ARTICLES WITH INFORMATION FOR WISCONSIN ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTORS:::.

I had been to the Chicago bottle show the day before, and had picked up a lot of bottles to be cleaned. I needed some more copper, so I had to go to the scrap yard for wire. The place I went to was about 20 miles from home and was located out in the country at the intersection of two county roads. The intersection had been under construction all summer long. I bought my wire and headed back home. I pulled out the back way and turned the corner to the main road. They had just widened the road and graded the embankment. I looked over and saw aqua glass and white pottery just kinda spilling out of a spot in the embankment. So I quickly pulled over to investigate.

I wasn't having a hallucination, this stuff was OLD!, all hingemold and yelloware. Now came the problem. As I said the show was the day before, so I had taken all my digging tools out of the van to make room for the show stuff. I had absolutely nothing to dig with. I went back to the scrap place to borrow something to dig with. Unfortunately scrap yards don't usually have digging tools on hand. All I was able to get was a large screwdriver and a pair of gloves. Good enough! The hole was a privy from a long ago demolished farmhouse that had stood on the corner. But like all good farmers in our area, they didn't throw out anything whole. There were all kinds of neat hingemold meds, broken yellowware chamber pots, jars, you name it, all broken. Using the screwdriver and a large piece of broken pottery, it only took a few minutes to dig it out. All I took home was a lid for a Winslow Jar. Oh well, it was fun and exciting anyway!