Any old bottle collectors?

beamernc

Well-Known Member
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Charter Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2016
Messages
4,526
Location
Concord, NC
I shot at a squirrel in my back yard and didn't see him run off or fall, so I stepped in the edge of the woods to look for him and found these along with about 2 dozen other bottles and jars where all the rain has washed the leaves off of them. Back in my woods it slopes off and was an old gully that was filled up with trash a long time ago. The old house that was originally here, burned to the ground back in the early 1920's, so I suspect most of the trash was put there before the house burned. There are big trees growing there now, but I will probably scratch around the area once it dries up a little to see what else I can find.

The tallest bottle says "CREOMULSION for coughs due to colds" and the other one says "Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Concord NC".

Any idea about what the other 2 were used for?

1703703797477.png
 
Love me some old bottles. I'm no expert or real collector. I don't go out to buy certain bottles and such but working on old houses most my life I've accumulated a pretty good collection I've found over the years. Mostly old soda bottles and medicine type bottles and some cleaning supplies bottles. I'd say 90% of the time if you find those smaller brown colored bottles they are old medicine bottles. Given the small size of the clear bottle on other side I'd say it was probably medicine as well. Most small bottles will be some sort of medicine or tonic of the times. I had my old house covered in old bottles and jugs. They got boxed up and stored when I had to move back home to look after my aunt. Even the old bottles that ain't worth money still make great decoration pieces. I look forward to hearing what else you find once you start diggin.
 
Around here every time it rains we are picking up glass that comes to the surface. We have found small glass perfume or medicine bottles, brown glass bottles, porcelain, spark plugs etc. We have been picking stuff up for 30 years....
 
I have dug up and collected a ton of old bottles in my days as an excavator operator. I love them.
 
I have metal detected the yard and picked up buckets of nails, cans, barbed wire, bits of old farm equipment and old household metal items. The old gully has so many old rusty cans that it is difficult to detect in. Also found old bits and pieces from what I believe was an old T model. Story goes that the woman that lived here was pregnant and was in a car wreck in the intersection right above the house, that killed her and her baby and they drug the wrecked car back down here and put it in the gully. She actually died in the house on the corner of the intersection that my grandparents bought years later in 1947.

The old house that burned was, as an old woman in the community told me a long time ago, a very fine 2 story home that belonged to her aunt and uncle who were very well off. She remembered going to visit them when she was a little girl and told me about several of the different door knobs that were in the house, said it had a sun room and a cellar which regular folks didn't have. I have found a crystal door knob and a orange and cream swirled porcelain door knob that she had described. I also found a small, credit card sized, copper plate that had a cursive name engraved on it in reverse, that belonged to her aunt. She said that before you had pre printed cards to put in with wedding or baby gifts, that women printed their own and that is what the plate was for.

If you dig down a couple of inches in the woods in front of my house, you can still find the remnants of the old house foundation. Lots of old hand made bricks. When we first bought the property, my grandfather brought his backhoe down here to do some cleaning and we were going to dig up a piece of "concrete" that a corner was sticking up above ground. The piece turned out to be part of the cellar wall that was nearly 24" thick and big enough that we could not get it out, but was able to stand it up from where it had fallen in. Underneath it was burned wood and the hole filled up with water in just a couple of minutes. We figured it was standing water that was in all the burned debris that drained to the lowest point where we were digging. We were able to chip the corner off the concrete and pushed it back over and covered it up. The concrete did not look like the concrete that we have now days. I have always wanted to dig out the old cellar area to see what fell into it when the house burned.
 
Some of today's finds. There are so many saplings, briars and roots that I could only use a small hand rake to scratch around on the surface. Bunch of what are probably old jelly jars, blue Vicks jar, a white Ponds cold cream jar and several small screw on lid medicine bottles. I suspect that the deeper I go, the older the stuff will be.

Middle bottle has a soft drink style top on it but it is only 2-3 oz. Bottle to the right of it is embossed "3 oz" on the neck.
1703796503629.png
Found several of these, 8" tall x 2" diameter with a combination drink bottle style and threaded cap. Old ketchup bottle?
1703796699207.png

Octagonal bottle probably about 24-32 oz, marked Squibb. Maybe a mineral oil bottle?
1703796842358.png
 
Some of today's finds. There are so many saplings, briars and roots that I could only use a small hand rake to scratch around on the surface. Bunch of what are probably old jelly jars, blue Vicks jar, a white Ponds cold cream jar and several small screw on lid medicine bottles. I suspect that the deeper I go, the older the stuff will be.

Middle bottle has a soft drink style top on it but it is only 2-3 oz. Bottle to the right of it is embossed "3 oz" on the neck.
View attachment 718508
Found several of these, 8" tall x 2" diameter with a combination drink bottle style and threaded cap. Old ketchup bottle?
View attachment 718515

Octagonal bottle probably about 24-32 oz, marked Squibb. Maybe a mineral oil bottle?
View attachment 718516
Squibb is pre-civil war.
Chemicals and medicine.
dig carefully!
 
Last edited:
OK you win… I’m saving my empties from now on… beer, whiskey, wine, vodka, tequila, rum, etc. I’m saving them all— especially if the girls like them…
 
Around here every time it rains we are picking up glass that comes to the surface. We have found small glass perfume or medicine bottles, brown glass bottles, porcelain, spark plugs etc. We have been picking stuff up for 30 years....



And if you live and stay there you will be for another 30. Been doing that where we moved in the 80's and I can walk outside right now and find some.
 
I found an old half pint liquid bottle that took a cork at the Greensboro landfill a couple weeks ago when I was out there for work. I need to wash it up and get some pics
 
I found an old half pint liquid bottle that took a cork at the Greensboro landfill a couple weeks ago when I was out there for work. I need to wash it up and get some pics
If you have a bottle that has heavy staining on the inside put some sand in it and fill the bottle half full of water. Then shake the shit out of it….
 
I only have a few. An old Pepsi bottle, a Crowley's milk bottle and an old glazed earthen ware bottle.

I'll try to remember to dig them out and put up a picture.
 
Back
Top Bottom