Collecting antique bottles

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Really nice finds there Scott. did you get these in a river/lake or the ocean?
ZDD

 

[scotthowes]

I found them in 2 lakes. l live on silver lake. In the 1800's there was a hotel and a race track for horses around it.This is a pre historic lake that is getting smaller it is about 30' deep. There are many Indian camps around the lake due to it being very close to the river. I have found many points and broken pottery.The other lake is about 5 miles from my house there were 4 hotels and many camps, starting before the civil war the last aound the mid 1920'S.You can guess the silt is quite deep.I've given up pretty much with metal detecting these spots and paw around in the mud.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Sounds like you have a couple of good honey holes there. Places like that will produce good finds for a long time, just keep on grubbing around in the silt. In low vis like that I will bring up everything and pick out the keepers on the surface.
ZDD

 

[Detroit Mudpuppy]

Hi did the plate look like this one? If so I can tell you all about it, if not post a picture, I have a book that lists all of the china that was used on the great lakes steamers. Ed

Ed you were right that is a tough book to find at a reasonable price. Finally a seller has popped up on ebay offering new copies of Dining On The Inland Seas for an excellent price. Here is the link for anyone wishing to purchase a copy. "Dining on Inland Seas" Great Lakes Ship China - eBay (item 350342570295 end time Mar-14-11 07:55:06 PDT)

 

[Detroit Mudpuppy]

Here are a few of the finds from last summer. Sorry for not posting anything in a while. The last year I have been busy getting my two nephews certified along with my friend and getting them squared away with their gear and training. Last summer we chose to do all of our dives in the St. Clair river and the Chenel Escarte which is a branch of the St. Clair river.

The first is a half pint crown top Okeefe's beverages from Toronto, this size is fairly rare to find.
A Niagara Bottling Co. beer with a Hutter style closure, know nothing about this bottle yet, hand blown with lots of bubbles in the glass.
Clark Brothers round bottom blob top from Toronto
Jas Walsh round bottom blob top from Toronto, these two are fairly common because of the construction projects in Toronto in the last 25 years which uncovered landfill sites dating from the 1880's to the turn of the century.
Ohio Bottling Works from Cleveland, mug base blob soda

Baby & Hanrahan older version Hutch closure soda (rare)
The crier :depressed: a cobalt blue squat blob top soda from Detroit embossed G Norris with top broken off
A crown top murray bottling works from Windsor (rare)
A small Blackwood hand blown ink
Now I will have to find the time to dig out the rest of last summer's finds and get them posted, note none of these bottles have been properly cleaned to display with my collection. The last pic is my nephews and I getting ready to start our drift dive.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Here are a few of the finds from last summer. Sorry for not posting anything in a while. The last year I have been busy getting my two nephews certified along with my friend and getting them squared away with their gear and training. Last summer we chose to do all of our dives in the St. Clair river and the Chenel Escarte which is a branch of the St. Clair river.

The first is a half pint crown top Okeefe's beverages from Toronto, this size is fairly rare to find.
A Niagara Bottling Co. beer with a Hutter style closure, know nothing about this bottle yet, hand blown with lots of bubbles in the glass.
Clark Brothers round bottom blob top from Toronto
Jas Walsh round bottom blob top from Toronto, these two are fairly common because of the construction projects in Toronto in the last 25 years which uncovered landfill sites dating from the 1880's to the turn of the century.
Ohio Bottling Works from Cleveland, mug base blob soda

Good to see you posting once again Mudpupy, looks like you have a couple of good dive buddies there. I haven't been in the water since our New Years dive, the weather has been crap this winter. We only have about 2 months left for bottle diving and then we will be heading to the wrecks. I recovered a bottle this winter from your area though, a cod stopper from Niagra bottling. I posted a pic. on post# 95
Oh and that's too bad about the cobalt, would have been a really good one.
ZDD

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Today's finds, unfortunately I couldn't join my buddies in the water. I had to drive my wife to the airport so I met up with them after at the dive at the boat launch. Lots of clay pipe bowls, 3 hutch bottles, one still with original contents that turned the inside of the bottle nice blue; 1 free blown with original contents still inside; brass candle candle holder and lots of other little goodies.
ZDD

 

[scotthowes]

Nice haul

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Todays finds. We had an great day for diving, the best so far this year. The sun was shining the wind was down and temps were up. Vis was an astounding 4-5 ft. but despite the vis we had a good hall. Some really good pipes, a Yorkshire Relish bottle with the glass stopper still in place. Once back in the Zodiac my buddy was looking at it and the stopper came flying out under the pressure and hit me in the chest, fortunately the stopper stayed in the boat and is back in the bottle.
We also found an un-opened bottle of Fireball, cinnamon Whiskey in one of the guys truck so we toasted in the spring like weather, I think the empty bottle was placed in the ocean for the next generation of bottle divers.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

This weekend's finds not as big as some weekends but still not too bad.
We found two round bottom ROSS'S from Belfast, a torpedo, a cod stopper, lots of clay pipe boals and a copper filter canister with some sort of crest stamped in it. I will try to clean it up and see if I can ID the manufacturer. We also picked up some other goodies, and what do you know, another bottle of Fireball Whiskey. Water was very cold, 34 deg. F so the whiskey was a nice way to warm up.
ZDD