Cobalt Blue Sea Glass Has Many Different Sources

 

In Puerto Rico the sources of cobalt blue sea glass are very much the same as in the USA and date back to the late 1800's to the 1950's. In addition to the usual suspects such as Phillips Milk Of Magnesia bottles and Vicks and Noxzema jars cobalt sea glass has some other interesting sources. Medicines bottles, eye washes, depression glass, swizel sticks and antique window panes have been made with cobalt glass as well.

There is at least one other source for cobalt sea glass in Puerto Rico that is different than in the USA and that would be LAXOL from Brazil. I have a bottle with LAXOL Rio De Janero embossed on it that I found in a stream bed in Puerto Rico, as I am writing this I am in Florida and it is at my house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I hope to remember to retrieve it the next time we are there so I can take a picture of it and add it to this page! Another difference between the cobalt blue sea glass found on beaches of Puerto Rico and that found on beaches stateside is that some of the Phillips Milk Of Magnesia are embossed with words in Spanish as opposed to English.

I found the Milk Of Magnesia bottle pictured below on a piece of land in Rincon, Puerto Rico that had just been bulldozed. The lid was on the bottle when I found it and the inside was fairly clean. This bottle was probably reused after the initial contents were finished to store homemade rum or homemade remedies. If I had not come along and scooped up this bottle it very well may have worked it's way to the sea.

 

       

         

A Coveted Sea Glass Color

Cobalt blue sea glass is highly coveted and is considered to be the ultimate in terms of sea glass by many collectors. When I first started collecting sea glass in Puerto Rico cobalt blue was a common sea glass color. Overtime I noticed that it was becoming locally uncommon. It wasn't until Richard LaMotte published his beautiful book Pure Seaglass that I learned that cobalt blue sea glass is considered to be rare.