About 400 antiques bottles thankfully finding new home.

[Limitool]

Around 35+ years ago I made a prob to look for old privy pits at this home I owned and lived in. I found A LOT OF THEM. This home was in Constantine MI. and was a very old structure. I never got around to digging even half of them. I think I dug 6 of them and found hundreds of unbroken bottles and items. I found the bottles, ceramic doll heads, 2 pistols and many old household items. I found many medicine bottle both very large and very small (tiny).

Now I am not a bottle collector but I did have fun seeing what I could find. But never did I expect to find so many in just 6 pits. There were still 15 or more privy pits I knew of but didn't dig up. I can't imagine how many I would have ended up with. When I moved to Tennessee in 94' I brought the bottles with me for some reason. I was always going to clean them up and see if any were worth a dollar. But I never did. So I made the decision that I was going to try and find a new home for them. So I asked just 2 folks here on Tnet (PM'ed) if they had any idea what I could do with them all. One of them wanted all of them...! So he's coming to get them soon. And I am very grateful for it. I thought it would be very hard to pass about 400 bottles along and probably is. I believe I just got lucky somebody was interested in them all. Here's some pics of them after I got them out of the old boxes they were in. Only 1 bottle was broken. It was a "Patented in1858 mason jar" into 3 pcs. The jar broke clean and can be glued but it sucks it was broken.

 

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[achanceforgold]

That's fantastic dude!
One day I'm going try this. Privy pitting, lots of old houses near me.

 

[Limitool]

That's fantastic dude!
One day I'm going try this. Privy pitting, lots of old houses near me.

Here's what I did and it worked out great. I got a 1/4" steel rod about 5-6ft long and tack welded a T-handle on one end. I added wood handles later over the T-handle. The other end I ground to a sharp point. The soil I had was sandy and soft and easy to penetrate. But it would NEVER work here in Tennessee. When you push the rod in and the tip hits a piece of glass you can easily hear it resonate on the rod. Many times it took many tries in the same area / spot to rule it out. When I usually hit something it was when the pit was getting full at about 2-3ft. But many times I hit something at 4-5ft. Good luck...!!!!

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Wow ... that's a lot of great looking old Bottles - well done !

 

[UnderMiner]

Neat! I dig bottles all the time but not from privies, only river-side dumps and the like. I currently have permission to dig around a house from 1750, how do I find where the privy is?

 

[achanceforgold]

I watched a couple youtube videos of guys digging up privy's.
They were finding all kind of stuff. Bottles, watches, rings, etc.

Do you know when they started putting bathrooms in public buildings.
I own an old courthouse from 1875.

 

[The Rebel]

Great finds, l'm sure you enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[KYgotGOLD]

So people buy these? We call it a bottle dump when you find a large amount it one area.

 

[Limitool]

Neat! I dig bottles all the time but not from privies, only river-side dumps and the like. I currently have permission to dig around a house from 1750, how do I find where the privy is?

Well it would surely help if you had a map of the area at the time. I'd think they'd put the outhouse near a property line or out away's from the building but not near another building. Maybe you could "stare" from an open door and asked yourself.... Where would you put it...? And remember there won't be just one at an old site. When one got close to full they'd dig next to it and just move the outhouse over to the new hole. They'd stay away from wells to prevent leeching also.

 

[Limitool]

So people buy these? We call it a bottle dump when you find a large amount it one area.

If you have the right one and it cleans up good I guess people do. These were not found in a bottle dump but I know what you mean.

 

[robertk]

Well it would surely help if you had a map of the area at the time. I'd think they'd put the outhouse near a property line or out away's from the building but not near another building. Maybe you could "stare" from an open door and asked yourself.... Where would you put it...?

I've been trying to figure that out at my old house site. I know (roughly) where the house was. I know where the cellar was(I'm digging it up). I know where the well was II dug up the pipe). But the privy eludes me. And unfortunately, there are so many rocks here that the probe trick won't really help.

The only houses here that I visited while they still had outhouses standing (not on my property, just in the area), the outhouse was less than a hundred feet from the house. Close enough you could make a mad dash in winter without freezing off anything important. But still, a hundred foot circle is a pretty big area to hunt if you don't know where it was.

 

[KYgotGOLD]

If you have the right one and it cleans up good I guess people do. These were not found in a bottle dump but I know what you mean.

I gathered so many out of a place that’s still putting out. Most of the big bottles were broken so it was fun to find them intact but I ended up with 2 I never seen a mechanical grease jar that was almost like carnival glass in color and a ball jar with a odd shape like a vase couldn’t find info on either jar but I got them at my moms house still. She use to love them old bottles I’d bring home for some reason.