Four Seasons Bottle Collectors 12 June 2010 Club Dig

The morning of 12 June 2010 appeared grey and overcast. Perfect for digging bottles. The Saturday had been set aside by Dumpdiggers all over the city, earmarked as a day of discovery in the Four Seasons Bottle Collectors 2010 'Club Dig'. The secret location was an old dump in the heart of the city of Toronto.

Old and new diggers gathered together to make the trip. The story is recorded in excruciating detail in a story entitled Digging Bottles with The Four Seasons Bottle Collectors in Toronto.


Carl Parsons is a storyteller and venerated member of the FSBC. He's been an antique dealer specializing in Canadian glass bottles for over thirty years and he knows his way around a couple hundred old dumps in Ontario. He led the tour down into the day's dig site and alongside 'Indian" Al Pothier they selected the exact spot based on shade more than anything else... nobody could remember if the exact spot in this site had been dug before, as the dump is one of the oldest in the city, and the terrain is constantly changing.

The crew got busy right away and dug out a large hole. The soil was soft and light, a gentle mixture of sand and ash with fragments of dump - broken china and bits of brick were visible on the shovels.

Tex and Mac were the new diggers and they worked hard sinking the hole down to a six foot depth. Then the guys got busy with hand trowels and garden forks. Carl put on a demonstration to show how he often uses a hoe with holes cut in the blade (to let water out), but today's dump was dry as a bone. The hole wasnt very deep, about six feet from surface, when Al Pothier declared that they'd hit bottom and now they'd best look to the sides.

Al had a pocket of good dump to the south of his position and Mac and Tex found some hard packed virgin dump to the north of their spot in the hole... but sadly it was under the day's dirt pile and so any excavation in that direction meant moving the dirt pile on the surface. all the same some old sauce bottles were discovered and there were a few exciting moments when some soda shards and stoneware bottoms were spotted in the virgin dump tract at the bottom of the hole.

You can read more of the day's adventure in Digging Bottles with The Four Seasons Bottle Collectors in Toronto in the Shovel Guild Library on Dumpdiggers.com

Secrets to Collecting PEZ Candy Dispensers

PEZ Dispensers have been collectible for over 80 years! Two of the most famous North American PEZ dispensers are Mickey Mouse and Uncle Sam. Every serious PEZ collector has a rare and special prize they dream about finding every night. Maybe its 'Eeyore with the line on his face', or one of three different Batman PEZ dispensers, or probably some other super rare variation that only a handful of people even know exist.

The article entitled, On Collecting PEZ Dispensers on Dumpdiggers has more savvy secrets, but doesn't go into much detail on how to tell the age of your PEZ dispenser, nor does it give any good solid facts to help junk store scavengers and eBay pickers.

Did you know that there's a patent number on the stem of each plastic pill popping contraption? The first two digits of that number reflect the year span in which it was manufactured. It's helpful to know the date before purchasing a PEZ® and this information will help.

Want to know the date your PEZ dispenser was manufactured? Pay attention to the first two numbers in the patent. The following list will help you to determine when they were produced.
2.6: between 1952 and 1968
3.4: between 1968 and 1974
3.8: between 1974 and 1976
3.9: between 1976 and 1990
4.9: 1990 to current date

Three Disney Princesses in PEZ




Here are two PEZ dispensers in the hands of Steve Reynolds of ‘It’s a Matter of Time’ antiques at Gerrard and Jones Ave in Toronto.

The Pink Panther Pez Dispenser is very attractive and could be among the more rare models in the years to come, if you believe Sabah Karimi in her article, Pez Dispensers You Don't Own.

She writes, "... the PEZ following really does exist... group of serious PEZ collectors meets at conventions around the country to share the secrets of the trade; from history lessons to hosting a trading post for avid collectors, it's a lifestyle of strategic collecting for these PEZ enthusiasts."

How to Spot rare Pez dispensers today.
This photo shows a close up of the throat whistle in the Shrek Donkey PEZ dispenser. The contrivance makes the distinctive baying sound in keeping with the Eddie Murphy powered voice track of this extremely popular cartoon character. Because of the whistle many of this model of Pez dispensers were well used. Either way I'm sure the whistle feature adds value. Thanks Steve Reynold for giving up a matter of time to show me around your store. Trackback to Robsome blog.

Someone who collects PEZ® dispensers is called a PEZhead.

Vintage Costume Jewellery Show and Sale at Leaside Gardens

Last week I had a great adventure in a world diametrically opposed to the bottle club world and the adventure I'd enjoyed a week previous at the Toronto Bottle Show. Yet in many ways they were similar. I wrote about the 2010 Vintage Costume Jewellery Show and published the article in the Shovel Guild Library on Dumpdiggers, and therein I explored the similarities of experts honing their crafts, after years of learning they become gems.




Remarkable people like Dianne Rawski who gave me a great one on one training about vintage cameo brooches and what to look for when trafficking in this obscure sub category

On 24 April 2010 Dumpdiggers descended on the Toronto Vintage Costume Jewellery Club Annual Show & Sale at Leaside Gardens. There were twenty dealers here vending all manner of collectibles but mostly designer costume jewellery from the 1950's and 60's

2010 Toronto Bottle Club Show and Sale

Sunday April 18th 2010 was a beautiful day for the Four Seasons Bottle Collectors club Toronto Bottle Show at the Humber College gymnasium in Rexdale Ontario. The show consists of about sixty dealers and has an attendance of over thousand people, but the room is filled with about a half million dollars worth of rare and valuable early Canadian antique bottles and glass.

Of course I wrote about the 2010 Toronto Bottle Show on Dumpdiggers.com and detailed the event, highlighting exceptional bottles, bargains and the best dealers that make it all happen. Year after year, this show gets better and better (except the bottles seem to be going down in price).

The article details ten different antique glass and pottery dealers alongside their favourite collectibles. I interviewed Tim Denton, Fred Spoelstra, Pete Bechtel, Dwight Fryer, Cliff and Donna Stunden, Kert Wrigley, Jamie McDougall, Bill Ash, Terry Matz, Richard St Onge and Bill Cook, Michael Anders, Tim Maitland, Marcus Johnson and closed the piece on Scott Wallace and Scott Jordan sitting pretty at the Maple Leaf Auctions table.

The article also chronicles my day's traveling companion, Kelly Gadzala the Toronto Grunge Queen blogger who specializes in writing about finding vintage collectibles, clothing and keepsakes.



The Toronto Bottle Show is always an emotional experience for me - it breaks my heart to see great pieces of glass selling for ten or twelve dollars, and whenever I spot something that I have in my own collection I almost don't even want to look at the price, as I'm sure it will always be priced to move here and cost much less than I paid, or had valued in my own head. I think it would be worthwhile to visit this show and spend forty thousand dollars buying the best pieces - it would be a great investment in the future.

Maple Syrup Antiques at Sandy Flats Sugar Bush

Maple has a season. The Ojibwa people knew this period of the year was special, and they called this moon phase the "sugaring off" period, or the "maple moon" or "sugar month". The tradition of sugaring off became established in communities in the deciduous forests of North America, and has survived to the present time.

On Saturday April 9th 2010, Dumpdiggers visited the Sandy Flats Sugar Bush in Warkworth Ontario.

with Hugh and Lorene Campbell, the local beekeepers / honey producers. Campbell’s Honey house is located less than 3Km away from this sugar bush, between Roseneath and Warkworth. It’s a delicious coincidence because maple syrup is a pure, natural sweetener, the only other liquid natural sweetener being honey. But unlike honey, maple syrup has more trace minerals essential to good nutrition: potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, iron, zinc, copper and tin, as well as calcium are found in concentrations 15x higher than honey. And its important to note that maple syrup contains only one-tenth as much sodium as honey.

It’s a little known fact that the manufacture of maple sugar is limited to the Maple Belt, the hardwood forest stretching from the midwestern US through Ontario, Québec and New England and into the Canadian Maritimes.

Relics of the Maple Sugar Industry at Sandy Flats Sugar Bush
Hanging on the wall of the pancake restaurant at the Sandy Flats Sugar Bush is a world class display of vintage Canadian maple sugar industry antiques. I briefly paused to admire and photograph the collection of vintage tools, and equipment, including some very valuable hand carved wooden maple sugar molds.



Maple products are harvested exclusively from the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) was known and valued by the native peoples of eastern North America long before the arrival of European settlers.



An Iroquois legend tells of the piercing of the bark of a maple and the use of the "sweet water" to cook venison, a happy accident which established the culinary tradition of maple-cured meats.

French settlers probably learned from the Indians how to tap trees to obtain sap and how to boil it to reduce it to sweet syrup or sugar slabs to be stored for later use.



George Potter’s family diary records his great great grandmother’s sap spile as being a simple cedar splint, in keeping with native practices. Here is a reprinting of the material I found on the wall.

From the diary of my great, great grandmother, Mary Mac Kenzie Ross, 1840.
“John was busy clearing around our cabin, getting a plot ready to spade for potatoes in the spring. A neighbor noticed he had several short cuts of cedar logs. ‘Mr. Ross’, said he, ‘you want to lay those aside and in the winter make sap troughs and spiles ready for the run of sap in the spring.’ Then he told him how to make maple syrup. We were quite taken back there was so much work about it, because in Scotland they thought maple trees ran syrup when they were tapped. However, we borrowed an iron kettle and tapped the maple trees in the spring, boiling the sap outside, although it was dark and smoky tasting. We thought it was a treat.”
George Potter

Other Writings on the Wall at Sandy Flats Sugar Bush

History of the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush

George, growing up as a young boy helped his father collecting and boiling syrup, so when the Potter’s first bought the property tapping the trees was just a hobby. Alice working as a schoolteacher and George owning a men’s clothing store downtown Warkworth. They began with 50 taps, 200 taps then progressed to more than 500.
What started as a hobby soon became a business as Alice and George found themselves running sap all through the night. Alice and George made a decision to retire from their current jobs and commit themselves to the Sugar Bush. As a result of their decision they began to upgrade their equipment. They soon installed a modern pipeline system to transport the sap, this meant more taps (5500), more sap. With all this extra sap a larger evaporator was needed. Today they operate 2 wood-fired evaporators and use a reverse osmosis (nicknamed R.O.) method of making maple syrup. Soon not only were they making maple syrup but maple butter, maple stirred sugar and other syrup products. All of their products are 100% pure. In 1987 the Potter’s began entering their syrup in local fairs winning ribbon after ribbon, but the local fairs were just a guideline to the larger fairs. It proved to be worth their time as it led them to winning a 4 World Championships at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Toronto, Ontario in 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1994. Just a couple weeks ago the Potter’s were inducted in the Maple Hall of Fame in the Ameliasburgh Maple Museum.

History of the Land

Over the years the tree’s on the Potter’s land have been tapped off and on since the mid 1800’s. The first owner of the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush was William R. Losie who first began tapping the maples. The Miner Family, the next owners also tapped the tree’s as well as the third owners, The Milford McVety Family who continued tapping until 1968. The bush laid dormant until George and Alice Potter started making syrup in the early 1970’s.

The History of the Maple Syrup Festival

Originally when the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush became a business they had an “Open House” policy were people were invited to come as they please, tour the grounds and enjoy a traditional maple breakfast. A few years later in 1985 the Kinsman Club decided to get involved by hosting a weekend where club members would cook outdoors for visitors who attended the event. While at the Bush you can enjoy a old fashioned horse drawn sleigh ride, taffy on the snow, compare the native, pioneer and modern methods of gathering and processing sap, educational nature trails, join the log sawing contest, and listen and watch the old thyme square dancing and Potter Band. In 1987 the service club got involved by also hosting a weekend during March. Soon there were many more people wanting to contribute their interests and include the community. The 55 Plus club started organizing other events and a Maple Syrup Festival Committee was begun. Mary Hermiston as Treasurer, Vic Taylor and Jim Horne lad a service club committee. The Percy Quilters displaying a variety of finished pieces in the Town Hall, also a newly finished quilt is raffled off on the Sunday afternoon. Wood, works and wonders is another attraction you will find at the Town Hall where there is a display of handcrafted wood products for sale. Just beside the Town Hall you will find a petting zoo and pony rides. You can visit the antique show and sale at the Percy Centennial School where local antique dealers have brought together an extensive display of treasures from the past. An art show displayed at the Heritage Centre organized by the Northumberland Hills Art Association where local artists have come together for the show. On the festival weekend approximately 8,000-10,000 people traveling from all over.

Some Basic Facts about the Modern Maple Sugar Industry
From the Canadian Encyclopedia’s page on the Maple Sugar Industry, I learned that there are currently over 16 000 maple-syrup producers in North America, with over 80% in Canada. In 1995 total world production was 18 981 kl, of which Canada produced 14 890 kl. The province of Québec produced 13 540 kl, which represents over 90% of the total Canadian production. The rest of the Canadian production came from Ontario (5%), New Brunswick (4%) and Nova Scotia (1%).
In the early part of the 1970s, the traditional buyers were the large food companies. When the US Food and Drug Administration reduced the minimum volume of maple syrup that must be listed as an ingredient in products sold as "maple syrup" and "maple sugar" from 15% to 2%, sales plunged dramatically and the industry experienced a major crisis. Efforts were made to develop a new market aimed directly at the consumer and the growth of this market has rejuvenated the industry. Maple products are now consumed in over 30 countries. Maple syrup remains one of the best natural sweetening sources in the world. It is still served mainly over pancakes, but recently it has also been considered a condiment. It is now used in fine cuisine to prepare sauces, glazes and vinaigrettes. In addition to its use as a syrup or as an ingredient in fine cuisine, and capitalizing on its magic and mystery, some consumers around the World prepare concoctions for special diets or for purification purposes or during special events such as fasting.

Its clear that by the crowds at the facility that day that family operated sugar shanties, which are so evocative of Canada's pioneer past, will remain a thriving part of the rural Canadian landscape . In the future, Dumpdiggers believes that Canadian maple syrup industry will grow and prosper in as a natural sweetner. Much like single variety honey has found tremendous support in cuisine arts, maple sugar will rise in value in the modern food industry, and become the preferred sweetner of the world's finest palates.

Abel DaSilva Buys And Sells Antiques in Downtown Toronto

Abel DaSilva outside the St Lawrence Sunday Market in Toronto, told Dumpdiggers that the only he time he doesn't make money shopping for antiques is when he doesn't buy anything. A bold statement, and we loved it. And from that moment forward, on Sunday January 3rd I personally watched the man like a hawk, determined to learn the secrets of his success.

Just after the holidays, I wrote and published two stories about an afternoon that I spent with Abel DaSilva, Toronto’s foremost antique glass bottle merchant and quite knowledgeable in multiple subjects. He's an eBay power seller, and a prolific Yahoo Groups discussion forum participant.

Shopping for Antiques at the Sunday Market in Toronto with Abel DaSilva is a first person account of what I saw while following Abel around the St Lawrence Hall as he sniffed and pawed hundreds of collectibles. This article establishes the setting and chronicles the purchases of a wise man leveraging his knowledge of history. Abel understands tricky niche markets for collectibles and how to buy local and sell global using eBay and related Yahoo antiques collecting groups.

Another article, perhaps even more fascinating, is entitled Sightseeing with Abel DaSilva in Downtown Toronto, and this matter sifts through half a dozen stories about four different building lots in the downtown core. In each of these urban properties there were truckloads of historically significant antique glass bottles discovered by professional excavators with no mandate to preserve or even document their finds. What happened to this stuff? Abel knows the whereabouts of almost all the buried booty, and has stories about what's still under just about every new structure on the Toronto shoreline.

What’s even better is how Abel befriends the excavation company employees, site supervisors and heavy machinery operators by sharing his knowledge of the specimens they unearth in their digging projects. Mr DaSilva is very generous about sharing tips, tactics and techniques. Click the pictures they expand - look carefully at the picture above right, and you can see hundred year old glass bottles in the ashes behind the bulldozer.

New York City Bottle Diggers Strike Beauty in Night Soil Story

Last Sunday, Dumpdiggers got an email from an Ole friend in New York City boasting about conducting a clandestine archeological dig in one of the most densely populated places on planet Earth. The Manhattan Well Diggers are tireless explorers and this story highlights their abilities and imaginations.

The author is a dedicated digger that waxes poetic about his trips twenty feet down in the depths of his hometown. New York City has some of America’s most historically fascinating suburbs and the trinkets, bottles, jars and crocks and porcelain potlids that these guys dredge up makes all Dumpdiggers suddenly snap to attention .

In this particular story, Dan and his team dig a deep hole behind a renovated townhouse and there go back in time to recover these wonderful objects. With that same trusty blue shovel Dan and his team recover various pontiled items from the 1850s and early 1860s including an eight sided desk ink: HARRISON'S / COLUMBIAN / INK and a CLIREHUGH'S / TRICOPHEROUS / FOR THE HAIR & SKIN / NEW YORK. Also uncovered was a brown and white potlid with an eagle at the center atop a shield baring stars and stripes, CHLORINE DETERGENT & ORRIS DENTIFICE / FOR / CLEANSING & PRESERVING / THE / TEETH / PREPARED BY / ROYCE & ESTERLY / DENTAL SURGEONS. Soon after we discovered a BARKER'S / CHEVEUX TONIQUE / FOR THE HAIR / BDWAY N. Y

Dan starts his latest adventure by telling readers some historical facts like how in 1851 the Hudson River Railroad opened a station at West 30th Street and how business flourished as breweries and soda-water factories, malt houses, stone cutting yards, large stables and slaughter houses, lumber and coal yards, grew up around the tracks etc. The housing was notably inferior as it was hastily erected to accommodate newly arrived immigrants. The narrow houses and wooden buildings sprang up overnight, sometimes right alongside stretches of stylish brick townhouses (which is what they were digging). In the 1850s and 60s, downtown Manhattan is reported to have contained approx 20,000 structures, mostly small or mid-sized factories and sweatshops.

The fire insurance maps show few of the savory little details however, and do not differentiate between style or function of the buildings beyond showing churches, and hotels. The only way to learn what actual living conditions existed from place to place is to dig.

The nicest piece recovered, in my opinion, is this beautiful teakettle ink circa 1860-65, in mint condition. When positioned in direct sunlight it produces a marvelous deep purple colour. It’s made of dark violet or black-amethyst glass, possibly of English or French origin. Dan describes how it was ferreted out from near the privy floor, and remarks on how the exact likeness has never been seen before (by him).


In all there were nine pontiled aqua medicines with raised lettering, mostly cosmetics for the hair and skin, an umbrella ink, and others. Additionally, another potlid and matching base, one clay pipe, one ivory toothbrush handle, a small quantity of common food bones, and an assortment of fruit and vegetable seeds sprinkled therein. Also discovered was a Barker's Cheveux Tonic; DR D. JAYNE'S / HAIR TONIC / PHILADA; BOGLE'S / HYPERION FLUID / FOR THE HAR; HURD'S / HAIR RESTORER; PHALON & SON / PERFUMERS, N. Y.; DR. D. C. KELLINGER / N. Y; ROUSSEL'S / UNRIVALED / PREMIUM / SHAVING CREAM… / X. BAZIN. / 114 Chestnut St / PHILADELPHIA. The earlier base reads GOLD MEDALS AWARDED / E. ROUSSEL / 114 Chestnut St / PHILADA / PERFUMER

Vist ManhattenWellDiggers.com to read the rest of Night Soil.