Worcestershire Daffy's Hoard

-ANOTHER HOARD OF DAFFY’S-

-I’m sure most forum members will have seen these three Daffy’s which have just finished on Ebay. I thought I would add them as a post to save both the pictures and the story for posterity. They were part of a small hoard of nine of these classic cures found in a thatched roof of a cottage in Worcestershire. It has echoes of the Sussex hoard found in 1978, although on that occasion they were found in a void in a wall. It would be nice to get a little more information on this particular hoard so some research on the occupants at or around the time of deposition could be done.-

A photograph of the cottage provided by the vendor-The vendors own brief description and story of the bottles are as follows:-….This is an excellent example of a true Daffy’s elixir medicine bottle dating between circa 1820-1840. From my research this is an example of a cross hinge shoulder line with a few nice bubbles in the glass. I think it is pontiled as it has an oval indentation in the base. One of the first forms of medicine, this bottle was found in the thatch of our house when we purchased it in the late 80's. Originally there were 9 bottles in total which were found in the thatched roof pictured when it was removed during renovation. The bottles were found with a small child’s shoe seen in the picture. Unfortunately all 9 bottles were kept in the downstairs toilet and 30 years later only 3 remain! It wasn't until a year or so ago that we realised there might be collectors out there for these bottles. We have advertised them all individually (all three are seen in the photo with the shoe) and hope that from the research I have done I have documented them accurately….-One can only wonder what happened to the other six!! It is also interesting to note the finding of the child’s shoe in the thatch. I recently mentioned the secreting of shoes to ward off evil in my recent post concerning the Bellarmine ‘Witch Bottles’ recently bought at the Elsecar Winternational. The bidding on the last one has now closed. In total the price realised for all three was £2608.00. Each was strongly contested with three different winning bidders. I feel sorry for the under bidder who was the same on each lot!!-DAFFY’S TRUE ELIXIR - BOTTLE 1-This is the bottle shown on the left in the first photograph. It attracted 30 bids from 8 bidders and the final price realised was £820.00　-

-DAFFY’S TRUE ELIXIR - BOTTLE 2-This is the bottle shown in the middle in the first photograph; it is slightly smaller than the other two and has a variation to the side embossing. It attracted 29 bids from 8 bidders and the final price realised was £888.00-

-DAFFY’S TRUE ELIXIR - BOTTLE 3-This is the bottle shown on the right in the first photograph. It attracted 34 bids from 11 bidders and the final price realised was £900.00　-

-SUSSEX HOARD-For those who are not aware and just to round off the post I have included the story of the Sussex hoard as reported in the October 1978 edition of Antique Bottle Collecting.-

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Bottledigging UK

Worcestershire Daffy's Hoard

Worcestershire Daffy's Hoard