Bottles n' Crocks n' Pipes - Oh My!

[DeepSeaDan]

Just a few pics of some of my favourite finds - enjoy:

Very rare gravitating stopper style soda bottle, circa 1870

Round-bottom soda bottle, circa 1880

Merchant's medicine bottle, Buffalo, N.Y., circa 1880

An assortment of clay smoking pipes & stems

Possible cream pitcher, likely made in Staffordshire England, in the style known as "Pearlware" - circa 1820

Very rare "Anodyne Oil" medicine bottle, Buffalo, N.Y., pontiled, circa 1870

 

[Ghost95]

That is awesome! I want to come scavenge there.

 

[Marie13]

Those are fabulous.

 

[Bubblesong]

May I ask how deep under the muck you find these things? I’m guessing these perfect items are not laying above muck in plain site?

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Hi Bubblesong,

I've found items on natural bottom, under logs, on top of logs, on top of rock piles, under rock piles, shoulder-deep into the muck, lying on top of sand - you name it, I've found something there!

The ones I've found on top of poured rock ( road builders and others like to pour their waste rock into / onto river banks; the cascading rock pour must push a few bottles up into the water column, where they then float back down and settle amongst the broken rock ), I consider those bottles to be extremely lucky finds - the Merchants bottle pictured was on top of newly / recently poured rock.

The relative cleanliness of the bottles is a function of the water and bottom conditions; for example, the J Broad bottle pictured was found laying on a small patch of sand, next to the ballast rock of a very old dock, in 3.5' of water! The surrounding lake bottom is very soft and goo-like; had the bottle been tossed into that stuff, it would have been forever lost. The Montreal round-bottom bottle was found in 2' of semi-solid goo, in about 15' of water. Bottles can be hidden in sand; river currents can move sand, sometimes revealing bottles - those bottles are almost perfectly clean. Most that I find require a lot of elbow grease, detergents and bottle brushes to get clean.

DSD

 

[calabash digger]

Very nice finds!! The rivers are always changing...Dive there one day nothing the next week after a storm hit a homerun.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Very nice finds!! The rivers are always changing...Dive there one day nothing the next week after a storm hit a homerun.

Hello CD!

Just to prove your point - this siphon wasn't "there" on my previous dive, then the area suffered an intense flash-flood. The bottom topography was completely changed on my next dive; where once was nothing, now stood a jumble of large logs, brush and other debris - on top of it all, was this siphon! I'd only ever found small pieces of one previously, how this one survived we'll never know, but I was very pleased it did!

I look forward to seeing more of your finds - those onion bottles you found were awesome!

Regards,
DSD

 

[TruckDiver1981]

They are some amazing finds! Thank you for sharing!

 

[shoredivr]

Are these From the St Lawrence, or some of the smaller rivers to the north? What a great collection! More please

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Are these From the St Lawrence, or some of the smaller rivers to the north? What a great collection! More please

The St. Lawrence has to be the greatest depository of old glass & much more, as it's such a historical waterway, but things can be found in most lakes and rivers - anywhere that people have settled. The reality is, it takes a lot of diving and very patient searching to be rewarded. Great finds are the exception, much the same as metal detecting. I'm lucky in that I just enjoy being underwater, so every hunt, regardless of the "day's catch", is wonderful time spent.

DSD