"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Thursday, March 5, 2009

What Lies Beneath

I have posted before about treasure hunting on the property next to us. It is a vacant field where once an old farmstead use to stand. The farm has long since vanished and the tree covered field is now a cleared plot of land that occasionally gets plowed just to keep the dirt from blowing away. No one farms it....no one has bought it. I started noticing broken pieces of glass and china as I walked by....which started me looking and hunting. It has been full of wonderful surprises from 1940'S RC bottles, colorful fragments of china and so on.
The other day, Sophie and I once again headed out to go treasure hunting. It has rained a little and the dirt has blown.....which always promises that something has been uncovered in the field. Imagine my delight when I found this old medicine bottle in perfect condition!
I rushed it home and gave it a good scrub and ...isn't it cute? I have a lot of these little bottles that have been given to me through the years..so this is perfect for my collection.

I thought at first that this was some kind of bullet.


Pulling it apart, I discovered that it is a sample lipstick dispenser that used to be sold in the 5 and 10 stores! On the end of the cap is the word Tonga. I will have to do my research on this...but isn't this wonderful? The inside is still shiny after all of the years under the ground!The pink paint is still on the bottom!



A few more metal pieces to go along with it..




And my favorite finds of all, the many pieces of broken dishware. I always think about the woman who owned the dishes when I pick up a piece. I really love the thick pink glass in the upper left hand corner.





No money has been found yet.... I feel rich by finding these little treasures. Probably junk to some.....but to me, so pretty and some pieces have possibilities. Go to my embroidery blog Yesteryear Embroideries http://yesteryearembroideries.blogspot.com and look at what I am doing with my pieces of broken china. Now........do any of you collect broken china or anything else that may seem odd to others? I would love to hear! Have a wonderful weekend!







24 comments:

Wish on a Whisker said...

You found some fun things! ~Mandy

Patty said...

I would love to dig for old things like that. Your lucky to have found that medicine bottle. I have some old ones too and they are hard to find and the lipstick is a real treasure. I wonder if the area you find things in was an old dump site. I learned from living near Williamsburg and other historical areas that most people of yesteryear buried what they couldn't burn. Busted china and such would be buried. If you can collect enough of the same think to piece it together you might consider contacting a professional to have it restored
I am looking forward to seeing what else you find.

Childers Corner said...

I love the pink glass too! I used to have a whole medicine kit that belonged to my family from the 1800's. I wish I still had it.

Jen's Farmily said...

Those are so neat! Too bad we'll never know the stories behind those pieces of china... imagine what secrets they hold!

Vickie said...

Kathleen - isn't it fun!!! I have been doing the same thing at our place. The garden area and the shed have been full of glass, broken pottery, china, and Lots of metal objects - farming stuff - plowshares, gears, you name it! I found an old shampoo bottle from the 30's or 40's. Did some research on the internet. Every time I find a piece of something, I wonder about the history of it. The place I found the shampoo bottle may be a dumping site. It had rained and washed away the dirt from around it after hubby had cut some weeds and bushes down. I'm going to do some investigating on that!

Vickie said...

Maybe you could do some kind of mosaic with your broken glass??? I love the pink...

Anonymous said...

I'm like you, I like to think about the person who owned the china, bottles, lipstick etc.

Brenda Kay Ledford said...

Kathleen,
We never know what treasures are all about us until we really look. I enjoyed this post very much. Have a great weekend.

Sue said...

Kathlene, I can't tell you how excited I was as I scrolled down on each picture. That is one of my most favorite things to do ,treasure hunting is so cool!!! keep digging girl, who knows what you will find. Please keep us posted!!!!
Blessings,
Sue

Amy said...

What fun! I love to look for treasures like that at the riverbank near the house. Those pieces of plates remind me of a project I once made. I used pieces of antique glass bottles to make my own stepping stones. I placed them on the bottom of a cut off section of a 5 gallon bucket, then put concrete on top. The next day I had a cute set of 3 matched stepping stones!

Connie said...

Such treasures you have found, Kathleen. I was also going to suggest perhaps you could glue them onto something to make some sort of mosaic. I've seen this done before and they can turn out very pretty. Have a good weekend! :D

TxFarmhouse said...

Wow! How interesting. When I saw all that broken glass, I too, was thinking it would make a great mosaic. What treasures you're finding.

Sunny said...

Hi Kathleen, sounds like you have a lot of good ideas coming your way! I read an article in a country magazine about making the bowl of a bird bath with a plastic form, pour in cement/water mixture, and when half-set place in your broken pieces of old dishes and/or pottery, and let cure. Seal with a food-safe waterproof sealer. The reflection of the shiny pieces through the water attracts the birds moreso than a plain bird bath.

Lanny said...

I love your finds! I love treasures even when they are not whole anymore.

Lanny said...

I love your finds! I love treasures even when they are not whole anymore.

Phill said...

I've found the neatest things while part of our lot was being scraped for the cabin site. The property/house is about 130 years old, and even with the shallow scrape, I got a few neat bottles from the back. You have some awesome finds!!

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

I love your little treasure hunts and the things that you find are exciting...Ginny

Kelly said...

This is a wonderful entry. I really loved hearing about and seeing your finds. Its nice to know there are still folks out there who love to find things from the past and wonder what the story was behind it. The medicine bottle is really cool. Thanks for sharing your finds with us, I really enjoyed it! :) Kelly

DayPhoto said...

I have some cool stuff I could send you, but then again you would not have had the pleasure of finding them.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Tipper said...

I love it when you show your found treasures! The little bottle was a real find-and I love thinking of the little ladies who owned the dishes too.

Paula said...

I love medicine bottles too, Kathleen- and the tube of lipstick was a wonderful find!

Mel said...

This story remind me of our old neighborhood. We became really close to the elderly man and his daughter across the road from us. They owned about 10-15 acres of land, one day the elderly man asked my daughters and I to follow along with him, through a spot he called his park. As we walked and he talked he mentioned to us that on one side of his park was an old dump full of old bottles. A lot of the neighbors had already dug through and found several items. We just never found the time to treasure hunt, the elderly man passed on and his daughter ended up selling the property a few years later. I look at it this way, I may not have the bottles, however, I will always treasure their friendship.

As a child, I remember going with my mother and sometimes a family friend, to different dumps and finding treasures. I love a good treasure hunt, always wanted to treasure hunt in some of these old abandoned houses out in the boonedocks.

Love the old pieces of china, wonder what kind of medicine this bottle had years ago...

Mel

the voice of melody said...

Cute little treasures!

Nancy M. said...

I find things like that in my driveway all the time and sometimes in the yard. There used to be a couple of old homes on our land. So, the pieces I find probably belonged to my grandmother or aunts. The lipstick one you found is cool!