Treasure Hunter Finds Rare Bottle

I recently received the following email:

Hi Steve

We found these bottles along the Rio Grande River after Hurricane Beulah struck in 1967. Can you tell us what they were used for and their value? They stand 8 inches high with a diameter at the bottom of 2 ¾ inches. One is unfortunately unreadable but the other clearly says “Murray & Company” Glasgow with the numeral 2.

Thanks,

Bob 

Hello Bob and Thanks for your email.

In Colonial days, beer was delivered in barrels and consumed at the tavern. As our Country grew, so did the demand for beer. Most of the bigger cities had their own breweries by the 1850s but the smaller, outlying burgs had their beer hauled in by wagon. Shipping costs would have been prohibitive though, so bottling of beer was one way distribution came into fashion. The bottles you found are ceramic or stoneware and are a fairly common find near old river boat landings and in abandoned pioneer dumps.

A friend of mine stumbled across the remains of an old cistern a couple years back while looking for Clarksville on the American side, near the mouth of the Rio Grande River . On a hunch, he began digging in the soft clay and before the day was finished he had uncovered over thirty stoneware beer bottles of the same type you found. In addition to the beer bottles, he found dozens of champagne bottles, an old inkwell and a couple of almost intact pieces of fine china. He later sold the beer bottles for about $15.00 each.

The rarity of the day was a small, squatty, emerald-green bottle, measuring about 6 inches in length. Embossed on one side is the name, “E. McIntyre” and on the other is, “Mineral Water.” What makes this particular bottle rare is the fact that McIntyre bottled his mineral water for only one year before selling out to F.A. Conant, who added the words “ 252 Girod Street New Orleans ” to the bottles embossment. Troops landing at Brazos Santiago, during the onset of the Mexican War, carried these little bottles in their knapsacks and it is not uncommon to find them at battlefield sites. An unbroken specimen in fine condition could easily fetch upwards of $800.00 on today’s market.

Email your questions to Steve Hathcock: steve@wintertexantv.com