light from a light-box (an x-ray viewer) mounted on my wall along with foreground flash or flood. (I've adopted a different back-light for colorless/aqua bottles not long ago.)

Lighting has become easy just recently. For a long time I used a 500 watt photo-lamp for some lighting purposes. I've retired those bulbs now. The new CFL (compact flourescent lamp) bulbs are made to produce "daylight" or "soft" light. The 100 watt "daylight" version uses little energy and produces negligible heat. It's a breeze to produce as much color-correct light as you need.

The straight flourescent tubes also come in a similar "daylight" Kelvin range. That's what I've started to use to photograph colorless glass. It's important to get some distance between such a bottle and the background light. That requires a big background light-source (such as 'Road Dog's sunny window). When working with a smaller background light source, the trick is get the light as uniformly diffused as possible. Bright spots wash out the embossing on a colorless bottle or produce objectionable patterns.

It's hard to overstate the value of a tripod when making close-up images of bottles.

 

[jrsherman]

Amazing bottles! Thanks for sharing them!!

 

[Tnmountains]

Great pictures everyone. Of all the old artifacts I enjoy seeing I have yet to see any forum on here that produces such quality shots and post. I would enjoy rigging something up when shooting my arrowheads. You guys are way ahead of the game. Thanks for all the tips and if you guys ever do a post on just shooting your glass I will be reading.
Thanks
TnMountains
P.s Thanks Gleaner1 for pointing out this post again.

 

[glassrelics]

I always loved Stoddard glass, sadly, I sold off most of my Stoddard flasks

 

[gleaner1]

I have been recently advised by a knowledgeable dealer that my flask is probably not Stoddard...they produced typically darker amber items, and I agree. This piece may have been blown at the Clyde, NY glassworks, which produced flasks similar to mine.