IVOM: Ashes, ashes

Mark goes out multiple times a day to photograph the project on our road. Usually he's just checking to see if they're doing something interesting or something he hasn't seen before. Recently he and a neighbor were watching the excavator when it exposed this stash of old glass containers; possibly an old ash pit. 

Lots of them were broken . . .

but some were still intact. 

When the crew realized the guys were interested in the find, they gave Mark and our neighbor a few of the bottles. 

Mark cleaned them up a bit and left them on the deck where I discovered them.

I cleaned them up some more; mostly just removing dirt. There's a lot of marks that may never come off and we decided to enjoy the patina. 

The greenish bottle in the back left in the photo below had a cork in its neck when it was dug out of the road. The bottle in the center back says "Valleyview Dairy /JJ Collins" while the one on the right says "Lavoris" in raised letters on the shoulder of the bottle. The bottle in the front left is a pint milk container from the old Kennedy Dairy, whose building still stands on West Washington Ave. in Madison. The other two small bottles have no markings. 

It seemed obvious to me from the moment I saw them that these old bottles were perfect Monday vases.

I thought about putting them on the limestone steps outdoors or sitting on a silver tray on the gray pebble paths. Then I remembered this chrome bar cart. 

I liked the contrast between the old and new glass. The flowers include large 'Summer Drummer' Alliums, small 'Millennium' Alliums and an unknown Hosta flower. 

Van Engelen bulbs says Allium 'Summer Drummer' is the tallest and also the latest blooming of the large Alliums. In my garden the paper covering started to come away from the flower heads on July 4th. This is what they currently look like. Very atypical flowers but in a group in the garden they present a light and attractive effect given their size and height. 

Comments

[ceci]

What a wonderful find and how lovely that the road crew salvaged a few. I know nothing about it of course but I would think old glass like this might be valuable historically and for resale?? Maybe not. They certainly make great vases! I need to follow up on the allium, all of ours are long gone and I miss those daffy exclamation points in flower beds.

Ceci

[Linda Brazill]

CECI — It's amazing how much later this one bloomed though much more restrained "flowers" than the earlier ones.

[danger garden]

Oh that is a lovely collection with a nice bit of history for your property. I remember when there was sewer work going on in my parents neighborhood a bottle or two was found, but this grouping is beyond that!

[Kris P]

The bottles do make great vases, Linda. I wonder how they landed there, together as a group? In the past, I've used glass bottles as an edging for beds but the varied sizes of those in your find don't support that theory.

[Chavli]

Lucky you: a cool and most unexpected find. I love vintage bottles and the window they open into the (not too distant) past. I would have used them in the exact same way. Lovely.

[Linda Brazill]

DANGER & KRIS — Kind of a mystery as to how the bottles landed where they are. But certainly an unexpected discovery.

[Barbara H.]

How thoughtful of the workers to share the find. It's a great grouping and probably has some value. I have a ravine in the woods at the back of my property and found a large dump quite a ways down the hill full of different bottles and other things. Previous owners used the hill as their garbage dump, which is not unusual out in the country.

[Frank]

Very cool! Nice that they were able to save a couple

[Jerry]

Ok, now that is a sweet find! I mostly dig up bits of plastic, rusted cans, nails, and broken glass in my digging adventures. Good thick glass on those dairy bottles too!