bottle privy digging cox.macpherson, nasa

ANOTHER "GREAT BOTTLE DIGGING STORY" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

It was one of those cold New Orleans days just before Christmas last year, temperature in the 40’s with 85 to 90 percent humidity to compound the cold, when my friend Karl and I set out to some bottle digging. We sort of have a route we follow for a while looking for a recently burned down property or excavation.

Not finding anything new we headed downtown in the central business district. Here, not far from the French Quarter, we found heavy equipment tearing up an old asphalt parking lot. Knowing the contractor we were able to access the lot and within a few minutes found a privy. Getting too late, we left and made plans to return the next day.

A bottle just like this one was at the Mobile, Ala' how, with a chipped lip and the guy was asking $3,500 for the bottle. Not nearly in as good shape as this one!

The next day arrived and we were on the lot at 7 a.m., dodging heavy equipment and digging. The hole was a little disappointing. A couple of iron pontilled sodas and a pontilled hair bottle. Not much for the size of the hole we dug. The next day Gary, Karl and myself were back at 7 AM and we find another privy. This time we have a strong chance of rain to go with the cold. So we started digging and just a couple of feet below the surface Karl pulled out an 11-inch Cathedral pickle. At that point we all looked at each other slightly amazed. We laughed and said either this is the best thing that’s coming out of this hole or it’s going to get a lot better. The latter was true. But, in the meantime it started pouring down rain. Karl, being the most equipped digger in the city, had the answer. We set up a tarp and kept on digging.

For those of you who don’t know New Orleans, the water table is very high. Generally, a four foot hole will get you into water. This coupled with a downpour made for a lot of water bailing. But, it was worth it. Some of the first bottles to come up after the pickle were pontilled London mustards, both clear and black, from the lead content in the glass, a champagne split, some pontilled capers and berry food bottles, then an assortment of perfumes, very crude in appearance. A mocha ware pitcher, worm pattern, turned up, it was in excellent shape except for some hairline cracks. A umber of different sizes and shapes of pontilled glass, some dark green, some black from the lead, some very frail-looking like puffs, but, many in very good shape without chips or cracks. Most dating from the 1830s.

Then came the find of the day, a Coxe & Macpherson, which looked like a squat soda bottle (actually a cough syrup) with a wedge top and dark green color, open pontil. We knew this was a valuable bottle but we didn’t know how valuable. After we finished off the hole or it finished us, we filled it in and left. Cold and miserable, we went back to Karl’s house. Karl and Gary took the bottles inside and started cleaning them while I washed down the tools and other equipment. When I got inside Karl told me he had gotten an estimated price of $800 from Dick (not real name but suitable). Karl has known Dick for many years and trusted him. Dick rushed right over and paid us $800 for the bottle. For Gary and myself being relatively new to the hobby, this was the best dig we had been on. Not only did we all get some good glass for our collection, but, we made a few bucks, too.

We have an agreement that any time we find a piece in the $500 range or above, we sell it and divide the cash. There was only one problem with the settlement this time. Dick really took advantage of us. It took a couple of months, but we found out that the Coxe & Macpherson would auction for $4,000 or better. When confronted, Dick said he didn’t know at the time the bottle was that valuable (not true) and when we told him you do now, well, Dick wasn’t ready to sweeten the pot any. It was a sad lesson to learn that Dick was that greedy and untrustworthy, however, it was a dig that we really enjoyed and learned from, the hard way. Several other pools were dug on that lot by other diggers, but, none equaled the bounty of that particular pool. As for Dick, we will still sell him anything he wants in the future, for twice the price.....

Did you enjoy this digging story? Every month Antique Bottle and Glass Collector magazine gives you neat digging stories like this one.