The Super Detectors Series - Bottle FeverHere is another adventure in the field from one of our customers using a USA Runabout. |
Bottle FeverHello Accurate Locators, Reggie Shoeman and I have dug bottles for many years. When he lived in Las Vegas we were both members of the local bottle club. The club used to go on digs, they still do I think, and Reggie went on many of them taking me along when my parents were busy. This was back when I was about 10 years old. I consider myself a bottle expert as I spent more time reading bottle books and magazines than doing my homework- and still got good grades. I have continued my passion for bottles and enjoy constantly learning more. Right now I just want to be down in an old outhouse digging! Here are 2 additional photos of bottles we have found. I actually bought 2 at a shop in CA from a digger. I think the green soda was dug years ago, it's an old blob soda from San Francisco circa 1859 to 61. The larger brown bottle is a DR. J. Hostetter's Stomach Bitters an early varying shade of amber issue with a plain base (usually a glass company's initials were on the base) circa 1870. The Hostetter's Stomach Bitters is one of my favorite areas of bottle collecting as this is the first bottle given to me by my grandma. The big salt glazed jug Reggie found deep in the big hole behind where an early hotel once stood in Iowa. I was not there for the dig but my partnership in owning our Accurate Locators USA Runabout won me this bottle when the bottles were divvied up that day. The amber indented panel bottle shown close up here is Primley's Wahoo & Iron Tonic from Elkhart, Ind. Circa 1870's with an applied, and crooked, lip. I am not well versed on mid west bottles but research shows this to be rather scarce and so far the best bottle we have found with perhaps a market value of $500 to $1,000. It has great amber color shading with a little olive green in it. This amazingly came out of the ground almost as good as the day it was tossed away over 130 years ago! This was no easy bottle to remove. Removal took about a half an hour as it was wedged in with old broken restaurant ware plates and dishes, etc. I can not explain the excitement when you see just the base of a bottle like this and eventually the whole thing is resting in your hands undamaged! We still have more to dig out of this same huge pit, but that's for another day. We found several old plain medicines and extract bottles and another smaller jug we are giving to the local property owner who allowed us permission to dig here. While digging a man came by and told us of a real old stage coach stop we were unaware of. The fun of the digging is you never know what's in the next hole or shovel full! Thanks, James Campiglia author of "The Official US Casino Chip Price Guide" |
