10-23-04   

    It rained on and off all the way to Steve's place. I hoped we would end up digging. Worse case, we could always have the big, end of year pick.  Which now amounts to 30 cases of bottles! Anyway, Steve and I set out to probe. We were waiting for Craig so we could head back over to the same place as last week. We had left a couple pits and everybody had their fingers crossed that one would be an old.

    We met over by Lewis' around 9am, got set up, and started to dig. We knew going into it, it would be a pain to dig. The pit was in that narrow strip between the brick fence and the garage. To make matters worse, it was under a small elm tree. Which cramped the shoveling even more.

    A couple feet down, some interesting bits of pottery and shards started to show. Then, smiling, Steve produces a clay ink. An indication of a pit with age. I could see the signs of pontil fever setting over Steve. Being as contagious as it is and closest to the hole, I got it too. I looked to Craig to see how bad he had it. Nothing. What's up with this? Come to find out later, he is immune. What really floats his boat are the local beers, sodas, and meds. I guess we will see if this is true at the big pick. Getting back to the story, Steve's next shards are some type of Hostetters looking bottle in a nice shade of green. It was some kind of ? & Thompson Sole Agents/ London Cordial Gin/ Schnapps. We knew he wasn't getting out of the hole without an intact bottle. So we had to wait until he found a dark green, open pontil ale bottle.

Steve-0 with the first bottle of the day.

  Thompson's,  awesome color, of course it had to be broken

Dave displaying the open pontil ale

    Craig was up next. It didn't take him long to find the top of a wax sealer fruit jar.  It was standing straight up. Being as careful as he could, he scratched around it's perimeter. First exposing the shoulders. Steve whacks me in the arm  three different times and says, "It's a Potter and Bodine." Let's just pray it is whole. I forgot to mention by this time it is pouring down rain. We had set up a patio umbrella and a tarp. This sure made the digging a lot better. Craig finally got the jar free, sure enough, the bottom was broke out. It ended up being a Air-tight Fruit Jar, Ravenna Glass Works, Barrel, Aqua with an iron pontil! We were sad.

As found of the Ravenna

Steve after the reveal. Check out the pontil cylinder found inside the jar.

    I was up next and started on a different corner of the privy. I got down a bit and found a dark neck poking out of the wall. After an as found pic and a little more digging. I got it out. It was an Udolfo Wolf's Aromatic Schnapps with an iron pontil and in a dark shade of green.

The Udolfo as found.

Dave and the Udolfo

    This little pit didn't probe very well. It seemed more ashy than glassy. To my surprise, it contained a large amount of broken pottery that somehow dodged our probes when we tested the pit. Never the less, we got a few whole bottles out. Some other broken bottles included: a Clark and White Saratoga style bottle, a Dyottville patent whiskey,  and another clay ink,

    Steve had the honor of finishing this one off. As ritual dictates, he requested the probe to make sure another pit was wasn't close by. Sure enough, there was one next door under the garage. Another unwelcome tunnel job about three feet away. One of the first shards to come out was a Pike's Peak Old Rye in aqua. The next shards, two very yellow, yellow amber Lightning Jar. It was very hard digging. We wanted to give in, but had to finish it off in hopes of another flask or jar. Which of course never materialized. A couple local Robinson's Drug Store and a Malydor Manufacturing Co Lancaster OH were the only bottles of mention.

    Steve contorted as he digs the tunnel job

    I remember Steve saying that is was funny there wasn't another pontil pit north of the initial pit we dug. We couldn't probe down because of a brick walk. So, he again probed from inside the pit to discover another privy adjacent to this one. When we started over, Steve found a broken petal jar. Another pontil pit on the way? Could we get that lucky? Yes, we did. Craig was first to produce some glass from the pit. An open pontil quart scroll flask in pieces. We mutually lamented aloud on why the good ones are always broken.

    Broken quart scroll, bummer

    Steve was up next. He dug for awhile. I got camera out when I saw him smiling while examining a smaller rectangular medicine. I asked if it was pontiled. "Yes" he replied. I waited as he wiped off the years of accumulated dirt. It was a Dr. D Jaynes/Oleaginous Hair Tonic/Philad.A .  Sweet!

Steve examining the Dr. Jaynes.

    Close up of the embossing

    My turn was next. I cleaned the rest of it up and found nothing. Bummer. The next pit was in the corner. It was deep and halfway under the garage. The downspouts were drained here and the soil was saturated with water making it hard to shovel. We got down about six feet and the ash started caving in. We hated to give up, but it was a little to dangerous. By this time it was 6pm. It was getting very dark. We opened up another pit only to find it full of ash and void of glass. We have one more pit to go, we decide to save to for the next dig.

   Craig in the corner

    It was great getting into two pontil pits. But, looking back on it, the glass was a little thin, and the little that was there was broken. I am not griping, we did get some great stuff. But, the best of the lot was broken as usual! Maybe next week.........