Thanks fellas....I`d given up on this, though there are a LOT of folks who evidently collect old bottles....from what I read, it`s one of the most popular hobbies in the world...guess it just isn`t here.
The bottle in the first pic is pretty small....around 3 inches I`d say...and full of air bubbles. I`m new to this bottle collecting thing so still have lots to learn. My guess....these are not really old, some may go back 80, 90 years or so, others don`t go back that far. All of these I dug up....when I ride my bike around the city I look for lots that used to have houses on them but don`t any more, here they seem to lay down a layer of gravel after a while so I look for the ones that don`t have that yet...so one day I happened on just such a lot and looked around....found a small milk glass jar that was half buried so I got it out. Showed the wife and she said maybe there`s more...so I went back and in one corner of the lot I saw some broken glass, dug around and found some bottles. Went back for a couple of days and found more in the same spot....turns out the lady in the house next door owns the lot and she thinks I`m nuts for wanting old bottles but she lets me dig.
The first bottle is sitting on a piece of pine tree bark that I varnished, back drop is an old piece of paper and the box in the background of the pics is an old samurai sword chest, where someone kept their katana, thats why it has a lock though the key was long gone when I bought it and the lock doesn`t work now but still pretty cool. There is some info on line, some I read says bubbles pretty much disappeared from the process around the 1920`s but other info disputes that so for now, I`m not sure. I do know the ones that look older to me have more air bubbles, some are just filled with them. I must say, digging them up has been a lot of fun, there are some for sale on the web here but I don`t know, so far my collection has cost me zero money and I`m not looking to make money, I just really like the colors and will place them in windows back home when we get back. Got a lot of small cobalt blue bottles that look really nice with the sunlight coming through em. I just joined a bottle site and some of the things members there find in the States and Canada is pretty old, some are 100, 150 or more years old. Now, Japan has a much longer history than either of those two North American countries so there has got to be some much older stuff around....just need to dig it up.
