This is a cool find by Jason Briggs, it's part of a brass key with the War Department and the broad arrow markings...the British Crown marked all of it's possessions with the broad arrow. It was found up near Dockyard which was the principal base of the Royal Navy from the late 1700s - 1980s.

This is a nice old clay pipe...the last time someone smoked from it was about 200 years ago..having been underwater for so long in the Harbour, it has stayed in remarkably great condition

A great photo of some early Bermuda marble bottles sent by Dave Wiecek.. Gosling Bros, Patterson, Ingliss, Tankard, BMW Co, Barritts, Royal Navy Club. All were found diving along the shorelines in the 70s.

 

Nice marble bottle and castor oil blue bottle and a few medicines found by Kevin Irwin while he was on holiday this past summer. He found them diving in Flatts Inlet and around some of the bays in Harrington Sound.



This is the best collection of early case gin bottles that I have ever seen..and they were all found together beneath a house. The house was built in 1760 in Paget and as the floorboards were being replaced a year ago all of these bottles plus a few more were found just laying in the dirt. They are  all in perfect condition and date to around the time  the house was built and must have sat undisturbed for about 250 years. The reason they were put there remains a mystery...perhaps they were smuggled into Bermuda and hidden to avoid paying a tax.

I found these three medicine bottles while digging in the Soncy Bay area...beautiful markings and patina..especially the middle one.

Beautiful 6 sided flask from about the 1780s..very dark black glass and in perfect condition. It was around 230 years ago that someone was strolling along the Harbour Rd area  near Cave House...or maybe sitting on the rocks fishing..took the last few swigs and tossed the bottle overboard..and there it remained... 

A few months ago while I was diving in that area I found it wedged in a reef close to shore and was very happy to find it in such good condition..a little plant growth on it..which I scraped off and some coral..which I left on 

Here are 3 aqua coloured Victorian medicine type bottles I found while diving in my favourite spot along the Paget / Warwick coastline..the water depth there is about 10 ft. and the bottles were buried about a foot in the sand. The bottles are sitting in the window of an old bermuda home and with the light coming through you can see all the bubbles and irregularities that make these hand made bottles so unique and charming

This is a nice group of cobalt blue poison bottle from the 1880s that were commonly used in Bermuda during that period. I found the bottles while diving below a old fort in the west end...and took the picture of the bottles in one the fort´s gun ports

Here's a really nice and rare transitional shaft & globe to onion bottle that dates to around 1690s, it has a beautiful gold patina and is quite delicate . It is completely intact except for the chips on the lip which were caused by prying the cork out..and quite normal for bottles of that era. I found it buried while digging in one of my favourite spots where I have found lots of other early pieces. I have done some preservation work to it and it is now quite stable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decided to try out my 'fairylight' candle holders from the 1800s, to help light the house after I lost electricity for 6 days after the 2 recent hurricanes that struck Bermuda. They worked quite well and threw out some nice colours on my display shelves.

Out on the boat not long ago with a cobalt castor oil bottle I had just found...buried and close to shore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a really nice large size cobalt poison bottle found a few days ago in Harrington Sound...it dates to the late 1800's and is covered with a nice patina. The bottle was mostly buried in the sand with just a portion of the base exposed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a nice group of cobalt blue bottles sitting on my shelf and backlit to show the colours...the bottles were mainly used for castor oil, poison and medicines. The shelf above has some black glass bottles and inkwells.

Here is a very nice victorian Holloways Ointment jar that Keith found yesterday while diving in Somerset. It dates to the mid 1850s and it was used for the..cure of gout, rheumatism, ulcers, sore breasts and head as it stated on the outside. It stands about an inch high and in perfect condition.

Here are some bottles found about a week ago in two different spots...lots of digging...sometimes as much as two feet down...also a few brass military buttons and an old brass buckle.

Here are a few items I found buried about 10 inches under the sand while diving yesterday. The first looks to be the remains of a Victorian era women's shoe...made of leather and in surprisingly good condition after being in the ocean for so long. Also found were a nice glazed stoneware inkwell, a type that I haven't seen before and a amethyst coloured medicine bottle

Here is a really nice case gin bottle I found the other day along the Paget coastline...it was in about 20' of water and dates to the early 1800s. I have been over this area many times in the past...so likely the sand shifted after the past storms to reveal this beautiful treasure...

Here is a nice large brass shell casing that I found partially buried in the Great Sound a few weeks ago. After cleaning it up I discovered that it has the British Admiralty broad arrow stamped on the bottom..makes it a little extra special.

Here are a few artifacts that I found in a bay near Dockyard, two military buttons with insignia on them and a nice old stoneware jar with Crème Imperatrice, Preparee par Charles Fay, 9 Rue de la Paix, Paris enscribed on it 

 

Charles Fay, a purveyor of perfumes and cosmetics founded the company in 1850.

    

I came across this old stock anchor yesterday while diving in the Great Sound just south of Dockyard at a depth of 45'. It doesn't appear to have been disturbed in a very long time and likely last held an Admiralty vessel way back in the mid 1800s.

Here are three old bottles I found while doing some digging in the Harbour the other day...all three have a nice patina on the outside, small imperfections and crudely applied lips, which all adds to their charm. They date from the mid to late 1800s and likely contained beer, castor oil and olive oil.

Beautiful and rare F W Grantham Hamilton Bermuda medicine bottle in cobalt blue, the bottle dates to around the 1880s and was found a few days ago in the Harbour.

I found this great little amber medicine bottle deep inside a shallow cave I discovered recently...it goes in about 20' and is mostly filled with sea glass and all sorts of other interesting pieces like glass stoppers and marbles...this is the only intact bottle I've found in there so far...

Here's a nice round bottomed Belfast soda bottle that I found in Prudden's Bay a few days ago. These types of bottles had round bottoms so that they had to be stored on their sides keeping the contents in contact with the cork closure...resulting in the cork remaining wet and tight fitting and preventing the soda from going flat.

A nice Victorian era food jar still partially buried in the depths of a small Somerset Bay...the bottle started to become visible after fanning the sand away to a depth of about 12"...I ended up finding 4 similar ones in the same area. Great bottles with colourful iridescence all over.

Here are a few different types of old artillery rounds that I found recently from times long ago...cannon balls from the 1800s and more modern brass encased rounds probably from the early 1900s, all were laying  on top of the sand and easily visible. A short boat ride away I found a bunch of beautiful old military buttons in brass, copper and pewter buried a few inches below the sand...all are embossed with different markings and were found only about 15' from the shoreline.

Here are a few things that Jason found last week...an old food jar and two medicine type bottles along with a few Admiralty pieces, including a brass badge and a tunic pin that has the broad arrow on it!! All were found in shallow water.

Here are two bottles found today, both are embossed Maconochie Lowestoft...the smaller barrel shaped bottle is possibly an ink well or a sample bottle, the larger jar was used for food preserves....the company started in 1873 England...I also found a bunch of  marbles that look to have come from Codd bottles

All sorts of nice finds today...black glass bottles, food jars, 2 olive oil bottles, clay pipe bowls, medicine bottle, glass marbles and a glass bottle stopper

Some of the small pieces found today while diving in the west end of the Island...clay pipe bowls, brass & bone buttons, various other brass pieces including two screws which have the British Admiralty broad arrow stamped on them...very cool!

Here's a really nice old round bottomed soda bottle, embossed W.S. Tankard, found yesterday while diving along the Somerset coastline, it dates to the 1890s

Some nice finds in Salt Kettle this weekend, a small burst top bottle that probably contained castor oil, a London mustard bottle and a hair restorer bottle that is embossed on one side 'Directions in the Pamphlet' and many pottery shards and a nice ole clay pipe. All were found in about 8' feet of water and just below the sand. The bottles are from the Victorian era however some of the shards and the clay pipe are much older.

Here is a bunch of clay pipes that I found on a few dives earlier this summer, they range in date from the  1600s to the 1800s...the earliest ones have a smaller and more rounded  bowl than the later ones

Here is a great old  free blown onion/mallet bottle that I found a few days ago in a small bay near Somerset, it was partially exposed in 30' of water and is perfectly intact and dates to the mid 1700s. Very amazing early find and the possibility and indications of more in the area is exciting...

Here is an amazing small stoneware measuring cup that Carol found recently while diving in the Somerset area...it has the British Admiralty broad arrow impressed into the base which really makes it a special find!

Recently, some of Bermuda's bottle divers & collectors got together to see who had the best Bermuda embossed soda bottle. There were lots to choose from...torpedoes, marblebottles, round bottomed, gravitational stoppered bottles and marble/torpedo hybrids, all in a variety of colours...Some of the names that were embossed on the bottles were; Albert Ingliss, Medical Hall, JHP Patterson, RN Club Ireland Island, Somerset Mineral Water Company, Frith & Eve, W. H. Heyls Bermuda, Goslings Brothers and Higinbothom Bros. All great bottles!

The bottle which was voted the best, based on condition and rarity, was the Medical Hall marblebottle...second one (standing) from the top right hand corner.

Very nice old Victorian glass jar with some beautiful coral growth...the bottle was found completely buried not far from Agar's Island...lots of diving planned for this weekend!

I found these few pieces a few days ago along the Warwick shoreline in about 20' of water, the pewter mug is really nice and has markings on it that date it to the 1870s...it was partially buried and had a lot of marine growth attached to it when I found it.

Here are some finds from a few weeks ago...lots of nice pottery shards and medicine bottles, a stoneware and a carter's inkwell, a clay pipe and a nice olive oil bottle..all found along the shoreline in Southampton. All were found in 20' of water and about 30' from the shoreline.

This is another really awesome small size marble bottle that I found recently...it is heavily embossed Higinbothom Bros St George Bermuda 1898...definitely special with the date on it.  Found near Soncy Bay.

 

Went out diving with Sean yesterday and these are some of the bottles we found in Harrington Sound...some nice medicine bottles, an intact porcelain mug with lots of crazing, a cobalt castor oil bottle, in the second picture is a close-up of the ridged inkwell that Sean found showing the coral  attached to the neck...this will make a great display item!

Here's an awesome old bottle that Grant found over the weekend when we went diving in the south side of the Harbour...looks to be a perfume or scent type bottle. He found it while digging many random exploratory holes about 8 inches into the sand. Very cool find!

I found this nice small sized Gosling Brothers marble bottle today not far from the Paget shoreline, it was partially buried and in perfect condition...not far away was the small porcelain jar covered with lots of crazing and discoloured over time...the lip has some old chips in it but that adds to its charm.

I went back to the small bay near Somerset that I'd been diving in a few weeks ago and found these two nice old bottles. The first is a wide bodied free-blown cylinder and the other is a nice cobalt blue castor oil bottle...there were also lots of bottle shards in the hole that I was digging which was about two feet deep.

Last night was the first gathering of some of Bermuda's bottle divers and collectors, the event was held at Pink Beach Club & Cottage Colony and the theme was...'bring your best free-blown black glass bottle and one to sell or trade'.  

Definitely some great bottles were brought and some great stories were told.