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 On a mild March 30, 2003 the eagerly anticipated Toronto Four Seasons
bottle show had arrived. Yet I found myself in the mud early that morning
looking for my first digging finds of the year. Hey I can do both, just
have to keep your priorities in line. Not all the ground had thawed, but I
could scrap away along the shallow periphery of the dump. The water
saturated soil made my shovel feel like a set of bar bells. When the mud
clings to the shovel, only half will drop off making for a very
inefficient tiring digging experience. An hour later I had cleared enough
ground to see where I left off from last year. Just as I remembered, more
no name amber turn mould blob top alcohol bottles and a ton of amber
flasks. I did keep an aqua flask with Ayer-on the bottom. Well it was time
to clean up and go to the bottle show now that the dampness was getting to
me, but first I had to pull out this milk can top to see if anything was
behind it. Tearing away the milk can top only exposed more frozen ground,
but what was interesting was a metal tag barely attached to the milk can
lid. I could see writing but could not make out what it said, nor could
club members I showed it to at the bottle show. I put the metal tag in my
chemical solution bucket and the result was great. I then buffed it up
with Brasso until it shined. It reads “Arthur Poynts Canadian Express
Brampton Ont.”. I’m speculating Mr. Poynts labelled his hardware when
delivering milk and other products to clients. Buy coincidence Darren had
just purchased a “bird’s eye view circa 1908 post card” that showed the
store front canopy in downtown Brampton.
Digging in the Brampton dump in
2003 was not always successful. The deepest section was not
producing the oldest items anymore, not to mention it took the
spring and early summer before the water levels dropped. When the
water was gone the above ground was now very hard and to dig a
foot or two at the garbage layer, meant digging 6hrs of hard cap.
Seeing how this was my closest digging spot I persisted anyways.
Some of these dark holes contained enough mosquitoes to choke on.
I wonder if I’m resistant to West Nile Virus yet.
Darren’s old hole was not producing anymore by the end of last
year. I thought I would cut the roof off his tunnel and try at the
very back of it. Now I know why he gave up on it. Their seemed to
be only a thin ash layer, with very little glass. Some weeks later
when I returned to investigate some collapsed portions of the hole
I discovered a large blue aqua master ink had fell out and had
been exposed for the taking all that time. I have not been able to
find any information on what appears to be a very old master ink
embossed “William A Davis Boston Mass U.S.A.” I have noticed that
what type of bottle I find at the beginning of the year will then
dominate through out the year. 2003 was a good year for inks, and
I kept a total of 12 ink bottles, (just at the Brampton dump
alone) in cobalt, aqua & pottery.
Next time I returned to the
Brampton dump was in late April and I concentrated on the same
spot where I had found the brass tag. I dug a beautiful “Chas.
Wilson” Toronto aqua embossed squirrel crown top. I also kept a
“O’Keefe Toronto (light aqua/crown), “Corson’s” perfume (clear)
and an odd half round tile marked “Amer Asso of Mfrs 99 Warren st
N.Y.” on the inside (one person has suggested it was a military
stamping tool), Here is a list of the remaining items found: a
ceramic “bath tub” with gold trim for a doll house, a couple of
small simple pottery flower pots, Aylmer canning Co (light
aqua/screw top), a very nice fluid beef bottle “Bovril Cordial
(amber with B-on back), “T Symington & Co Edinburgh” (aqua/anchor
symbol on bottom), Carbonol Necessary as soap” (clear), “This is
majors rubber cement majors cement co New York U.S.A.”, (clear)
“Mum mfg Co Phila Pa” (milk glass), “F Stearns & Co”-on bottom of
amber bottle, “Sanitol trade mark best for the teeth” (clear),
“Catarrho zone N.C. Polson & Co Kingston Ont” (clear),
“Chamberlains Couch Remedy Chamberlain MED Co Des Moines &
Toronto” (clear), Dr Chase’s syrup linseed & turpentine Edmanson
Bates & Co” (clear), “E.B. Shuttleworth Chem Coy Limited Toronto”
(Cobalt ground lip screw top 13.5cm), “Griffith’s Methol Liniment”
(clear), “Howarth’s Carminative mixture” (clear), “Scott’s
Emulsion cod liver oil with lime & soda” (aqua/fisherman with
cod-on bottom), “Slocums Coltsfoot Expectorant” (aqua), a tea
cup, with “Bovril” in three shields in gold trim, “E. Anthony New
York” (clear), and an Ottawa Pharmacist bottle “Weldon J Graham”
(clear). The best bottle I found at this location is a one of kind
Brampton pharmacist bottle embossed “C. Stork & Son Brampton”
(clear/9cm).
 I felt I had
exhausted this area so I returned to the north end of the dump,
where the walls of an old hole had collapsed after the spring
thaw. In the collapsed material I found a perfect condition soap
dish with “Royal Ironstone China Mellor Taylor & Co England”-on
the bottom, a broken tooth brush made of bone marked “red cross
Hygienic” and a bedroom dresser dish for tooth brush or combs.
This was attractively embossed with grapes & leafs in cream white
with “W.& E. Corn Bursier Staffordshire England, Imperial
Ironstone China” with lion, unicorn and royal crest –on bottom.
What amazed me the most was I had the matching lid with handle
that I dug years earlier at the other end of the dump. Never throw
away those lids folks.
When I had time to seriously re-dig this hole I was disappointed
to find my first broken clear “Beaver” and clear “Bee hive” fruit
jars. The “crown” Pt (clear) and “Improved Imperial” Qt (aqua)
came out intact (figures eh!) The rest of my keepers before I gave
up on this spot include two sizes of “Maclaren’s Imperial Cheese
with lids in milk glass, no marking brown pottery spice bottle,
“Campana’s Italian Balm” (clear), and some doll heads. Doll parts
often turn up when digging and I display them for their bizarre
appearance.
Now it was time to return
to the deepest part of the dump. With my rubber boots on I re-entered a 12
foot hole and tried my hardest to shovel the mud as far out of the hole as
possible. Talk about humidity on a hot summer’s day! As it turns out, my
finds were few and the shear task at hand to great and possibly dangerous
to continue. I salvaged a “Clark bros Toronto” Hutchison soda (aqua/C-on
bottom), “Scvereign Perfumes limited Toronto” (aqua) “Bovril limited 4oz &
2oz (older yellow amber variants), two crude aqua vials, and “D & O Co”-
on bottom cobalt bottle.
I was seeking a new spot to dig and
I decided to try beside a white bark less dead tree. The old tree
roots gave me a hell of a time and the hole itself deceived me
because there was 3 feet of ash alone before you reached the
garbage layer, making for another 8 foot hole. That day when I
reached bottom I found my first foot warmer, a very large (33cm by
17cm) and marked “T Eaton Drug Co. Limited Toronto Doulton’s
Improved Foot Warmer Lambeth Pottery London.” Although the
stopper was missing and it was cracked, it still was visually
interesting. My next attempt in this spot involved some tunnelling,
which yielded more mustard crocks, “Rowat & Co Worcester sauce”
(aqua), “Absorbine $2.00 per bottle MFC by W.F. Younge P.D.F.
Springfield Mass U.S.A.” (amber), a very nice two tone cream &
light brown jug (with handle/no markings/tampered bottom.) I also
found an old (1867-70) “Kerry Bros & Crathern Fluid Magnesia” from
Toronto in aqua.
I had not found a milk bottle yet
that year, so my focus now turned to a spot I new was just choked
with broken milk bottles. What was the outcome? Just more broken
milk bottles. However I did find another older style “Cummer & Son
Hamilton Ont” (aqua/quart), which Darren ended up with. I
retrieved from this spot a “O’Keefe Toronto” quart (green/crown
lip), a butter dish “Mellor Taylor & Co England”-on bottom,
“Stower’s pure pickles” (aqua/trade mark brick tower inside a S),
“J.P. Taylor Park 1903 Queen & Dowling” (clear/Toronto pharmacist
bottle), a nice serving bottle with etched wheat flowers and cut
indent design & flared lip (clear), and my first stamped brick
“Ramsay” (light sandy colour).
In the late spring a wind storm
had passed through the dump and shore enough another tree came down (four
toppled over in 2002, but not where any signs of dump seem to be) and this
time it was on top of the dump. The roots & trunk of the tree ripped open
a gapping hole two feet wide and five feet deep. I used a flash light to
see if any bottles were visible. I could only see some broken bricks and I
figured I might try this spot when I got tired of the other holes. Early
September turned out to be the time to give it a try and as luck would
have it I found a
bowling pin style soda “Allan’s Montreal” (aqua/applied crown top) this
encouraged me to completely open up this slit in the ground. I dug what I
thought was going to be a marked pottery jug, but it turned out to be just
a nice old tan jug complete with handle.
In my many digs in this
spot I found more pottery items such as “Andrew Wilson Toronto” clay pipe,
brown tiger whiskey jug and dark brown bowl shaped piece also from China.
Other neat items include, a cream ceramic whistle blowing instrument or
some kind of inhaler, a cream baby bottle lid debossed “Mather London
Manchester”, another in purple writing that reads “Mathers new feeding
bottle the Princess London & Manchester” and yet another in black writing
“S. Mawson & Thompson London Noll & 12 Aldersgate St.” The rest of my
finds include my first clear transparent “float bulb,” two applied crown
beers “The O’Keefe Brewery Co of Toronto limited” in embossed script
(amber & rarer yellow amber variant), and a small olive green applied
crown “E & J Burke” with cat embossed on bottom.
This location helped me
double my salt & pepper shaker collection with the following: embossed
flower vine design in milk glass, with ground lip screw top, a clear four
sided ground lip screw top, a three piece mould clear shear top with
indent design, a six sided clear ground lip screw top and a clear ground
lip screw top with three engraved wheat flowers on the side.
One last find made in that hole worth mentioning is two enamel signs on
top of one another. The first was another “Ocean Accident and Guarantee”
like last years so I gave it to Darren and an attractive white on blue
background, “The Imperial Guarantee & Accident Insurance Co of Canada
Head office Toronto”. Both signs were produced by Acton Burrows Co.
Toronto.
At the end of December warm weather had returned and stayed
long enough to melt the snow and produce a green Christmas season. Taking
advantage of this I dug in the least of the muddy spots and was rewarded
with a bunch of dentist bottles (one with a tooth in it) that I already
had and a couple of different style “Ames” (clear) that were new to my
collection. I dug a nice “Murch The Prescription Druggist East Toronto”
(80oz/clear), “olives Santa Maria CHB” (clear), a beer “Berghoff Fort
Wayne,
Ind” (aqua/crown), a perfect master ink in brown pottery stamped
“Doulton Lambeth 54”, and a neat “Old Fashion Sugar Sticks 10c
The T Eaton Co Limited Toronto and Winnipeg” (clear/screw top).
If you are fortunate enough to have
a location to dig, then you have cleared the first hurdle. I have
dug for hours and at the end of the day, had pretty much nothing
to take home, and on those days my rationale is I had a good
physical work out that brought me closer to the bottles for the
next dig. Fellow diggers know it’s the opportunity that drives our
hope and energy in finding our next coveted treasure. |
