Posted 7 years ago
Lamplover78
(261 items)
The boydell bros. From Detroit Michigan. Established 1865.. this can is from January 9 1892. I used to have an old house back in Michigan. And in the basement only part was dug. And the other half was just a crawl space. And in the crawl i seen something. So i dressed up to get dirty and crawl in there. I found many bottles . Back in the day they buried their trash. . Well since some of this was buried under the dirt of the house they still look great! I have quite a few. . This was 15 years ago i found them. If you see any other bottles in this collection. I can post for just that one! I have a few from other places as well! Thanks for looking!
"this can is from January 9 1892."
I like to educate others and make sure they know the facts: Unless it says, Made On or Use Before, you really have to be careful with dates. For example, firms liked to renew themselves and put that date on their products for years.
Look at this picture, this is from 1910, but it gives a reorganised date of 1897:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pBcLTu42hpE/WB0SLVkNHnI/AAAAAAAA6f8/X25MJkKivHUkD94xzQPUzVU-ctQw81kAACL0B/w731-h548-no/St%2BDrakes%2B019.JPG
Your can is not from that date you listed; the company renewed itself on that date. It is early, but it likely early 1900s. I would have to assume by the context of all other finds and how I would date them, i.e. do seams go to the top of glass bottles.
Even after one brother died, the company still used the name Boydell Bros. into the 1920s at least. (In my opinion, albeit I know nothing on the history of paint, as a paper-label collector, I'm thinking 1910ish based on how the label's printing, but even newer based on the textual aspects.)
Thank you for your comment! They built that house in 1910. Which most the other "junk" i found under there had about that date. I just figured we all keep paint for years longer. . But them burying it under the house possibly as they built it makes sense.
I'll take a picture of the back side when there's more light.