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TopS3cr3t OP t1_j1m7f0e wrote

Merry Christmas 🎄 

Base:

  • (L) Baltimore Glass Works Resurgam Flask GXIII-53: c. 1860s - 1870s
  • (R) Chapman's Maryland Glass Works Soldier & Dancer GXIII-11: c. 1860s-1870s

Trunk:

  • John Clark Fells Point: c. 1850s

Star:

  • Baltimore Glass Works Star Ink - c. 1840s - 1860s
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JohnBarleyCorn2 t1_j1miamx wrote

that's pretty cool - where do you find these?

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TopS3cr3t OP t1_j1mqir2 wrote

The two flasks came out of different auctions.

The John Clark soda came from a privy in Upper Fells Point a few weeks ago. And the pipes, marbles, and stoppers also came from privies all over the city.

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JohnBarleyCorn2 t1_j1oaszg wrote

thanks. following your channel now! Any insight on why people through glass containers and other stuff down into the privy? Were they also used as garbage receptacles? Did they ever have to shovel them out? I can't imagine a hole in the ground to smell very good or be hygenic.

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TopS3cr3t OP t1_j1ocn8s wrote

You nailed it. There wasn’t public trash pickup before the mid 1900s. So what petter place to toss your trash then a hole you already had outback that would periodically be cleaned out.

It wasn’t great but as long as you didn’t go down there yourself and kept up the maintenance it would have been tolerable

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cactushugger4lyfe t1_j1u5bb9 wrote

So cool! Do you have any more info on the white balls at the bottom? I found one of those in my yard when I had my concrete removed this summer. They are painted with crisscrossing black stripes.

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TopS3cr3t OP t1_j1u73pu wrote

Oh really? The little bars are clay marbles. Is the concrete still up?!

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cactushugger4lyfe t1_j1ucr48 wrote

Oh nice, thanks! the only thing I’d found that looked similar were Native American stone game balls but that seemed unlikely. All the concrete is gone—I replaced it with pea gravel over landscape cloth and planting beds. Stuff still sometimes comes up when it rains (mostly marbles, glass, ceramics, and plastic clothes pins).

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