Author Topic: Hidden treasures!  (Read 3647 times)

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Offline Dave

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Hidden treasures!
« on: April 21, 2016, 08:47:34 pm »
Well, not really but interesting never the less.
I have been busy digging up a new area of garden and have discovered a treasure trove of old bottles.
IMG_2465 by Dave Williams, on Flickr
Value zilch but interesting to have an insight in to a previous occupants lifestyle.
I think that these have been under the soil for around 100 years but I might be wrong. Certainly the bottles are pretty old and the nice thing is that in those days they had the both the company name and the town of manufacture embossed in the glass.
Amongst the local ones there are bottles from :-
AJ Leys of Conway
Ellis of Ruthin
Kays of Llandudno
GF and A Brown & sons Llandudno
Slack &Cox( Western) Llandudno

all of which I think might be Ginger beer bottles.
They weren't tea totalers though, there is also a bottle of
Walkers Kilmarnock Whisky ( the predecessor of Johnnie Walker)

They were definitely health conscious though. Among the finds are two bottles from The California Fig Syrup Co and one from K Wampole of Perth,Ontario,Canada which apparently contained Cod Liver Oil.
A couple of bottles from J Winter, Chemist Llandudno suggest more conventional medicine was also taken but even the dog was subjected to a dose of snake oil in the form of Benbows Dog Mixture which according to the 1898 Cruft's Show Catalogue was a cure all for many canine ailments.

Some of branded bottles are still around today. The little brown one is a 1oz bottle of Oxo, there is also a bottle of Garton's HP Sauce ( named after the inventor who sold off his recipe too cheaply in 1899) although the stamped Ind Coope bottle has now become Allied Breweries. The white pots were once full of Harley's Jam and it stated that if it wasnt embossed in the jar it wasn't genuine Hartley's. Counterfeiters a problem even then!

My favourite find has to be this one though
Untitled by Dave Williams, on Flickr

The only problem is this was manufactured between 1940 and 1950 so it throws a doubt on the ages of the other bottles!


Offline Ian

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2016, 06:49:03 am »
I remember as a kid going through a phase of collecting bottles. Brings back memories.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.


Offline Blongb

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2016, 08:07:29 pm »
What is it with bottles? I have a crate of old Gin bottles from the mid 1800s that were used as trade goods out in the Niger Delta and then discarded overboard when empty.  ZXZ
Quot homines tot sententiae: suus cuique mos.
(There are as many opinions as there are people: each has his own view.)

Offline majormellons

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2017, 05:31:11 pm »
Sorry to 'dig this up' :D, but does anybody have any information about Slack and Co (western) Llandudno?
A friend of mine from Flint has today dug up a bottle in a field near her home and has asked me if I know anything......and I don't!

Offline SteveH

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2017, 05:49:20 pm »
Sorry to 'dig this up' :D, but does anybody have any information about Slack and Co (western) Llandudno?
A friend of mine from Flint has today dug up a bottle in a field near her home and has asked me if I know anything......and I don't!
Scroll down for photo of Slacks Ginger beer bottle, on this link.
http://www.codds-n-odds.co.uk/llandudno.html

Offline majormellons

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2017, 10:10:27 pm »
Sorry to 'dig this up' :D, but does anybody have any information about Slack and Co (western) Llandudno?
A friend of mine from Flint has today dug up a bottle in a field near her home and has asked me if I know anything......and I don't!
Scroll down for photo of Slacks Ginger beer bottle, on this link.
http://www.codds-n-odds.co.uk/llandudno.html

Thanks Steve,

So Slack & Cox (Western) Llandudno could have been a chemist?

Offline DaveR

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Re: Hidden treasures!
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2017, 08:39:03 am »
Slack & Cox were a drinks company from Redgate Lane in Manchester, that operated between 1890 - 1984. Maybe they had a Distribution dept in Llandudno, hence the 'Western' part?