TURN TRASH INTO TREASURE

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Here are a few "professional secrets that can help you to find, identify, and sell antique bottles!

Probe gently!

New dumps may cover old ones.

A sight to thrill any bottle collector.

Color is a clue to age and value (old glass is typically purple, aqua, amber, or olive).

A treasure-hunter's reward!

TURN TRASH INTO TREASURE

Allan and Elizabeth Boyer
As almost anyone who tries to take advantage of farm auctions, garage sales, and the like will already know, a lot of yesterday's throwaways are considered collectible—and valuable—today. And old bottles, in particular, are experiencing a heyday of popularity . . . even arousing (partly as a result of the economic uncertainties of our day and age) the interest of investors.

Now there's a pretty fair chance that some such heirlooms might be found right in your own back yard. After all, a good many of MOTHER'S readers are fortunate enough to live on the sites of old-time homesteads, some of which have a few of the original structures, which often mark prime collecting areas, still intact. Furthermore, even if your home isn't an ancient cabin or aging farmhouse, chances are that people have been living on—or moving across—your property for as long as 200 years . . . and during that time they probably deposited their discarded bottles, tins, broken dolls, and whatnot in a number of hidden locations.

WHERE TO LOOK
Your great-grandma, like as not, threw her empty bottles down the most popular disposal system of her day, the outhouse ... so as not to leave shards to endanger barefoot children. Flasks emptied of whiskey and other strong drink (taken, no doubt, for medicinal purposes) were often concealed inside the walls of barns, sheds, houses, and privies.

But before you attack the planks of your home, barn, or shed with a crowbar, bear in mind that it won't likely be worthwhile to damage a usable structure . . . even if doing so does turn up a rare bitters bottle. And, of course, that rule is firmer still if you're on someone else's property. Bottle-hunting protocol demands—first and foremost—that you always obtain permission before you prospect on another's domain.

In order to find potential "bottle mines", check some topographical maps of your region to locate likely sites of original homesteads: Look for level land, available water, etc. Or explore country roads and watch for lonely standing chimneys, or the spreading trees flanking an open spot, that often mark deserted "house places". Talk to old-timers, too. Their knowledge of long abandoned dumps, businesses, and farms can be invaluable.