Old Bottles, Clay Pipes and More!

We have a fine display of really old bottles. These bottles have been collected by Mr. Grignon on his many scuba diving trips. Some of the old bottles have been found over a hundred feet below the surface or the water. This display shows what the bottles look like when found, covered with coral growth and marine life. The display then shows what the bottles look like when cleaned up.

These make for a very interesting collection and this display in our museum has been enjoyed by hundreds of customers and children over the years. They love seeing the bottles as they are found. Unusually they only see the cleaned up bottles.

The picture on the left shows an assortment of old bottles and jars collected by Mr. Reimond Grignon on one of his many diving trips off the coast. These bottles came from over 100 feet deep in water with less than five feet of visibility. Mr. Grignon is one of the few divers in Maine to hold the distinguished Master Scuba Diver Rating. He also holds a Dive Master rating and many other diver ratings. He has helped clean up thousands of pounds of trash, old lost lobster traps, and robe from many harbors and organized teams of divers to help. Many truck loads of trash have been removed from the coast by these teams of scuba divers.

Notice the round tear drop bottles. These were the first soda bottles. They were made this way so that the bottles would always remain on their side, thus keeping the corks wet. Other wise the corks would dry out and "Pop", because of the pressure of the carbonated beverage. Wine and other drinks were not carbonated and did not need to be made this way. The pink coral growth is on the bottles when they are found.

There is even a fine collection of old clay pipes that our forefathers used to smoke. These somehow were mistakenly thrown off, or dropped over the side of an old ship and are completely intact. A real rare find located in 130 feet of water! Original intact clay pipes are almost impossible to find.

This is a round bottom soda bottle. It was made with a rounded bottom because soda was carbonated and each bottle was topped by a cork. If soda bottles were left standing up the corks would dry out and the pressure inside would "pop" the cork. By making the bottoms round the bottles were always forced to be stacked on their side, thus keeping the corks in contact with the beverage inside. That way the corks would stay wet and swollen.

These bottles aren't as old as the true tear drop bottles shown below. The tear drops were the first beverage bottles and the hardest to find. It is very rare to find tear drops anymore.

Tear drop bottles are by far my favorite bottles. The one on the left has some coral left on it as found. Sometimes these bottles get completely covered by coral and are very difficult to see unless you know what you are looking for. I have followed divers who swam right over them and not seen them. I then picked them up as they went by. These bottles were hand blown inside a wooden mold. The glass is very heavy and has differant shades of color.

The bottle on the right has been cleaned. All the bottles can be cleaned using a mixture of 1 gallon of muratic acid and 1 gallon of water in a five gallon pail. This is the same acid as used by masons and can be found in any hardware store. Leave the bottles in this mixture until they are clean, usually less than an hour and then wash off with clear water. Make certain you do this out doors as the muratic acid will give off fumes as it works, and wear rubber gloves.

Most of the bottles I've got, are left uncleaned as they look so much more interesting that way. Many thousands of these old bottles are sold in stores all along the coast, but all of them have been cleaned. It is almost impossible to find the round ones, and the tear drops are impossible to find. It is easy to get upwards of a hundred dollars for one of these tear drop bottles. But the biggest reason you don't see them anymore is because these bottles are so interesting that every one that sees them is amazed and shop keepers hang onto these for dear life. No one wants to get rid of them once they get one. They make the most interesting conversation piece I have ever, ever seen.

Everyone wants to look at them. They get handled a lot which is why I clean the tear drops. They can't be hurt by handling as the glass is so thick and durable. It is not very many people in this world who have ever touched one of these bottles and everyone that does never, ever forgets it. So I let people touch them.

The time has come in my life to dispose of my collection of old bottles. So what I have done is take a standard size box and put into each box as many bottles as can be safely shipped. I have made sure that each box contains one really nice tear drop bottle. You can make your choice which box to choose. There aren't any more so it is first come first served. I've tried to give a good assortment in each box.

All the bottles being sold on this page were found by me. They have been touched by only me (these are not the bottles in my museum display). I tell you this because of this fact. These bottles are very, very old, mostly over a hundred years. They were drank from by all kinds of pirates, robbers, and nice people, then tossed over the side of the old sailing vessel. I just want you to know and understand this when you receive your box of bottles. Think about this before you open the box, you will be only the second person in history to ever touch or handle these bottles since the old pirate drank his last sip and heaved it overboard. ( Dream a little ! )

Because these old bottles are made out of real heavy glass the shipping costs me quite a bit more to ship them to you than the fee shown on your order. Due to this reason, plus the credit card fees, there is a NO refund policy on these boxes of bottles. Please make certain of your order before you order them.

All Items Cleanance Priced ! Everything Must Go!