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.
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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Ink bottles. These came from various locations in British Columbia except for the larger pottery ink which came from Arizona. The smaller pottery ink 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.
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. A green square variety is also known though only a few specimens are thought to exist. These are thought to have held soy sauce.
More round spouted jars-- 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.
Here are the four wide mouth jars in my collection. 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.
Straight-sided jars:
Vegetable jars:
Vegetable jar with labels--The round label is from the top of the jar-- Tientsin Preserved Vegetables:
Older hexagonal ginger jars. 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 chemicals 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 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.
Six bean cake sealers from 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. and Eng Hung Chi at 132 Waverly Place in San Francisco.
The two moon cake molds 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 molds and I know that there are collectors out there who specialize in molds only. I would love to see their collections.
These three molds came from Vancouver Island.
Wooden shipping boxes:
Two barrels:
