Skull & Crossbones Poison Bottle, Huge Clay Marble Hoard, etc.

UnderMiner

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Jul 27, 2014
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Excavated all of this today:
20230622_150011.jpg


From one tiny area I dug 34 clay marbles, 3 glass marbles, and several particularly round acorns and chestnuts (two of them pictured bottom left in the picture above). I can only imagine the acorns and chestnuts served as marble substitutes. Some were so round that they fooled me, and I ended up squishing several by accident trying to clean them.

Excavating the marbles:
20230622_150459.jpg


Cleaned up:
20230622_150256.jpg


This is the tooled Tincture of Iodine bottle:
20230622_150517.jpg
 

Upvote 38
Really cool finds. Don't know anything about marbles, Are clay marbles really old, collectable?
They're fairly collectable as they date from the 19th through early 20th century however they are very common and therfore inexpensive due to mass production. Here is an article about them I found for you:

"From the late 19th century through the early 20th century, clay marbles were mass produced in the U.S. and Germany. Some clay marbles were made with rough tan, red, brown, or grey clay; some dyed in a range of colors (called “polished” marbles); and some glazed.

Samuel Dyke, an American newspaper owner in Akron, Ohio, started a business to mass-produce clay marbles in 1884, which made the price for these toys plunge. For probably the first time in history, a child could purchase a toy for themselves: a small bag of clay marbles for a penny. Because they were so common, clay marbles were nicknamed “commies” and were played with by kids in the 19th and early 20th century."

 

Great finds... the stopper on the Richard bottle is spectacular!
Yes, the Richard Hudnut hair tonic bottles had this removable metal stopper, last person to use the bottle put it back before tossing it, first time I found one with the metal stopper!
20230622_213531.jpg
 

They're fairly collectable as they date from the 19th through early 20th century however they are very common and therfore inexpensive due to mass production. Here is an article about them I found for you:

"From the late 19th century through the early 20th century, clay marbles were mass produced in the U.S. and Germany. Some clay marbles were made with rough tan, red, brown, or grey clay; some dyed in a range of colors (called “polished” marbles); and some glazed.

Samuel Dyke, an American newspaper owner in Akron, Ohio, started a business to mass-produce clay marbles in 1884, which made the price for these toys plunge. For probably the first time in history, a child could purchase a toy for themselves: a small bag of clay marbles for a penny. Because they were so common, clay marbles were nicknamed “commies” and were played with by kids in the 19th and early 20th century."

Thank you for all that information. I'll be keeping an eye out for one.
 

Great day of digging you had, congrats.
Liking the amber poison bottle, and the complete Richards.
Getting the stopper is a winner for sure.
Nice history on the company and the product

Well done on the collection of clay marbles, how cool is that getting so many.
 

Great day of digging you had, congrats.
Liking the amber poison bottle, and the complete Richards.
Getting the stopper is a winner for sure.
Nice history on the company and the product

Well done on the collection of clay marbles, how cool is that getting so many.
Very interesting story. Thanks
 

Excavated all of this today:
View attachment 2090197

From one tiny area I dug 34 clay marbles, 3 glass marbles, and several particularly round acorns and chestnuts (two of them pictured bottom left in the picture above). I can only imagine the acorns and chestnuts served as marble substitutes. Some were so round that they fooled me, and I ended up squishing several by accident trying to clean them.

Excavating the marbles:
View attachment 2090195

Cleaned up:
View attachment 2090196

This is the tooled Tincture of Iodine bottle:
View attachment 2090194
Very Cool!!! Congrats!!!
 

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