Handmade Jewelry Haven: Aqua Sea Glass - Where Does It Come From?

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Aqua Sea Glass - Where Does It Come From?

So I wanted to share with you a super cool find that we made while on our last seaglass trip back in March to the Jersey Shore.

We were wrapping up our beach foray for the day and my son looks over and finds what is left of a broken bottle. I was watching him from further down the beach as he tossed it down, and then seemed to reconsider and picked it back up and puts it in one of his cavernous pockets.

As you can see by the photo, you can clearly make out the 'S and possibly the letter before it is a 'R' or a 'B'.

After doing some reading online and finding this really cool Historical Bottle Website, I found out that fonts that have those little 'appendages' on them are called 'Serif', the word being of uncertain origin, possibly from the Dutch word schreef meaning "line" or pen-stroke and were typical for bottles made between 1820 - 1910.

Recently I had just gotten the 'Holy Grail' of Seaglassing books, 'Pure Seaglass', that was recommended to me almost unanimously from one of my seaglassing groups, and it had a wealth of information on bottles of that time frame, one being the medicinal bottle.
I started searching for bottles that would end in a ---R'S and after some time, found AYER'S SARSAPARILLA. The picture matched my fragment!

James Cook Ayer was a fascinating character! Born in 1818, his dad passed away when he was 7 and he was sent to live with his uncle and by 19 he was working in an apothecary (drug store). At 22 he went into business for himself making all types of concoctions that supposedly cured everything from the ague to baldness! He eventually wanted to follow in his uncles footsteps and go into politics, winning the nomination for the Republican seat for Congress, for Lowell Mass. He lost his bid however and the rejection was apparently too much for him to handle as his obituary stated that opposition to his candidacy was so strong he became unhinged. He was so violent he was confined to an insane asylum in New Jersey for months.
James Cook Ayer died at the age of 60 on July 3, 1878 in Winchendon, Mass.

The town of Ayer, Mass., was named after him.

So my bottle fragment is circa 1852 -1870

So this was an excellent opportunity to show you how this:

gets broken and tossed (or broken while being tossed) and looks like this:

and finely after tossing around in the ocean for approximately 50 -100 years it can look like this:

Then I find it and make it into something beautiful like this:

Light Blue Seaglass Necklace

Want to see something totally cool that I found too? I have a free download of the original 1860 NY Times Ayer's Sarsaparilla Ad!
Just tell me where to email it!

We thought that this was such a cool post that we made a short YouTube Video of it!
Come check it out here to hear my weird voice!
Aqua Sea Glass Video

Want to see more pretty Seaglass Jewelry? Visit Handmade Jewelry Haven here!

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