Mudlarking 96 - Bottle Day
Mar. 3rd, 2026 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squirmeliaSunday 22nd February was a day of bottles! I picked up far too many as they just kept washing in.
Clear bottles:
Coca-cola bottle.
R White's - two different styles of R White’s bottles. One of them has a broken neck.
Presta bottle. Presta was made by Apollinaris and they made squashes and other drinks.
Presta advert:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/1qqg13o/ad_poster_for_presta_sparkling_orange_and/#lightbox
Apollinaris company: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp122659/the-apollinaris-company-limited
Brown bottles:
These three I am unsure of. Two of them could be modern beer bottles.
One says H4 CTC on the bottom. The other says R 10. The one with a label mark is much lighter than the other one, so I guess the one without the label is older.
The third makes me think of a cough mixture bottle and has B4 200 on it. When I hold the bottle up to the light I can see rainbow colours.
I might just recycle these ones.
A good chunk of a green torpedo/hamilton bottle, designed to be kept on its side. On the side I can read words that probably spelt:
Lemonade
le soda
Mineral waters
Wales
I can’t quite make out:
orth
le soda (table soda?)
R. H.
T’s
There’s also a glow stick and a bit of something that possibly said London Bridge.
Also, a pretty sparkly button!
I also found a glass jar. On the bottom it has an R in a circle and a 9. Perhaps it once contained jam. I’m thinking I might keep some pieces of colourful glass in it.
There was also a mysterious rusty thing. Google Lens said it was a grenade, which it definitely is not, but it could have been an oil lamp? It has a handle on the bottom.
And then there were a few other items:
A Libbey Duratuff glass, probably modern, as it’s quite jagged.
Part of a Thomas Keating bottle. The bottle would have read “Thomas Keating, Chemist, St Paul’s Churchyard”.
Thomas Keating was apparently based at 79 St. Paul’s Churchyard from around the 1780s, although records show this from around 1815.
Thomas Keating was a chemist and was known for their cough lozenges. One article I found said they sold cough lozenges in the winter and insecticides/flea powder in the summer!
The company later diversified and made scientific instruments, and components used in telephone exchanges and satellites! They still exist as TK Instruments: https://www.terahertz.co.uk/tk-instruments/history
A bit of glass I picked up as it said “ass” on it.
A sherd that says “Wells, 63 Wood Street, London” on it. It was made by Wells and Son, and could have been the base of a hat/wig shop display stand, like this one: https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/d11b0ba1e5d511d3ce164df1a086c0f4/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/antique-and-good-quality-modern-and-collectables/
It’s likely to be from the late 1800s.
They also made stands for mannequins and blanket racks.
A few pieces of Express Dairies Aster pattern.
A pink plastic heart bead.
A piece of a James Keiller marmalade jar. Keiller’s marmalade dates back to 1797, when Janet Keiller made some marmalade and then opened a factory in Dundee with her son, James Keiller, to produce it.
The green and white pattern is the Adams pattern by Collingwood, who were in operation from 1887 - 1948 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, It may have looked like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/376753433746 I have seen this pattern before, but hadn’t managed to identify it previously.
(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)
Clear bottles:
Coca-cola bottle.
R White's - two different styles of R White’s bottles. One of them has a broken neck.
Presta bottle. Presta was made by Apollinaris and they made squashes and other drinks.
Presta advert:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/1qqg13o/ad_poster_for_presta_sparkling_orange_and/#lightbox
Apollinaris company: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp122659/the-apollinaris-company-limited
Brown bottles:
These three I am unsure of. Two of them could be modern beer bottles.
One says H4 CTC on the bottom. The other says R 10. The one with a label mark is much lighter than the other one, so I guess the one without the label is older.
The third makes me think of a cough mixture bottle and has B4 200 on it. When I hold the bottle up to the light I can see rainbow colours.
I might just recycle these ones.
A good chunk of a green torpedo/hamilton bottle, designed to be kept on its side. On the side I can read words that probably spelt:
Lemonade
le soda
Mineral waters
Wales
I can’t quite make out:
orth
le soda (table soda?)
R. H.
T’s
There’s also a glow stick and a bit of something that possibly said London Bridge.
Also, a pretty sparkly button!
I also found a glass jar. On the bottom it has an R in a circle and a 9. Perhaps it once contained jam. I’m thinking I might keep some pieces of colourful glass in it.
There was also a mysterious rusty thing. Google Lens said it was a grenade, which it definitely is not, but it could have been an oil lamp? It has a handle on the bottom.
And then there were a few other items:
A Libbey Duratuff glass, probably modern, as it’s quite jagged.
Part of a Thomas Keating bottle. The bottle would have read “Thomas Keating, Chemist, St Paul’s Churchyard”.
Thomas Keating was apparently based at 79 St. Paul’s Churchyard from around the 1780s, although records show this from around 1815.
Thomas Keating was a chemist and was known for their cough lozenges. One article I found said they sold cough lozenges in the winter and insecticides/flea powder in the summer!
The company later diversified and made scientific instruments, and components used in telephone exchanges and satellites! They still exist as TK Instruments: https://www.terahertz.co.uk/tk-instruments/history
A bit of glass I picked up as it said “ass” on it.
A sherd that says “Wells, 63 Wood Street, London” on it. It was made by Wells and Son, and could have been the base of a hat/wig shop display stand, like this one: https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/d11b0ba1e5d511d3ce164df1a086c0f4/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/antique-and-good-quality-modern-and-collectables/
It’s likely to be from the late 1800s.
They also made stands for mannequins and blanket racks.
A few pieces of Express Dairies Aster pattern.
A pink plastic heart bead.
A piece of a James Keiller marmalade jar. Keiller’s marmalade dates back to 1797, when Janet Keiller made some marmalade and then opened a factory in Dundee with her son, James Keiller, to produce it.
The green and white pattern is the Adams pattern by Collingwood, who were in operation from 1887 - 1948 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, It may have looked like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/376753433746 I have seen this pattern before, but hadn’t managed to identify it previously.
(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)