4/2/22 Report - 18th Century Spanish Storm-Damaged Ship Results in Scotch Marmalade Leading To Recent Find of a 19th Century London Stoneware Bottle On the Treasure Coast.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Small But Informative Piece of a Broken Crock.

I've often said that some finds might not be worth much money, but they can still provide valuable information. That was the case with this small piece of broken stoneware that I picked up a couple weeks ago.

I didn't get around to researching it right away, but recently I did the research. Turns out that it is from a Dundee marmalade crock. Here is some of what I learned.

The Dundee Marmalade story begins in the late 1700’s with a small grocery business in Scotland that by the mid-1860’s had grown into a world-wide enterprise.  Back in the 18th Century, a storm-damaged Spanish ship carrying Seville oranges sought refuge in Dundee Harbor. The lot of oranges was sold to James Keiller whose mother, Janet, decided to make marmalade out of the bounty. Thus, the James Keiller Dundee Marmalade Company was born. Back in the day, it was believed that the pieces of orange peel in the marmalade aided in digestion...  (Source: VintageCrossings blog)

Surprise, surprise!  So we have a  story that started with an18th century storm-damaged Spanish ship.  But of course the story doesn't end there.  Years later, the marmalade crock made it to the Treasure Coast where the  marmalade was consumed.     

Below is an unbroken crock something like the one that produced the piece recently found on the Treasure Coast.

I enjoyed learning the story that crosses both centuries and continents leading to the Treasure Coast. Even before I did the research and learned the story behind it, though, I liked ironstone piece enough that it provided the inspiration for another hunt. It provided the extra touch of motivation that got me going on the next hunt.  With the ironstone Dundee marmalade crock still on my mind, I went out to search the same area yesterday (Fri.) afternoon.

Conditions were great for bottle hunting.  The tide was low and the water clear.  I had high hopes, but after a good long walk with very little to show for it,  just when I was about to give up, I finally found something nice as well as a few other borderline keepers.

A Few Finds From Friday.

Nothing very exciting here.  A McCormick and Co. Baltimore bottle (very common).  A nicely shaped but not old bottle, a white marble, a Wink soda bottle, and an ACL 1 Pint Coke bottle.  I don't think I found a Wink bottle before.  

My best find of the day, though, was the large master ink bottle shown on the right below.

New Master Ink Bottle Find (right) Shown With Similar Cleaned Bottle.

That was not an easy find.  Most of my better bottle finds lately have been either almost completely buried and/or covered by moss or seaweed.  I cleaned a lot of the shells and moss off the new find, but it needs a lot more cleaning.  It seems to have the same impressed label as the smaller bottle (found long ago), although I can't see it well yet.  

All I could see of the new bottle was a clump of shell and seaweed.  I managed to get my fingers in the mud and under the bottle before I knew it was a bottle.  Then I carefully lifted it out of the mud.

Below is the label like the one I think I will see when the new find is better cleaned.

Label of J. Bourne and Son Master Ink Bottle.

"J. Bourne and Son" was used first in 1850. The bottle would probably be from the 1850-1880 period.

You can see similar bottles in the Odyssey Marine virtual museum. A lot of these bottles were found on the wreck of the S. S. Republic and are being sold online.

So a piece of an ironstone crock that held a Scotch marmalade originally developed from oranges from an 18th century Spanish ship got me started on a recent Treasure Coast hunt leading to a 19th century London stoneware ink bottle.

I'll get this new bottle better cleaned soon.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Looks like small surf for a while.

Good Hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net