Letters to the Editor

to the Editor

I Thought I Had a Bottle Room

Hi, John,

Once I had a discussion with Steve Watson, Dick’s son, and we both agreed that every home should have a bottle room. But this is a little over the edge.

In Thailand, a monk and his fellow Buddhists thought it would be a good idea to get some of the trash out of the overall garbage stream, so they decided to have everyone in their province bring them their empty beer bottles. The result was that the bottles were used to construct an entire temple built with recycled beer bottles. Over one and a half million empty beer bottles were used to construct Thailand’s Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple.

On top of that, the monks used the beer caps to produce art work in the form of mosaics that are exhibited throughout the temple. They’re still collecting empties with ideas of expanding the temple.

Bob Strickhart Pennington, N.J.

Now that’s a bottle room! The million bottle temple in Thailand.

Holy Moses Springs Eternal

Hi, John,

I wish to make a comment about the “Letters to the Editor” in the November issue of AB&GC.

George Olgesby wrote about a Moses Poland Spring bottle in carnival glass. My father was an automatic machine glass operator at Anchor Hocking for 33 years. In fact, during that time period, he once brought home a ruby glass Borden’s milk bottle that he made. I remember it well. It never went into full production as Borden never accepted it. At that time, however, Anchor did make Canada Dry Bottles and Golden Wedding Whiskey bottles in carnival glass. I have dug both kinds at Lancaster, Ohio.

Anchor also had a small blow shop where they would make prototype pieces to try and sell to prospective customers. I suspect this is exactly what George’s Moses bottle is. I have never seen one. My first cousin worked in packing and shipping and never saw one either.

One last note: It appears it was intended for an alcohol beverage company because of the “Federal Law Prohibits” embossing.

Best regards,

Gary Beatty North Port, Florida

A Very Lucky Find, Indeed

Hello, John,

I enjoyed reading John Scarpati’s letter to the editor in the October 2020 issue of Antique Bottle & Glass Collector in response to my article, “The Stoneware Doctor.” John mentioned he had written an article about stoneware repair for your magazine 18 years ago, and he

to the Editor

also asked about the James Van Dyk pottery teapot I dug and that Jim Healy had repaired for me. John had the incredible fortune to buy a complete James Van Dyk teapot in excellent condition for just $1 at flea market many years ago, and is now wondering if his might be a reproduction.

My immediate reaction was that it’s unlikely. As delightful as the little teapot is, it just does strike me as an artifact that would not be particularly profitable for a company to reproduce.

To make sure, I reached out to Diane Van Dyk, great granddaughter of James. Diane is always on the lookout for any of the little giveaways like the teapot that her ancestor’s company produced, and she said that in all her years of searching for and collecting Van Dyk items, she has not heard anything about any of them ever being reproduced.

As stated in my article, these little teapots are scarce and fetch around $200 when they do show up for sale. So John was just very lucky the day he stumbled across this item and got such a great deal! I wish John continued success in his hunting, and encourage him to provide an updated report on his experiences with stoneware repair to your magazine some day.

John Savastio Latham, N.Y.

Glass Blower’s Card

Hi, John,

Just a note to make a comment about Richard Sheaff’s picture of a glass blower’s union card on page 5 of the November issue. I have seen that card on a couple occasions in person.

In 1962 I was discharged from the USN and got a job within a week at the Lancaster Colony Glass factory at Lancaster, Ohio. My father worked at Anchor Hocking Glass across town. I worked in a blow shop. I started out as a carry-in boy, taking the ware to the lehr annealing oven to slowly cool down. A couple of the blowers (Theller and Biggins) showed me their same identical cards as the one Richard shared with us. They were proud of it! In fact, you couldn’t work there as a blower unless you belonged to that association.

One more thing. Karl Biggins came to us from south Jersey, as work had slowed down there. Biggins was also an ex-prizefighter and once fought Willy Pep.

Best regards to you and to all of my bottle friends.

Gary Beatty North Port, Florida

Does anyone have information on these old telephone battery jars? Has there ever been an article on these objects? Reader Jerry Paxton would like to learn more about them. Give us a ring.

Calling for Information on Telephone Battery Jars

Hi, John,

Have you ever done an article on glass telephone battery jars? The old crank wooden telephones had as many jars as three. I have a “Western Electric Co.” jar and a “Bell Telephone Co.” jar in my old telephone collection.

Old glass telephone mouthpieces were also made so they could be sterilized from flu germs, etc. You couldn't boil a hard rubber phone mouthpiece to sterilize it.

Best regards,

Jerry Paxton Bend, Oregon