A treasure hunter has shared her latest bizarre find from the bottom of a river, a ‘time capsule’ that dates back to Victorian London – she says it’s the ‘weirdest’ thing she’s ever seen
A treasure hunter was left stunned after she unearthed a bizarre “time capsule” from Victorian London during one of her river expeditions.
Jane Eastman (@myordinarytreasure on Instagram), spends her time scouring the rivers and streams in the south of England for coins and artefacts from bygone eras.
She recently shared footage of her latest find – a green glass bottle embedded in the mud. She said in the clip: “This is freaky. It looks like a jar that’s full of pickles. That’s got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”
On closer inspection at home, Jane discovered the bottle’s lid bore the inscription “W & D Harvest Dowgate Dock London”. She wrote in an accompanying post: “120+ year old bottle of pickles ‘fresh’ from the river! Well, you’ve got to love a time capsule, but I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to be in the form of a 120-odd-year-old jar of pickles, discovered completely intact, still corked and with embossed topper.
“The company name is W & D Harvest of Dowgate Dock, Upper Thames Street, London and although I can’t find the exact trading dates, I have found record of William Harvest at this address listed as a Spice Dealer and Salterer in the 1870s and then listed as WandD, still trading in 1910.
“The bottle itself is aqua glass with applied lip, it’s certainly not a bottle type I would ever have associated with pickles, and I now understand why those exceptionally long pickle forks were so popular, back in the day. Other finds in this little spot would point to a date of around 1890-1910! Now I am going to seal the top with wax… and never ever be tempted to open it.”
One of Jane’s 335,000 followers was left musing: “Are 100-year-old pickles in pickle juice kept at a cold temperature still edible? They look good.” A second added: “What’s neat is that it could very well be perfectly sealed as the pickles have not decomposed but the brine escaped through the glass due to the liquid nature of soda glass.”
While a third chipped in: “Look at them all perfectly arranged. How did they get packed in there like that?! Would be so tempted to give them a whiff but probably wise never to open them… I instantly regretted opening a cream pot river find once as it sprayed its acid boron cream all over me.”
