An opportunity that doesn't come up much...

DIGGER27 · Jan 13, 2016

I was walking through my local park when I walked over to an area that I hadn't visited for the last couple of weeks.
What do I see but a big old tree that had toppled over recently.
I walked over to the root ball that was now sticking over 7' high out of the ground and looked at the hole in the ground which went about 3-4' deep...deeper in a few spots.
I took my detector and scanned the area that used to be underground but is now open and got some signals.
Took out my handheld and started to run it around the dirt and got a lot more signals but every one that I dug was either an old can top, wire or rusted nail or other iron.
I looked up at the bottom of the big root ball towering over me and scanned that too and that is when I saw the bottom of this complete bottle sticking out with a broken piece of another green bottle next to it.
Then I started digging through this thing looking for more bottles.
I know that this part of the park used to be used as a landfill and dump in the 1800's.

Horton-Cato Mtg Co. Detroit Mich embossed.

This is a large version of other bottles I have seen selling on bottle sites and EBay, the largest bottle of this type I have seen for sale so far is a little over 5" tall...mine is 8".
This was a company that made salad dressing and other condiments under the name Royal that dates back to being trademarked in 1914 but were manufacturing before that so this bottle might go back to pre 1900 and appears to be the type sealed with a big cork.
Their salad dressing bottles were usually embossed that way but this one doesn't have that so maybe a ketchup bottle?
I don't really collect bottles but this seems like a nice start if I decide to do that.
For history buffs if you click on this 1910 digital picture and expand it you can see the large backwards sign on the building this bottle came from in the background of the middle section.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/13288

I dug around a bit more yesterday but I will go back and root around this now open area again later today.
Could be more bottles or hopefully coins in this spot that hasn't seen the light of day for over 100 years.

BufordCityDawg · Jan 13, 2016

Very nice old find. They just knocked down some trees in the lot across the street from me. I may need to go give their root balls a look see too.

BCD

hollywood · Jan 13, 2016

great opportunity ,hope the hunt reveals more!

Mud-puppy · Jan 13, 2016

Good eyes! Great score there! Be careful about those old bottles, next thing you know you will be probing around in old outhouses!
Also, better pick up a tube of lanolin for your hands there D27...what are you, a brick layer or 90 yrs old or something? I havnt seen lifelines like that on a guys palm since Methusala! :laughing:

Mud

Perquimans · Jan 13, 2016

Hey--fallen trees are great places to look for bottles :cool:

joee5 · Jan 13, 2016

Dunno anything about old bottles but that sure looks old

eculuke · Jan 13, 2016

Nice work .....rare occasion in deed

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

GLASSHOPPER1955 · Jan 13, 2016

Digger, you have done good research on that Horton-Cato bottle. Yes they are food bottles, usually containing various condiments. Not worth much but cool looking for sure. Is that a spiral thread on the neck? Some of those were cork and some were early style screw cap. As far as that root ball and finding more bottles, I'd get a probe and CAREFULLY slowly probe through that root from all sides and feel/listen for that chink of glass. I do that very thing all the time in my never-ending searching for old bottles. I'd also search (probe) the ground all around that whole area for more still-buried bottles. Those may have been the only one but, on the other hand, you could be standing on a good sized dump, you just never know. Try searching in all-metal around there for the usual tin cans and junk that often accompany dumps.

Mud-puppy, those hands in the picture probably look that way because the guy that those hands belong to is a human jewelry-digging machine! :lol:

metaladdict · Jan 13, 2016

generally clear glass was made 1900 and later.Screwtop lids =low value usually. I would dig for bottles if it wasnt a park!

DIGGER27 · Jan 14, 2016

Here is a 4.5" exact version of my bottle from a bottle auction site and it has Pat. April 2 1882 on the bottom of that one.
Mine is almost twice the size.
I don't see any other way to seal either one of these up except by using a cork...no screw top.

We had a member of our club speak at a meeting once in Kansas, he also specialized in locating and digging privy's and it was way interesting.
A very dangerous business when you dig a pit 10' down and further so they never brought less than 3-4 guys to do this.
Amazing bottle specimens on display at the meeting along with a bunch of other stuff people throw or lose down that hole.
Glasses, toothbrushes, jewelry and even old style dentures among other things.

He wasn't interested in or collected any bottles past 1900.

GLASSHOPPER1955 · Jan 14, 2016

That little diagonal line on the neck is for the screw cap. Very crude in those days. OK for food but wouldn't have sealed anything like beer or soda. Yes,there were clear bottles that early, but not many. Mostly aqua, amber, and occasionally cobalt blue, deep green or white opaque milk glass. See my albums on here for some colored bottles.

Privy digging like you mentioned gets pretty seriously deep and can be quite dangerous. Vertical and slow methodical digging using an easel with a bucket. Most of the deep privys are out east and southeast, but there are some in the midwest cities like St. Louis, etc. City dwellers only had so much backyard so they made use of what they had. Most privies were along the back property line but not always. I've seen privies on the 'net that were right up against the back of houses. Some were on the sides of the lot and the diggers end up digging under fences into the adjoining yards! It is very facinating and some of the oldest and rarest bottles come out of these digs.

DIGGER27 · Jan 14, 2016

GLASSHOPPER1955 said:
That little diagonal line on the neck is for the screw cap. Very crude in those days. OK for food but wouldn't have sealed anything like beer or soda. Yes,there were clear bottles that early, but not many. Mostly aqua, amber, and occasionally cobalt blue, deep green or white opaque milk glass. See my albums on here for some colored bottles.

Privy digging like you mentioned gets pretty seriously deep and can be quite dangerous. Vertical and slow methodical digging using an easel with a bucket. Most of the deep privys are out east and southeast, but there are some in the midwest cities like St. Louis, etc. City dwellers only had so much backyard so they made use of what they had. Most privies were along the back property line but not always. I've seen privies on the 'net that were right up against the back of houses. Some were on the sides of the lot and the diggers end up digging under fences into the adjoining yards! It is very facination and some of the oldest and rarest bottles come out of these digs.

Thanks for the info!

Digger-Dave · Jan 14, 2016

Excellent finds! :cool:

I'll bet all of us will work a spot like that when we see one.
My imagination spikes when I see a tree like this. :yes:

An opportunity that doesn't come up much...

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