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Found a 1920s soda bottle while digging up a bush in my backyard last weekend
I was planting a rhododendron near the fence in my backyard in Portland and my shovel hit glass. Dug it out carefully and it was a whole soda bottle from a local bottling company that shut down in 1932. The embossing is still readable and the stopper is intact. Made me wonder how many old things are just sitting a foot under our lawns. Anyone else found random stuff in their yard like this?
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andrew8541mo ago
Read an article last year about how old bottles like that can be worth money to collectors, especially ones with local history tied to them. Might be worth getting it appraised before you clean it up too much.
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the_elliot4h ago
Harper makes a good point about checking old ads, but the real question is whether that local history angle bumps the value up significantly. I remember seeing a similar bottle from a defunct soda company in my town go for over $200 at auction, just because the label matched a photo from the 1920s. Have you tried searching the embossing pattern against city directories or old newspaper archives (like on Newspapers.com) to see if the company pops up with a specific year?
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harper_wright1mo ago
Oh wow, that's a solid find. Did you try looking up the bottling company to see if the bottle design matches any old photos or ads from that era? I'm curious if the embossing says a specific flavor or if it's just the company name. The intact stopper is the real kicker, most old ones I've seen are busted or missing.
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