Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
The Odyssey Virtual Museum has the following to say about two-piece lead and pewter bottle caps from the 16 and 1700s. |
| Neck Ring Portion of Old Two-Piece Lead Bottle Cap (?) Find. |
A total of 127 fragments of glass were excavated from the “Tortugas” shipwreck, including square-sectioned case bottles. The bases of these bottles are all medium olive green in color and contain air bubbles. Glass rims and neck sherds were recovered still attached to 14 lead screw collars and caps that originally sealed some of the “Tortugas” ship’s bottle mouths...
The two-piece permanent lead collars and caps that originally closed the bottles’ mouths feature everted sides and a horizontal shoulder surmounted by a short vertical mouth. Each collar, 1.4-1.9cm high, is subdivided into two seamless elements: at top a narrow screw thread (W. 1.5-1.9cm, Th. 0.2cm) consisting of three convex external edges between two inner recessed threads for receipt of a lead cap, and below the main section (max W. 2.1-3.3cm, bottom W. 1.9-2.9cm, Th. 0.2-0.4cm) that originally covered and protected the glass bottle neck and rim. The two zones are separated by a horizontal ledge, furrowed on the lower edge. The bottom edge of the inner diameter, reflecting the bottle’s neck diameter, ranges from 1.2-1.7cm. The collar was a permanent component cast over the bottle.
Especially significant for the case of the “Tortugas” shipwreck are the identical glass bottle bases and lead bottle caps associated with two of other vessels of the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet. As in the case of the “Tortugas” wreck, square-sectioned bottles are the most common glasswares aboard the Atocha. The Margarita wreck site also yielded a number of bottle closures comparable to the “Tortugas” examples, evidence that the same products were aboard this ship as well.
Similar glasswares have been excavated from other Spanish shipwrecks. An intact square-sectioned green bottle was stocked on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, sunk off Hispaniola in 1641. Pewter caps from square-sectioned bottles were recovered from the San Martin, the Almiranta of the Honduras fleet en route from Havana to Spain in 1618, and were still in use a century later on the 1715 fleet wrecked off Florida. On the basis of this evidence, is it reasonable to propose that one line of lead-capped square bottles conceivably may have been manufactured in Spain, mirroring in glass the overwhelming dominance of Seville wares amongst the "Tortugas"ceramics.
That is what I think this find is, but am not yet positive. While the Odyssey Virtual Museum shows several examples of such lead collars, I have not been able to find amywhere a photo of a bottle with the entire two-piece lead or pewter cap intact. If you know where I can find such a picture, please let me know.---
Sometimes people who metal detect aren't much interested in old bottles or jars, but bottles can have good value, as can their contents. My best cache finds were contained in old canning jars. Glass containers can also help you put a date range on a site.
Some bottles can be detected by a metal detector even without anything in them. They can have metal parts, usually stoppers, caps or lids, but also handles and other things.
Here is a nice example.
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| Hutchinson Soda Bottle With Stopper. |
The stopper in this one is metal and rubber.
Bottles and canning jars can have a variety of wire attachments for the closure. Here are a couple example of that.
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| Bottle and Jar with Closures. |
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| Infusion Bottle |
This infusion bottle has a rubber seal with a glass tube that extends nearly to the bottom of the bottle. I didn't capture that very good in the photo, but you can maybe see the glass rod which is pretty much hidden by the corner of the bottle.
The measurements are upside down as the bottle sits because it would be hung upside down.
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| Cap on Infusion Bottle. |
The bottom reads "Cutter Laboratories" and "Berkeley California."
I saw a number of these for sale on eBay, but none with the cap and glass rod or tube intact.
So from as early as the 1600s metal parts were used on bottles. That obviously means you will be able to detect them with a metal detector.
Again, please let me know if you know where I can see a photo of a 16 or 1700s two-piece lead or pewter bottle cap on the bottle or neck.
Here is a great link to a fantastic web site on bottle closures, which shows examples and date ranges for most bottles through the last few centuries. Very detailed and helpful.
https://sha.org/bottle/closures.htm#Inside Thread Stopper
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WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) will open sales for the 2019 American Eagle One Ounce Gold Uncirculated Coin (product code 19EH) on June 13 at noon EDT.
This coin is a collector version of the Mint’s American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin. Struck at the United States Mint at West Point, the obverse (heads) features a version of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ full-length figure of Liberty with flowing hair, holding a torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left. The reverse (tails) features a male eagle carrying an olive branch flying above a nest containing a female eagle and eaglets...
Here is the link.
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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
