Revolutionary War Broken black glass bottle base, dug Pamunkey River Bed

A while back while in Richmond, I met up with a local digger. He had several pieces of Revolutionary War broken black glass bottles, circa 1740 – 1780. When a hurricane went through the area of Hanover County, Virginia, along the Pamunkey River, it exposed these pieces in a creek bed (see pictures).

Hanover County had two villages which in the 17th and 18th centuries were considered as potential sites as the Virginia Capital. Newcastle Town was built on the banks of the Pamunkey River around 1739 and Hanover Town was first settled in the early 1740s.

Hanover Town was badly damaged by British troops during the American Revolution and very little remained when General U.S. Grant’s Union troops crossed the Pamunkey River there in 1864. Newcastle suffered from the Revolution as well with silting in the Pamunkey River and nothing remains of both Colonial-era communities.

Nothing too exciting about these pieces, but they are bottles which soldiers drank from, (probably British), during the American Revolution. There is a near identical example of this base of a bottle in the Crown Point, NY museum (see pictures). I took what the digger had remaining and am offering them here as individual pieces, this one having a diameter of 5” and weighing 1-pound, 9-ounces. When these bottles are complete, they sell for upwards of $300.00 each. They are true Revolutionary War pieces of history and are great inexpensive relics.