Cobalt blue bottles. These were all dug except the one with the label. Some of these may be Japanese although several were found in an area where there was a large Chinese population and few, if any, Japanese. The bottle with the label is definitely of Chinese origin. There is a "Made in China" label on the front and on the back is a label "Han Pan Shui, Made by the Great Eastern Dispensary Co., Shanghai, China.
Recently the 3rd bottle from the left in the top row and the left hand bottle on the bottom row have been identified as a Japanese "NAISU" (nice) hair colouring bottles.
This Gordon's Dry Gin bottle was pressed into service for some purpose. Recovered in Butte, Montana in 1972, it has the remnants of a lable with a lot of Chinese characters. Perhaps I can get a translation of the visible characters at some time. Until then, it is a bottle of North American Chinese usage and very unique.
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These two BIMAL (blown in mold applied lip, ca. late 1800s) bottles were two of three similar bottles found in 2004 in what used to be Chinatown, on the west side of the tracks, in Kalispell, Montana. They were recovered from a buried privy that had one side exposed by a large trench digging hoe. The privy was filled with nothing but Chinese bottles and pots, no other non-Chinese items were found at all. The block had been cleared of a paved parking lot and a few old buildings and the ground breaking was for a retirement home. Sanborn maps show several Chinese dwellings and businesses there around 1900. The floral design on the bottles and where they were found suggests they are of Chinese origin or were at least used by Chinese in Kalispell. The floral pattern consists of vines, leaves, and flowers. One of the bottles has the design inverted with respect to the other.
Cork top glass ink bottles and pottery masters. These came from various locations in British Columbia except for the middle sized pottery ink which came from Arizona. The smaller pottery master at back on the left came from the old Vancouver Chinatown dig. The darker emerald green ink was found in the Merritt Chinese dump. Most of the others came from Vancouver Island. The small pottery ink on the front left is a western ink but was found in the Yale Chinese dump so had Chinese usage--
Two nice Kwong Yune Co screw top inks from Vancouver's Chinatown. The one on the right is an emerald green glass bottle--
Spouted jars come in two shapes, round and square. The square variety, as found in British Columbia, is thought to have been exclusive to Vancouver Island. The tan brown shade is rare in the square variety and uncommon in the round variety. A green square variety is also known though only a few specimens are thought to exist. 30 years ago a collectables dealer in Victoria, BC told me of 6 green square pots that were in a collection on Vancouver Island, in Nanaimo I believe it was, they had all been found together in one location. There is also one reported in an Eastern Canadian collection. These are thought to have held soy sauce. Some reports say they held vinegar as well. These were all found on Vancouver Island.
More round spouted jars from BC-- different shapes and sizes. The one with the label is a soy sauce pot as identified by the label. The others are likely soy sauce pots as well. The large spouted jar is from Seattle, Wa. It is 9.5" in diameter and 9.5" tall----
Here are a pair of large soy jugs, 10" tall by 6.5" wide at the spout. I'm not sure how old these are but in the day of the plastic container, ANY pottery jug is collectable! The orange pot on the left came from Oregon, a Chinese couple had been using it for vinegar storage when it was acquired in 1999 by my source. The one on the right came from BC. Roy has one still full of soy sauce but also recently obtained another one that has a label in Chinese and English describing the contents as "vinegar sweetener".
The characters on the bottom of the Oregon jug shown above---
Here are the four wide mouth jars in my collection, all from BC. These were used for vegetable storage (possibly including ginger and most likely pickled vegetables). The largest is just under 8" tall.
I recently obtained a third globular jar (2007) that originally came from Locke California Chinese town. This is the larger of the three shown in the following picture and had been in a collection for many years. Originally the collector had obtained it from a rancher who had gotten it years before in Locke. The large globular pot is 14 inches tall. The small globular pot came from Victoria, BC Chinatown and the middle one with the character panel came from San Francisco.
And I have now obtained a fourth globular pot. This one comes from Bakersfield, California Chinatown and was in a family collection there for many years. It is also 14" tall and has a character panel. The characters in the panel talk about the nine rivers and riches obtained. These pots were mainly used for food and water storage and are uncommon and prized in any collection. There was a Chinese mining village on Keithley Creek, some miles past Likely, BC. The man who purchased the Keithley Creek Borland ranch found a dozen of these globular jars in the old buildings along the creek when they still existed in the 1950s. He had them on shelves around his home and I first saw them in the 1972 when I visited him with a mutual friend. That was the first time I saw any of these globular pots and I was very impressed by them. That collection went to the US with his widow, who moved back there when he died. He had a shed full of Chinese pottery of all kinds found in those ruins.
This is a very nice barrel jar complete with lid intact from Silver City, Idaho recently added to the collection. In a quote from one online reference:
"Silver City, Idaho, with a Chinese population of seven hundred in 1874, had a Chinese Masonic temple, two Joss houses, several restaurants, two laundries, four stores, two lotteries, five gambling houses, and several warehouses." --- all part of Silver City Chinatown. The lid is 10" in diameter and the pot stands 15 1/4 " tall.
This is a very large storage jar. 17.5" tall and 9" across at the base. This one dates from about the late 1800s and came from Astoria, Oregon. Chinese have been in Astoria since 1840 and worked in canneries there in the late 1800s--
Straight-sided jars from BC and Oregon. The green jar and the smallest jar came from Oregon, the others are from BC. The green jar is unique, I haven't seen another in any other collection or illustration---
Vegetable jars from BC--- there are two types of these, a more cylindrical type with a longer neck and a short squat round type.
Vegetable jar with labels--The round label is from the top of the jar-- Tientsin Preserved Vegetables:
Vegetable jars with characters:
A food jar from Cumberland on Vancouver Island--- 4.75" tall by 3.5" wide--
Older hexagonal ginger jars all from BC. The green colour is more common in these. Red occurs due to reduction firing of the copper content of the glaze. In reduction, the firing chamber is oxygen starved which causes some of the compounds in the glaze to take oxygen from other compounds, producing the red colour when copper is present. When there is plenty of oxygen available the same changes do not occur during firing as those compounds requiring oxygen will take it from the environment instead of from other compounds in the glaze, thus producing the green glaze when copper is present.
Older gingers-- undecorated or with one or more lines.
Two lidded ginger jars--
Two old small gingers with partial green glaze. The one on the left has two seal impressions along the shoulder of the pot.
Fancier ginger jars-- shards of the two pictorial jars are often found in digs which makes the shard easy to identify.
Seven bean cake sealers manufactured in San Francisco. These are embossed in both English and Chinese. The names of the companies are Quong Yuen Sing & Co., Wing Wah Sing & Co., Sang Yuen Co., Suey Fung Yuen & Co., Quong Hop and Co., and Eng Hung Chi at 132 Waverly Place in San Francisco.
The two moon cake moulds on the left were from the King Cafe. The interior carving does not show up too well but King Cafe is carved in reverse so it will come out correctly on the moon cake. The one on right is over 100 years old. I purchased it in Victoria, BC over 20 years ago. The label reads "Moon Cake mould, over 80 years old local rest." I enjoy these moulds and I know that there are collectors out there who specialize in moulds only. I would love to see their collections.
These three moulds came from Vancouver Island.
Wooden shipping boxes:
Two barrels from Vancouver, BC's Chinatown:
