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| Birthday Dig in NYC | ||
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Moderators: ca_drm1n
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| Author | Post | ||
| andy g. |
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  Registered Member #9 Joined: Thu Apr 26 2007, 10:46Posts: 113 | Al thought that I should be able to post a quick version of my story in our forum for the Club -- I will add more pictures and detail in a Potomac Pontil article. It has been so hectic that I have not even had a chance to do much of anything other than family and work, but somehow I managed to wander off for a dig to celebrate my birthday – and what a birthday it was. Frankly, I cannot thank enough my digging buddies who took care of everything at the last minute: each of my three digging buddies Dodd Delph, Scott Jordan and Fireman Jack Fortmeyer were kind enough, in order, to drive me to New York, lodge two of us in Queens, and obtain a privy dig for all of us in Brooklyn. Wow! And that was before we even started digging … and some digging we did. This was quite a massive pit behind a mid-1840s structure in the heart of old Brooklyn that took four of us about 18 hours over two days to dig. [ image disabled ] We ended up digging an outhouse pit that was over 6 feet across and 15 feet deep – as you can see in the image we moved a bit of dirt. Now I leave it to you to decide if moving all that dirt would be worth it to you but to me just hanging with friends, doing a little exercise, and recover a few finds to take home is what privy digging and bottle collecting it is all about. Here I am digging in the hole and finding the first few members of a small hoard of pontiled aqua medicines. [ image disabled ] These are all embossed BARRY’S TRICOPHEROUS FOR THE SKIN AND HAIR NEW YORK. Although relatively common for privy diggers, we ended up find 21 intact Barry’s in this privy which is my personal best. Also while digging these Barry’s, I stumbled upon a layer of beautiful transfer printed pot lids, in red, black, and purple, from Philadelphia. The Jules Hauel from Philadelphia was the first intact one I had ever recovered and depicts an image of Ben Franklin. Here is a picture of the pot lids along with the Barry’s stacked like cordwood. [ image disabled ] Dodd managed to find some nice bottles too, including this sweet iron-pontiled, green soda embossed with an image of an eagle. These eagle sodas are often attributed to Sacramento, California; however, I personally have seen at least 5 come out of the ground in the New York area. Nonetheless, where ever they hail, these are pretty bottles. Here is a picture of a grinning, over-heated Dodd. [ image disabled ] The soda is also visible in the midst of some our other finds including a nice pickle (embossed S. WARDELL above a shield), a green snuff, and a rare stoneware bottle (barely visible to the left here but shown in another image towards the end with the sodas) which we had not seen with a bottler’s name. The 8-side clay bottle is stamped D.L. ORMSBY/1849 in a star at the shoulder and W.SMITH/PATENT in a shield at the bottom – Smith was a freed slave who lived in New York’s Greenwich Village and patented a machine in the 1840s to manufacture these 8-sided clay bottles. (For those inquiring minds, the soda and snuff looks so good because they were rinsed in a bucket of water at the site.) [ image disabled ] Also neat to recover was a massive doll’s head and base. We figure this lady must have stood at least a few feet tall when assembled. You can also see the other usual odds and ends such as toothbrushes and hairbrush handles made of bone and ivory, a sterling spoon, some Goodyear 1851 combs and lady’s dress boning, ointment pots and such. [ image disabled ] Even with all of these neat finds, the star of the show was when Jack recovered an aqua, 8-sided, iron pontiled soda from Brooklyn that none of us had even heard about before: L.R. CORNELL & Co./SUPERIOR/AERATED/MINERAL/WATER/BROOKLYN. In the end, Jack managed to extract not one but three of these previously unknown, late 1840s, tapered lip mineral waters. Jack got so excited, he was shaking and believes he found the cure for the common cure – find an unlisted pontiled soda after 25 years of digging in Brooklyn! [ image disabled ] Last but not least, here is shot of our finds. There was quite a range of finds from medicines to inks to foods to sodas to whiskeys to inks. Highlights in the pontiled category not mentioned above included a green Hover’s ink and a light green Swaim’s Vermifuge. [ image disabled ]. All I can say is thanks a ton to the guys for putting on such a great birthday dig. andy g. As a wise, old privydigger once told me: May your shovel be light and may you find many colored pontils. | ||
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| ca_drm1n |
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   Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Apr 12 2007, 09:24Posts: 339 | Andy, Great post, thanks for sharing. Just out of curiosity, did you post the actual images here in the forum, or link back to externally-hosted images? They look great (albeit a bit big... ;o) - Al | ||
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| andy g. |
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| Registered Member #9 Joined: Thu Apr 26 2007, 10:46Posts: 113 | Al -- Just trying to keep the webmaster happy. FYI, the images are linked to my hosting site (i.e., photobucket). I did not try uploading to the forum. Also, do you think the images are too big? I can downsize them if desired. andy g. As a wise, old privydigger once told me: May your shovel be light and may you find many colored pontils. | ||
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| ca_drm1n |
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| Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Apr 12 2007, 09:24Posts: 339 | Image size is fine, great detail, really makes all of us "pedestrian" diggers jealous! Haha... | ||
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| herndonbottles |
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 Registered Member #6 Joined: Wed Apr 25 2007, 01:01Posts: 51 | Andy, What a great birthday present! Looks like that Franklin potlid and the mineral water is a good one. What are you going to do with all the Barry's? Congrats to you, Dodd, Scott, and Jack on another successfull dig. Look forward to the full Pontil article. -Peter | ||
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