Metal detecting hunt turns bottle hunt

[treblehunter]

Long story short, I spent the morning looking for a 1800's home site in the deep woods, could not find it. During that hunt I found a ax, pocket knife, and a stirrup. The stirrup seemed pretty old, after that I headed to a different spot that I have been waiting to hunt since last spring. I called my buddy to get his blessing, to make sure he was done deer hunting in there. I got the ok, so this spot has about 6 home sites with a couple of them very deep woods. I figured that most treasure hunters have not over the years made it back to these spots. I found two of the homesteads up close to where I knew people probably have hit. I detected there for a hour and a half only finding a stinking Lincoln. Until I stumbled across the brown bottle. My buddy told me about the bottles at this place, today I think I just scratched the surface. I found three bottles that were broke like the one in the pix that had pontil bottoms on them I'm going tomorrow, I will be detecting too. I'm very green about these bottles, the small clear one has "WYETH & BRO PHILAD'A" on it. The brown one says on the back Federal law forbids sale or re-use of this bottle.

Any age, value or ID's would be greatly appreciated. I will be posting this in the Bottle forum too
Thanks for looking and thank you in advance for any help from you great people of treasurenet!
Brad

Just wanted to add these photos of the metal I found at the earlier site/hunt for site

 

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[surf]

Hey Brad,

Glad you got some glass. The amber brandy is Post Prohibition, and really has no collector value. The John Wyeth & Bro. is 60-80 years older. I'd want to be returning to the location where you found that, and the broken amber medicine.

The Wyeth may have a bit of value, if that's not a hole in the base, in the $5 range. Wyeth was hugely successful, so the bottles are most common.

John Wyeth history.

​

 

[DigIron2]

I dont know much about old bottles ether.But i see, some old coins in your future.looks like you got a good skull collection going on there also.good luck man.

 

[treblehunter]

Hey Brad,

Glad you got some glass. The amber brandy is Post Prohibition, and really has no collector value. The John Wyeth & Bro. is 60-80 years older. I'd want to be returning to the location where you found that, and the broken amber medicine.

The Wyeth may have a bit of value, if that's not a hole in the base, in the $5 range. Wyeth was hugely successful, so the bottles are most common.

John Wyeth history.

View attachment 941944​

Thank you again Surf, you are the boss, or how do the kids say it," you are a boss" haaaaa
I will be spending serious time there tomorrow, I will be packing a lunch and bringing in my bottled water.

Thank you too Digiron, I'm hoping I find those dates on some nice silvers and maybe some LC's, I'm taking newspaper in with me, hoping to wrap up some old pontil base bottles that are still intact, cross your fingers guys.

 

[surf]

 

[texjim]

Sweet bottles...

 

[flatbutton]

Congrats! I love old glass! Haven't done any bottle hunting in years. Thanks for the pics, It brings back good memories.

 

[treblehunter]

Thanks guys!

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Treblehunter there is something really good coming your way I feel it I just don't know what it is, but congrats go for it! Your gonna find something really good!

 

[treblehunter]

I was just looking at the clear bottle for mold seams and noticed it has pontil marks on the bottom. What do you think now guys?

 

[MT_Joe]

Im no expert, but that should be pre 1870, correct?

 

[surf]

Hey Brad,

I'm sorry to say, that's not a pontil scar. The Wyeth's form is called a strap side Union Oval Prescription, or Baltimore Oval. It's circa 1880, and about 15 years beyond the pontil era of US bottles.

Have a look at the druggist section of Bill Lindsey's site for the SHA:

Medicinal Bottles​

 

[treblehunter]

Yeah, your on the mark Mt. Joe, I'm a little green on the bottles, the broken brown one in the pix, I'm almost 99.9% that it, and a couple other broken bottles had pontil scars on there bottoms. Few more hours and I'll be back there, I have to start early, chance of snow. I put my 5 X 8 DD search coil on so I can snipe around all that trash and iron. I would love to find a 1870's seated something, I have not found seated and allot of other old coins. The way I figure, on any given day I can find change in my pocket that dates back easy 50 years. Some of the dates I know of from this site are pretty darn old, so 50 years back from that?? Pretty darn exciting when you think about it.

 

[VOL1266-X]

Nice bottles TH but I like that old stirrup. Should clean up nicely. HH, Q.

 

[Gaspipe]

Surf is correct that is not a pontil mark. I've dug and collected bottles for many years. Your bottles date from 1890-1910 . They are not machine made but blown in a mold and the top was applied later..hence the reason the seam does not run all the way up the lip. As far as value not much and even less because the condition is not great. A few bucks each if you could find a buyer. Having said that you are in the age dump where if you dig enough you may find some decent bottles . And remember always dig to the bottom of the dump ..that's where the oldest stuff will be.

 

[Davers]

Bottle -Dumb

Nice bottles.
As I stated i,m bottle-dumb [ no next to nothing about bottles]
except the ones with the cork types are the ones to look for ( mostly).
That said ; What does 'Pontil' style mean.?
Is it a mark left from being hand made?
Davers

 

[treblehunter]

Nice bottles.
As I stated i,m bottle-dumb [ no next to nothing about bottles]
except the ones with the cork types are the ones to look for ( mostly).
That said ; What does 'Pontil' style mean.?
Is it a mark left from being hand made?
Davers

It is a mark left from being hand blown, check out this link.
Pontil Scars

 

[treblehunter]

Nice bottles TH but I like that old stirrup. Should clean up nicely. HH, Q.

Thanks Q, its fun looking!

It was in the middle of nowhere woods, not a signal within a few hundred yd radius, what's best way of cleaning it, soak in cider vinegar?

 

[treblehunter]

Gaspipe and Surf, I went back and got the one broken bottle that I thought for sure has a pontil scar. Here is a pic, it is the one in the group of pix from top.
Brad

 

[sweetrelease]

that mark is from an early bottle making machine. they started using machines around 1909. I've been digging and collecting bottles for about 15 years. I collect mostly early 1800's bottles from jersey . you want some help "cleaning" that spot let me know lol.. ;-)