Bottle : Bowman’s Genuine Healing Embrocation clear Pontil 8 sided
Year dug: 2003
Where dug: Rye N.H.
Type of site: Rock Wall small trash site
Notes: This dump was found right behind a muffler shop on Route 1. Route 1 is a very very old road, also called Post Rd, because it was the road that connected all the coastal town’s post offices (and there was a tall “post” with a hanging bag of mail on it, so the wagon driver wouldn’t have to get off the wagon, and could just grab the bag of mail as he passed).
I have found many dumps over the years, right behind the businesses that are on Route 1 all up and down the north east. If you look at many of the businesses, the buildings may be new, but you look at the foundation shape, and it is often a rectangle, horizontal to the road, which was common to the layout of buildings in the 1700s.
This bottle was found in a small dump right off the back parking lot of a modern business. There was an old rock wall I noticed, and a little polluted stream running behind it. Amongst the little, I could see some older iron and buckets. At one point this older trash was concentrated, and I scratched around with my potato rake and started finding old bottle shards. Eventually, I found a couple dozen whole bottles from the 1800s over the course of a couple of hours. I dug a milk glass candy dish in the shape of a battle ship, the “State of Maine” It was broken, but I glued it nice enough to display.
This small Bowmans bottle was in perfect condition. It is a rip off from a similar bottle with the name Blackman. Actually, I can’t remember who ripped off whom. It has a strange type of pontil, common to clear flint glass like this.
The Downeast Digger 