Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Hundreds of Bees in a Tree. |
I heard from some people that weren't having much luck finding old surface bottles, so I thought I'd provide a few tips that I've picked up over the years.
First of all, most old bottles will not have metal caps, so you need a keen and practiced eye. Old bottles are not easy to find. There are hundreds of modern bottles for every nice surviving old bottle.
I'm just talking about surface finds today - not digging old dumps or probing.
Just like with metal detecting, location is important. Find an area where there was a lot of human activity in the past and hopefully some clues to old artifacts.
Also like metal detecting, erosion is a big help. Bottles are affected by the same laws of physics and will be covered or uncovered and washed up according to the same physical principles that affect beach coins. There are times when they are very difficult to find, and other times when they appear.
Bottles come in a variety of shapes and will move differently in water and sand. Some have a barrel shape and some have a more rectangular shape. Some will be closed with a cap or stopper or be clogged with mud or other materials and might contain a lot of air. That of course changes how they are moved. It means that they will be washed around differently by the water. If a bottle is filled with mud or sand, it will not move as readily.
When eye-balling, pay attention to small pieces of glass. A broken bottle neck or lip of an old bottle might be the first clue that other old bottles might be nearby. Take the time to inspect pieces that might look old. Maybe you'll be able to find a bit of embossing or some other clue. I always take the time to try to make out what a piece of partly embossed class comes from. You'll quickly learn to recognize pieces of bottles. You might recognize a piece of a milk bottle, soda bottle, or whatever. That skill will improve with practice. Coca Cola bottle pieces are very easy, for example.
One of the best clues about a bottle is the thickness of the glass. Older bottles are almost always thicker. The glass of an old bottle will often be uneven or vary in thickness. One side might be twice as thick as the other. The glass of modern bottles is thinner and more uniform. And modern bottles are tend to be more clear
Old glass might have bubbles in the glass, indicating that the bottle was hand blown. I always like to find blown bottles, and the more and bigger the bubbles, the more I like it.
Many old bottles will have some color to the glass. Green and aqua are common colors, as is cobalt blue. You might even find some depression or Vasoline glass, which is green. Old sun-exposed bottles can be sun-purpled.
The lip can provide a lot of good information. Of course screw tops are more modern, even though there are some older screw tops that you can learn to recognize. Good blob tops are nice finds.
Also, certain embossing will give away the age of a bottle, such as the notice that says that federal law prohibits sale or reuse of the bottle. That notice will be found on liquor bottles dating form 1935 to 1964.
And the seams of the bottle are a good clue. I've talked about that before. Generally speaking, on older bottles the mold seam will not go all the way to the top of the bottle. That is something to study.
One of the main things about eye-balling (like metal detecting) is practice. Here is an example of a modern jar that shows all the signs of a machine made modern piece.
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| Bottom of Modern Machine Made Bottle. |
One glance at that will quickly tell you it is machine made. There is no need to look any closer. You can see the clear uniform thin glass as well as all the markings characteristic of a modern machine-made jar.
When I found the Granite State Spring Water Company bottle, all I saw was a corner of the bottom sticking out of the sand. Below is about how much of it that I saw between many other broken pieces of glass, stones and junk.
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| Corner of Granite State Spring Water Company Bottle. |
Notice the thickness of the glass. It is clear, which is sort of unusual for a bottle of this type and age, but the diameter and bottom looked like some bottles that I've seen before. The diameter of the bottle, the thickness of the glass and the extra glass on the heal all tipped me off to the age of the bottle. So I bent over and carefully took it out of the sand. It would not have been surprised if it was broken, but I was glad it was not.
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| Stuart Bottling Works Bottle (left) and Granite State Spring Water Company Bottle (right) |
Notice that the Granite State bottle and Stuart Bottling Works bottles shown above have the same diameter and similar bottoms with a heavy built up heal, unlike what you would see on a recent bottle.
When I saw the corner of the Granite State bottle, I immediately recognized it as being part of an older bottle of that type. That is just the result of practice.
The one thing you can do to improve your bottle eye-balling skills is practice, practice, practice. And pay attention to the broken pieces you see along the way and try to identify the bottles they came from.
Here is a link that will take you to a great site for learning more about how to date bottles.
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You can post comments, but I'd prefer you communicate via email. Comments will await moderation before being posted, and I don't do that very often. In fact I just noticed there were several awaiting moderation. Some were fairly old. I can't commit to doing that quickly so it is better if you use email, although I might get around to posting your comments.
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The bees were on the tree last night and all left together this afternoon. Quite a sight to see.
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There is some tropical activity building.
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| nhc.noaa.gov |
The tide is moderate and the surf is only about a foot or two.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net