Tons of old bottles...

[Crawdigger]

I've been metal detecting for just under a year now, and although I've made some nice recoveries in doing so, it seems I find more old bottles than I do metal. I'm below novice level when it comes to bottles and was hoping some of the experts on here could help me out.
I've hauled literally hundreds and hundreds of bottles out of the woods, fields, and shorelines and admittedly, some may be worthless and should have been left alone. How do you guys judge in the field if a bottle, jar, or other types of glass should be recovered? Secondly, once recovered, how do you go about determining its origin, age and value?
I've done some research and can tell by seams, bubbles, and other marks on them which ones are older but that's about as far as I can go.
I've included pictures of some of my favorites.
Thanks!!

 

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[bottlehunterofcoscob]

Here's a great website to get you started.

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

Generally, bottles worth taking are ones made by hand, not machine. A machine made bottle has a mold seam that runs through the top of the bottle. They started making bottles by machine in 1900 or so. What you choose to keep is your choice. There are some good machine made bottles like sodas and poisons, but hand made bottles are more collectible.

You have some nice insulators there, too. They are not my area of knowledge, but others here can help.

 

[surf]

Hey Crawdigger,

Welcome to the Bottle Department. Unfortunately, I'm seeing mostly machine made bottles here. The two oval shoo-fly flasks may be the oldest of the lot. Closeup photos of the lip and neck where the seam rises, and the bases may tell the tale on those.

The bottle guys look for a number of criteria when hunting bottles in the wild. With some experience it is easy to tell the difference between machine made (ABM) bottles and their earlier hand made (BIM) cousins.

Had I found a concentration of these guys, I would have been digging beneath them to see if there were older examples buried by time or tide. Embossing is one of the keys for determining the age and history of a bottle.

You have a circa 1930's Chattanooga Medicine Co. screwtop medicine. The history of the company, which is still in business as Chattem, dates back to 1879. They had 2 prominent products; Cardui, the Woman's Tonic, and Black Draught.

ST Elmo, Yesterday and Today​

It looks like you may have some 1950-1960's soda bottles that appear to be missing their ACL painted labels. Perhaps a couple of Certos, and what looks like a flock of Coca-Cola NDNR's.

The final item is a recent stopper for a decanter with a plastic seal.

If you are interested in learning more about old bottles, I'd suggest a prolonged visit to Historic Bottle Website - Homepage I'd be inclined to revisit the spots that you found those and dig and scratch my way back to the 19th Century…

Good luck, sir, and Happy Christmas.

​

 

[Crawdigger]

Here's a great website to get you started. http://www.sha.org/bottle/ Generally, bottles worth taking are ones made by hand, not machine. A machine made bottle has a mold seam that runs through the top of the bottle. They started making bottles by machine in 1900 or so. What you choose to keep is your choice. There are some good machine made bottles like sodas and poisons, but hand made bottles are more collectible. You have some nice insulators there, too. They are not my area of knowledge, but others here can help.

thanks bottlehunterofcoscob!

 

[Crawdigger]

Hey Crawdigger, Welcome to the Bottle Department. Unfortunately, I'm seeing mostly machine made bottles here. The two oval shoo-fly flasks may be the oldest of the lot. Closeup photos of the lip and neck where the seam rises, and the bases may tell the tale on those. The bottle guys look for a number of criteria when hunting bottles in the wild. With some experience it is easy to tell the difference between machine made (ABM) bottles and their earlier hand made (BIM) cousins. Had I found a concentration of these guys, I would have been digging beneath them to see if there were older examples buried by time or tide. Embossing is one of the keys for determining the age and history of a bottle. You have a circa 1930's Chattanooga Medicine Co. screwtop medicine. The history of the company, which is still in business as Chattem, dates back to 1879. They had 2 prominent products; Cardui, the Woman's Tonic, and Black Draught. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=916394"/> ST Elmo, Yesterday and Today It looks like you may have some 1950-1960's soda bottles that appear to be missing their ACL painted labels. Perhaps a couple of Certos, and what looks like a flock of Coca-Cola NDNR's. The final item is a recent stopper for a decanter with a plastic seal. If you are interested in learning more about old bottles, I'd suggest a prolonged visit to Historic Bottle Website - Homepage I'd be inclined to revisit the spots that you found those and dig and scratch my way back to the 19th Century&#133; Good luck, sir, and Happy Christmas. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=916412"/>

thanks Surf! I'll post better pics of those and the Chattanooga bottle contained Cardui. And pretty good eye you got to recognize the two certo bottles! Thanks again.

 

[Crawdigger]

thanks Surf! I'll post better pics of those and the Chattanooga bottle contained Cardui.

 

[Bass]

Nice avatar crawdigger

Sent from my iPhone using TreasureNet

 

[Crawdigger]

Nice avatar crawdigger Sent from my iPhone using TreasureNet

Thanks bass assassin!