Houston 2024 Expo Souvenir Program

Houston

A WASHOE ZEPHYR

By John C. Tibbetts

A Washoe Zephyr helped blow up the enthusiasm which started the Antique Bottle Collectors Association (of California) back in 1959. A Washoe Zephyr is a very strong, cold wind that blows down the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, crosses a valley over another mountain and down into Virginia City, Nevada, with full fury.

My wife, Edith, and I were scratching for old bottles on one side of the big Comstock tailing pile just below town during one of those furious blows. The current trash dump for the town was just upwind from us and we were continually bombarded by cartons, tins, ashes, sand and dust. It was miserable, but we had struck a spot with a lot of old miniatures, Jamaica gingers, Hostetter’s Bitters, etc. Any bottle digger knows what we did; we braced ourselves against the zephyr and kept on scratching. Later, we just had to get out of that wind so we climbed the sloping side of the tailings and into the car, wiped our hands and faces off somewhat, and drank coffee from our thermos.

While in the car, we noted another car clear down on the far end of the tailings. The hood was up and there were two people standing there. We assumed car trouble and walked down to see if we could help. We were surprised to find the car running and a man and a lady heating two cans of “beanie-weenies” on the hot manifold. We were more surprised to find they were dyed-in-the-wool bottle collectors and had been so for many years. The couple were “Toot” and Dorothy Garten of Carson City, Nevada. We spent the rest of the day talking bottles, bottle digging and where and when and how and why. We and they were extremely happy to find we were not the only crazy bottle diggers in the world. Before leaving for home, I vowed I would do what I could to form a club for bottle collectors if there was enough interest. Thanks to the zephyr for blowing us into their car!

After we returned to Sacramento, I wrote to five people I had heard of who were digging in “old” Sacramento, asking them to come to a meeting at our house to see if we could form a club for bottle collectors. The next meeting we had about 30 people and at the next slightly over 50.

About this time the Sacramento Bee newspaper called us about the hobby and then came out and took photos and picked up the article they had asked me to write. A color photo appeared on the cover of the Sunday Magazine section with the article inside. Whoo-eee, did that pick up things where that zephyr left off! We had visitors and phone calls and letters like you wouldn’t believe. The crazy bottle collectors came out of the closet. They wanted to know how to start a bottle club and get a copy of our constitution and bylaws. They came by to see our collection and sometimes to show us what they had. It was terrific and wonderful.

Many county and even state historical societies had us give talks and show our bottles. Many good, hard-working club members and Charlie Gardner, Helen McKearin, Dick Watson, Grace Kendrick and many others made our club a success. Over the next few years, we grew to about 3,000 families from coast to coast.

‘Tis an ill wind that bloweth no good. Have fun!

A Washoe Zephyr ..................................................

Welcome to Houston, Texas ...........................................

Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) ..............................

Hotel ZaZa Museum District ..........................................

Houston 24 Exposition Schedule .......................................

FOHBC Officers – Team Houston – President’s Message ......................

What’s Underfoot in Houston? .........................................

Hermann Park ....................................................

Houston Museum District .............................................

Hou24 Exhibition Books .............................................

Peachridge Glass in the Grass Event ....................................

Texas Hold ‘Em Competition ...........................................

The Three Blue Bitters and the Drakes ...................................

Houston 24 Merchandise .............................................

Jim Healy Commemorative Jugs ........................................

Drakes Plantation Bitters .............................................

General Membership Breakfast Meeting ..................................

Dinosaurs Banquet and Mix & Mingle ................................... Bayou City Sunset

Only in Houston

Welcome to Houston, Texas

For most of my years in Houston (since 1983), I either lived or worked Downtown, or both. I always called it OZ because of its architecture and magic. Our big secret is that we are located off the Gulf of Mexico, and temperatures are acceptable in the shade in the summer. We also have the best air conditioning possible! Many people in offices and stores and our airports wear sweaters! Houston is also the most populous city in the U.S., state of Texas and in the Southern United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in the United States after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the seventh-most populated city in North America. Houston has the fifth-tallest skyline in North America (after New York City, Chicago, Toronto and Miami) with buildings designed by my favorite architects. A seven-mile system of tunnels and skywalks links Downtown buildings containing shops and restaurants, enabling pedestrians to avoid summer heat and rain while walking between buildings. Now, this is amazing; the Houston Theater District, Downtown, is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls. It has the second-largest concentration of theater seats in a downtown area in the United States. While in Houston for the HOU24 EVENT, take the light rail (next to Hotel ZaZa and HMNS Museum District) to the Central Business District and check it out. Minute Maid Park (Astros baseball), Toyota Center (Rockets basketball), and Shell Energy Stadium (Dynamo and Dash soccer), among many smaller venues, are also located Downtown. Don’t even get me started with all the different types of food and dining opportunities!

Ferdinand Meyer V Houston 24 Expo Chair FOHBC Director-at-Large Houston, Texas

JOEL A. BARTSCH

Pre sident & Curator of Gems & Minerals

Colle ctor of Early American Glass

Houston

Combining the luxurious ambiance of a resort with the captivating style of a boutique hotel and comfort of home, Hotel ZaZa invites travelers to a unique sensory experience. With locations in Downtown Austin, Uptown Dallas, Houston Museum District and Houston Memorial City, ZaZa strikes the perfect balance between refinement and relaxation for business and leisure travelers alike. Situated in the heart of the vibrant Museum District, world-renowned Texas Medical Center and thriving downtown central business district, Hotel ZaZa Houston Museum District is an unexpected feast for the senses. Introducing business and leisure travelers to a larger-than-life experience, this unique choice in Houston boutique hotels boasts a collection of exquisite guestrooms and suites, including Pool Villas, Concept Suites and The Magnificent Seven Suites, award-winning dining at Monarch Bistro and a relaxing day spa on site.

HOUSTON 24 EXPOSITION SCHEDULE

Museum Admission: The Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) costs $25 a day for an individual and $33 extra to experience the Cockrell Butterfly Center, Burke Baker Planetarium and Wortham Giant Screen Theatre. This is costly considering this is a four-day event. Access to HMNS is FREE to all FOHBC Members. You will receive an “Open House” lanyard Access Pass to access all areas and exhibits in the world renowned museum. $58 x 4 days = $232 savings a day per person.

Museum Parking: Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) Garage Parking is FREE for all FOHBC Members. (Typically $30 or $10 for Museum members a day). $30 x 4 days = $120 savings.

Wednesday 31 July 2024

Peachridge Glass “Glass in the Grass” antique bottle, glass and small antiques field sales from vehicles and tents. 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, Ferdinand & Elizabeth Meyer, Brookshire, Texas

Thursday 01 August 2024

FOHBC Board Meeting: 8:00 to 11:30 am at Hotel ZaZa | Napoleon

Dealer and Displayer Set-Up: 7:00 am to 5:00 pm for the FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle Show & Sale at Hotel ZaZa | Phantom Ballroom and related rooms.

Exhibition Opening (VIP): 1:00 pm Ribbon Cutting—”American Antique Glass Masterpieces featuring the Sandor P. Fuss Collection” and “Select Highlights from the David P. Wilber and Anthony Gugliotti Barber Bottle Collections.” Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) Brown and Hamill Galleries. Media access. Exhibition book sales and signing.

Expo Registration: Noon to 6:00 pm. HMNS Cullen Grand Hall. Exhibition Book Sales, Souvenir Programs and FOHBC Event Merchandise available.

HMNS Open House: 9:00 to 6:00 pm For FOHBC Members, VIPs and Registered Guests. (Exhibits, Planetarium, Cockrell Butterfly Center, Hall of Paleontology, Cullen Hall of Gems & Minerals, etc.)

Museum District Tours: Planned tours of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Zoo, Hermann Park, Children’s Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum, Holocaust Museum, Rice University, etc.

Cocktail Reception|Competition Event Registration: 5:30 to 7:00 pm cash bar in Hotel ZaZa | Room with a View pre-function area of bottle competition in the Hotel ZaZa | Grapevine.

Texas Hold’em Antique Bottle & Glass Competition: 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Hotel ZaZa | Grapevine

Early Admission, Dealers & Assistants, Displayers, Presenters, Speakers, Team Houston 24, Volunteers

FOHBC Membership Required

$5 Entry Fee

Special Reservations Required No Charge

Note: If you are not a current FOHBC member in good standing, and choose to remain that way, you will be responsible for paying the museum daily admission and parking fees. These are otherwise FREE for FOHBC members. You will be able to join the FOHBC at any point during the Houston 24 Expo to waive these costs. No post-event or post-date refunds.

Friday 02 August 2024

FOHBC Membership Breakfast Meeting: 7:00 to 8:30 am at Hotel ZaZa | Grapevine

Educational Seminars: 9:00 am to Noon at Hotel ZaZa | Room with a View and Grapevine rooms

Exhibition Viewing: Early Admission, VIP exhibition viewing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) Brown and Hamill Galleries. 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Ribbon Cutting: Official opening of the FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale at 12:50 pm at the Hotel ZaZa Piano Man Lounge

Early and VIP Admission: FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale. 1:00 to 5:00 pm at the Hotel ZaZa Phantom Ballroom and related rooms. Displays.

Youth Activities: Grab Bags, Scavenger Hunt, etc. during all FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale hours at the Hotel ZaZa Piano Man Lounge

Virtual Museum Imaging: By appointment during all FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale hours at the Hotel ZaZa Piano Man Lounge.

Houston 24 Cocktail Mix & Mingle: Cocktails and mingling at the HMNS Morian Hall of Paleontology from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Cash Bar.

FOHBC Dinosaurs Banquet: Prepaid banquet event with keynote speaker, presentations and awards at the HMNS Morian Hall of Paleontology from 7:30 to 10:00 pm.

SCHEDULE continued

Saturday 03 August 2024

FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale: $5 General Admission, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Hotel ZaZa Phantom Ballroom and related rooms. Displays, Merchandise, Raffle Drawings.

Exhibition Viewing: Open for all 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at HMNS Brown and Hamill Galleries.

Virtual Museum Imaging: By appointment and walk-in during all FOHBC Houston 24

Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale hours at Hotel ZaZa | Piano Man Lounge from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Bayou Cit y Sunset Auction: Live and Online Auction. 7:00 to 10:00 pm with cash bar. Hotel ZaZa | Grapevine

Sunday 04 August 2024

FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale: $5 General Admission Open for all 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at Hotel ZaZa Phantom Ballroom and related rooms. Book sales and merchandise. Raffle drawings.

Exhibition Viewing: Open for all 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at HMNS Brown and Hamill Galleries

Virtual Museum Imaging: By appointment during all FOHBC Houston 24

Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale hours at Hotel ZaZa | Piano Man Lounge.

See Notes previous page. See Notes previous page.

Display Awards: FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale Display Awards at 2:00 pm. at Hotel ZaZa | Piano Man Lounge

FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle & Glass Show & Sale Close: 3:00 pm. Hotel ZaZa Phantom Ballroom and related rooms

Cash Bar

“King Tut’s Tomb Discovery Experience” and the “American Antique Glass Masterpieces” Exhibition

01-04 August 2024

Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors

Special Note: A new slate of FOHBC 2024–2026 officers will take effect after the FOHBC Houston 2024 Expo. See Jan–Feb 2024 issue of AB&GC.

FOHBC Officers 2022–2024

President: Michael Seeliger, N8211 Smith Road, Brooklyn, Wisconsin 53521, phone: 608.575.2922, email: mwseeliger@gmail.com

First Vice-President: Position Open

Second Vice-President: Stephen R. Jackson, P.O. Box 3137, Suffolk, Virginia 23439, phone: 757.675.5642, email: sjackson@srjacksonlaw.com

Secretary: Alice Seeliger, N8211 Smith Road, Brooklyn, Wisconsin 53521, phone: 608.575.2922, email: aliceajscreative@gmail.com

Treasurer: Kathie Craig, 1037 Hazelwood Avenue, Campbell, California 95008, phone: 408.591.6511, email: kathiecraig@sbcglobal.net

Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, FOHBC, P.O. Box 1825, Brookshire, Texas 77423, phone: 713.504.0628, email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com

Director-at-Large: Ferdinand Meyer V, FMG Design, Inc., 101 Crawford Street, Studio 1A, Houston, Texas 77002, phone: 713.222.7979 x115, email: fmeyer@fmgdesign.com

Director-at-Large: John O’Neill, 1805 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, California 94002, phone: 650.619.8209, email: Joneill@risk-strategies.com

Director -at-Large: Richard Siri, P.O. Box 3818, Santa Rosa, California 95402, phone: 707.542.6438, email: rtsiri@sbcglobal.net

Southern Region Director: Tom Lines, 1647 Olivia Way, Auburn, Alabama 36830, phone: 205.410.2191, email: Bluecrab1949@hotmail.com

Western Region Director: Eric McGuire, 1732 Inverness Drive, Petaluma, California 94954, phone: 707.481.9145, email: etmcguire@comcast.net

Northeast Region Director: Charles Martin Jr., 5 John Hall Cartway, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts 02675 phone: 781.248.8620, email: cemartinjr@comcast.net

Midwest Region Director: Henry Hecker, W298 S10655 Phantom Woods Road, Mukwonago, Wisconsin 53149, phone: 262.844.5751, email: phantomhah@gmail.com

Public Relations Director: Position Open

Conventions Director: Craig Cassetta, 12 Marlin Court, Chico, California 95973, phone: 530.680.5226, email: craig.cassetta@gmail.com

Historian: Brian Bingham, 4305 Arbor Cove Circle, Oceanside, California 92058, phone: 442.264.9945, email: brian.bingham@att.net

Membership Director: Elizabeth Meyer, FOHBC, P.O. Box 1825, Brookshire, Texas 77423, phone: 713.504.0628, email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com

Merchandising Director: Position Open

FOHBC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

We welcome antique bottle and glass enthusiasts and collectors to the great State of Texas for the FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition or Houston 24 for short. After a successful Reno 2022 Convention, the FOHBC took the year off in 2023 to plan for a different experience in 2024. If you like history, great antique bottles and glass, museums, and nature, we certainly have the place for you as our event is being hosted and graciously underwritten by the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS). Our historic host Hotel ZaZa is across the boulevard, and both are located within Hermann Park in the Houston Museum District. Our venues are both located on the Houston light rail line that connects downtown Houston and the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. Here you will find every moment full of excitement, options, and wonderful things to do. We are glad to have you be a part of the greatest antique bottle and glass event in a generation. I am particularly interested in reuniting the three cobalt blue bitters as the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters lady’s leg is joining the Fuss collection’s Old Homestead Bitters and Fish Bitters in a prominent display in the exhibition. Thanks to our underwriters and partners noted above, Peachridge Collections, Team Houston 24 and the FOHBC Board for making this happen!

Michael Seeliger

FOHBC President Brooklyn, Wisconsin

TEAM HOUSTON 2024

Edie Alucema (Team Houston 24 Treasurer) edie.fohbc@gmail.com

Alicia Booth-Wickman (Team Houston 24) aliciab.wickman@gmail.com

Craig Cassetta (FOHBC Conventions Director) ccassettafohbc@gmail.com

Carly Cortez (Hotel ZaZa) ccortez@hotelzaza.com

Joe Cyrus (Host HMNS Director of Special Events) jcyrus@hmns.org

Brad Dalton (Team Houston 24) brad.daltongang@yahoo.com

Alan DeMaison (Virtual Museum Director) a.demaison@sbcglobal.net

Brandon DeWolfe (Team Houston 24) brandondewolfe@hotmail.com

Ed Gray (Wilber & Gugliotti Exhibition Consultant) bottleguy1@gmail.com

Tom Lines (FOHBC Southern Region Director) bluecrab1949@hotmail.com

Addy Meyer (Team Houston 24) addy@brammers.net

Bella Meyer (Team Houston 24 Youth Coordinator) bella.fohbc@gmail.com

Elizabeth Meyer (FOHBC Business Manager) fohbcmember@gmail.com

Ferdinand Meyer V (Event Manager, FOHBC Director) fmeyer@fmgdesign.com

Jeff Noordsy (Fuss Exhibition Consultant) jeffnhol@shoreham.net

Gina Pellegrini-Ott (Event Photographer) angelina.pellegrini@gmail.com

Andrew Rapoza (Team Houston 24) rapoza.2025@gmail.com

Lisa I. Rebori (HMNS SR VP of Collections & Exhibits) lrebori@hmns.org

Alice Seeliger (FOHBC Secretary) aliceajscreative@gmail.com

Michael Seeliger (FOHBC President) mwseeliger@gmail.com

Martin Van Zant (Team Houston 24 Auctioneer) mdvanzant@yahoo.com

What’s Underfoot in Houston?

FERDINAND MEYER V

LAND OF OZ

My life path to Houston was interesting because I took a train from Baltimore to Kansas City to attend art and design school with a full scholarship. During my junior year spring break, I hitchhiked to Houston and fell in love with the city—so much so that I moved there, grew roots, and never left. In 1975, most of the country was migrating to Houston because of the “Recession of 1973-75,” the most severe economic contraction in the postwar era. It was reported that there was a nationwide U-Haul trailer shortage as they were all in Houston and that there were billboards in Detroit saying, “Please turn off the lights when you leave.” Anyway, I love this city and refer to it as the “Land of Oz.” This endearment initially came about as I lived and worked downtown. My office was on the 28th floor of an old building facing all the glistening glass towers. The sunrises and sunsets were spectacular.

SHINY LIKE COAL

Elizabeth and I live in a great, culturally diverse, centrally located city. With direct flights, we can hop on a plane and be almost anywhere in the country and world expeditiously. Houston has a reputation for being shiny and new, but that is not the case. While there has been a mentality and mindset to tear it down to make something bigger and better—downtown and surrounding areas are steeped in history. I’ve seen these hidden gems almost daily on my jogs, dog walks, and explorations. I have lived in downtown Houston since 1982 and have been an antique bottle collector since 2002. In 2024, they will intersect with the most unique antique bottle and glass event ever, Houston 24.

After looking “high and low” for many years, I found the elusive “Cotton-Patch Bitters” right under my eyes on a window sill in a kitchen not 15 miles from where I live! - Meyercollection

MISUNDERSTOOD

Many people think of “Dallas” when they hear “Houston.” I think that’s because of the popular 1978 TV series called Dallas, or they think we all drive around on horses because of the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy, where actor John Travolta was a country boy who moved to the city to visit his uncle and his family. He starts hanging out at Gilley’s, the famous nightclub owned by Mickey Gilley. This is so far from the truth. People also say we are a “city of concrete,” but if you go up ten stories in any office tower in any part of our metropolitan area, all you see is a canopy of green. People also say it’s too hot in Houston. I say it’s the coldest city in the country in the summer as our air conditioning is so great that you see many people wearing sweaters in the summer. People also ask me if I know “so and so” in Dallas, and I have to remind them that Texas is a big state with quite a few major cities that are dramatically different. To be able to have the FOHBC Houston 24 Expo here is a dream come true. The hard part is convincing others to come to “Bottle Siberia.” Did you know that Houston was once the epicenter of bottle collecting?

DESIGN STUDIO

FMG Design is located in the old Texas and Eller Wagon Works Building on Commerce Street. The asphalt now covers the old railroad tracks that ran down the street to service all the businesses and warehouses along Buffalo Bayou, which connects Houston to the Ship Channel and then the Gulf of Mexico.

This article aims to reflect on Houston’s beginnings, why the city is so great and how Houston relates to antique bottle collecting. We get American history from the New Englanders and the California collectors (among many other bottle-rich locales), but we rarely hear of Texas, specifically Houston. Where were the saloons, the groceries, the bottlers, and the liquor merchants? If I were a bottle digger, where would I look? What was under or before the newer buildings? Why is Houston such a misunderstood giant? What’s Underfoot? Some questions to explore while you enjoy your time in this immensely rich and complex city.

HOUSTON CITY SEAL

On Monday, February 17, 1840, at the regular City Council meeting, a resolution was passed authorizing

Sam Houston

Mayor Charles Bigelow “to procure a seal to be styled, the seal for the City of Houston, Texas.” At the next meeting, on February 24, “On motion of Alderman Stevens, it was resolved that the seal purchased by F. Moore(e) Jr., Esq., be received as the city seal.” Dr. Francis Moore, Jr., a distinguished state senator and former Mayor of Houston, played a pivotal role in the design of the original seal. The top half of the seal proudly displayed the words “City of Houston.” The bottom half, initially blank, was later adorned with the word “Texas” by the Mayor. Dr. Moore was duly compensated with $50 for his exceptional work.

The center of the seal proudly bears the Lone Star, a symbol of the newborn nation of the West; the noble locomotive, heralding Houston’s spirit of progress; the humble plow, a symbol of the agricultural empire of Texas, from which Houston would draw her wealth—by the iron rails. These carefully chosen elements reflect the essence of Houston’s history and its journey of growth and prosperity.

The original seal, seemingly lost to time, was serendipitously discovered in December 1939 by the diligent assistant city secretary, Mrs. Margaret Westerman. This significant find, which led to the seal’s restoration, is a testament to the importance of preserving the city’s history.

You Could Get in HOUSTON in the 1860s

In 1869, you could go to the corner grocer or druggist and buy Brady’s Family Bitters manufactured in Louisville, Kentucky. Other Louisville bitters for sale in Houston that same year were Edward Wilder’s Stomach Bitters, and Sarsaparilla & Potash (motif of building) and Dr. John Bull’s Compound Cedron Bitters Picturedtotheright.

The Original Casino Saloon on Congress Street offered a “Fine Free Lunch” every day. There was probably a constant card game going on while they served the celebrated Tony Faust Beer that was “AlwaysonTap.”

Fernandez Alvarez & Co. announced that they had just received 25 boxes of Arabian Bitters! The same shipment also included “100 Demijohns, containing from 1 to 5 gallons.”

Congress Water “Fresh” – “Received to-day and to be sold low for cash.” at A. Siegismund on Travis Street.

H. J. Trube announced in the newspaper that they just received “100 doz. assorted Pickles, 25 doz. Baltimore Cove Oysters, 10 doz. Tomato Catsup, Walnuts, Worchester Sauce, Pepper, Lobsters, Lemon Syrup, Gordans Raspberry Sauce, Blackberry, Brandy Cherris and Mint Julip Cordial per the Brig West.” –March 8, 1860

Drs. Horning and McKee’s Dog and Cat Hospital. They had a cobalt blue bottle embossed “The Largest and Best Equipped

St. Nicholas Stomach Bitters

1858: From New York—200 cases of St. Nicholas Stomach Bitters, 50 cases Stouten’s Bitters, 50 cases of Hostetters and 49 cases of Turners Forest Wine Bitters were off-loaded at Allen’s Landing and delivered to local merchants!

Dog & Cat Hospital in the South, Houston, Texas.” Horning became one of Texas’ first specialists in the diseases and surgery of small animals, and throughout his career stressed the importance of small animals, and particularly dogs, as companions for people.

C. Ennis & Co. announced that they were the agents for A. M. Bininger & Co., 338 Broadway, New York [Established 1778]

ABOUT HOUSTON

On August 30, 1836, Augustus C. and John K. Allen founded Houston. They paid only $1.40 per acre for the 6,642 acres of land they bought near today’s Buffalo Bayou.

The city is named after Sam Houston, a military commander and politician who led Texas’ battle of independence from Mexico. He was the first president of the Texas republic.

In 1837, a small steamship named Laura was the first ship to sail into Houston. It came from Harrisburg and the 12-mile voyage took three days.

More than 2.3 million people live in Houston. It is the fourth most populous US city behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In coming years the city will move to third place.

Over 145 languages are spoken in Houston. Apart from prevalent Spanish and English, you will hear German, Vietnamese, Hindi, Chinese, Urdu, Arabic, Welsh and Tagalog, among others.

Houstonians are a cultured bunch. More than 61% of its residents over the age of 25 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Houston is the second fastest-growing US city, behind New York. This is attributed to thriving medicine, engineering, oil, gas and aeronautic industries.

Even though Houston has a tropical climate, the city is not all about Texan sunshine. Houston gets more rain than Seattle with an average of 49 inches per year. This is why many waterways and bayous meander through Houston. As some of you may know, we have sadly endured a 100-year, 500-year and 1,000-year flood in the last ten years!

Hurricane Harvey, in 2017, dumped over 40 inches of rain over most areas of Houston causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005’s Hurricane Katrina as the costliest hurricane on record.

Bayou City, Space City, Hustle Town and the City With No Limits are all nicknames for Houston.

Dog & Cat Hospital Bottle

“Bartlett’s Excelsior Bitters,” base embossed “Bartlett Brothers New York.”

Found in the attic of an old Texas stagecoach stop. Very odd shape with cool debossed label area. Last I heard unique, but who knows?

– Meyer collection

“Houston” was the first word heard on the moon. Neil Armstrong’s first words to Apollo 11 Mission Control from the lunar surface were “Houston, Tranquility Base here.”

Glenn McCarthy is the quintessential oilman and tycoon who became one of the richest Americans after the Texas Oil Boom. In 1949, he built the Shamrock Hotel Houston for $21 million. This was followed by the historic Warwick Hotel, now Hotel ZaZa, ground zero for Houston 24.

The first city park in Houston, now Sam Houston Park, was opened in 1899. The site still has majestic old structures from that era.

Houston is the largest American city without formal zoning laws. Building codes are regulated by local ordinances.

Houston has an underground tunnel network for pedestrians, 20 feet below the ground and joining 95 blocks of major buildings, retail stores and restaurants in Houston. It was originally built to connect three downtown movie theaters.

The Space Station telephone uses a Houston area code so the ISS is an honorary resident of Houston.

You can “burp” the Buffalo Bayou. Pushing a red button on the Preston Street Bridge causes the bayou to bubble.

Texas Medical Center

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a 2.1-square-mile medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, immediately south of the Museum District. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrated in a triangular area between Brays Bayou, Rice University, and Hermann Park, are members of the Texas Medical Center Corporation—a non-profit umbrella organization—which constitutes the largest medical complex in the world

METRORail Red Line, a north-south light rail route connects North Houston, Downtown Houston, The Theater District, University of Houston–Downtown, Midtown, Houston Museum District, Hermann Park, Houston Zoo, Texas Medical Center and Stadium Park.

Houston is home to the world’s first multipurpose domed stadium. Opened in 1965, The Astrodome served as a venue for the Houston Astros. It is currently not in use.

METRORail

RED LINE

Catch the light rail line at Hotel ZaZa and HMNS.

The first and largest traditional temple in the United States was built in Houston. The Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was built in 28 months with Italian marble and Turkish limestone.

The iconic five-sided J.P. Morgan Chase Tower in Houston is the world’s tallest pentagonal building with 75 floors over 1,002 feet.

The Houston Galleria Shopping Mall is the largest of its kind in Texas and the ninth largest in the US. Established in 1970, it houses 375 lavish stores over four floors.

Radam’s Microbe Killer shirts will be on sale at Houston 24. Did you know that William Radam (1845-1902) was a German gardener and botanist who moved to the United States around 1882, settled in Austin, Texas, and developed a “Microbe Killer” that, he claimed, would cure all diseases. That product enjoyed great commercial success until the passage of the 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act.

The Telegraph and Texas Register, later variously known as the weekly, tri-weekly, or Daily Telegraph, was the first newspaper in Texas to achieve a degree of permanence. The paper was first published on October 10, 1835, at San Felipe de Austin by Gail Borden, Jr., Thomas H. Borden, and Joseph Baker. It became the official voice of the Republic of Texas, which was organized a few months later. By December 14, the paper claimed a circulation of 500. The advance of Antonio López de Santa Anna’s force compelled the publishers to retire after issuing their paper on March 24, 1836. On April 5, Baker withdrew from the firm to join the army. The press was removed to Harrisburg, and the issue for April 14 was being readied when publication was again interrupted by the Mexicans, who captured the printers and threw the press into Buffalo Bayou.

Gail Borden Jr. (November 9, 1801–January 11, 1874) was a native New Yorker who settled in Texas in 1829 (then still Mexico), where he worked as a land surveyor, newspaper publisher, and inventor. He created a process in 1853 to make sweetened condensed milk. Earlier, Borden helped plan the cities of Houston and Galveston in 1836. Borden’s process for making sweetened condensed milk enabled the dairy product to be transported and stored without refrigeration, and for longer periods than fresh milk. After returning to the New York area to market another product, he set up factories for condensed milk in Connecticut, and later in New York and Illinois. Demand by the Union Army was high during the American Civil War. His New York Condensed Milk Company changed its name to Borden Dairy Co. after his death.

Designed for flood control, the Addicks and Barker Reservoir offers 26,000 acres of land for storage and water runoffs. The reservoir catastrophically flooded during Hurricane Harvey.

In 1891, Houston became the first city with electric streetcars.

Sprawled over 655 square miles, Houston could fit New York, Miami, Washington, Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis and San Francisco within. At one time there were scheduled flights between our north and south airports.

There are more than 6,000 animals of 900 species at the Houston Zoo. It is the second most visited zoo in North America.

Buffalo Bayou is the principal river of Houston, stretched over 53 miles with large tributaries like White Oak Bayou, Brays Bayou and Greens Bayou. Our Houston 24 Bayou City Sunset Auction pays homage to our bayous.

90 feet is the highest elevation in downtown Houston, located in the northwestern part of the city. The average elevation in downtown is 50 feet.

The Houston Audubon Society has archived and counted over 400 bird species in the city.

Memorial Park, a municipal park in Houston, is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Opened 100 years ago in 1924, the park covers approximately 1,466 acres mostly inside the 610 Loop, across from the neighborhood of Memorial. From 1917 to 1923, the land where the park currently exists was the site of Camp Logan, a U.S. Army training camp named after Illinois U.S. Senator and Civil War General John A. Logan. During World War I, the training camp was located on the far west boundaries of Houston. Cullen Park, George Bush Park, Lake Houston Wilderness Park and Bear Creek Pioneers Park in Houston are among the 50 largest US parks.

Hermann Park is a 445-acre urban park in Houston, Texas, situated at the southern end of the Museum District. The park is located immediately north of the Texas Medical Center and Brays Bayou, east of Rice University, and slightly west of the Third Ward. Hermann Park is home to numerous cultural institutions including the Houston Zoo, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Hermann Park Golf Course, which became one of the first desegregated public golf courses in the United States in 1954. The park also features the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool, numerous gardens, picnic areas, and McGovern Lake, an 8-acre recreational lake.

The Uptown District (more commonly called The Galleria Area) is a business district in Houston, located 6.2 miles west of Downtown. Uptown measures about 5 million square feet of retail space, and is the center for Houston’s high-fashion retail. Various trendy shopping centers, eateries, and other sorts of entertainment venues exist in the district. Uptown is home to many upscale boutiques, as well as

Uptown District – Galleria

Beer Can House

many Houston-based and local high-fashion designers and stores. Uptown is also host to Houston’s largest hotels, which host about 20 million visitors a year. The district covers 1,010 acres and has 23.6 million square feet of office space making it the 17th-largest business district in the United States, comparable in size to the downtowns of Denver and Pittsburgh. The district is home to approximately 2,000 companies and represents more than 11 percent of Houston’s total office space. A major feature of Uptown Houston is The Galleria, the largest shopping mall in the state of Texas and the seventh largest in America. The Galleria hosts many of the upscale shops of the area as well as citywide chain stores that appear in many Houston-area malls. It also includes several well-regarded restaurants and a large indoor ice-skating rink.

“Houston BCycle” is a non-profit bike share and environmental conservation program, offering bicycles for rent at over 109 bike stations with almost 800 bikes in circulation.

In 2022, the Houston Museum of Natural Science received 1,520,000 visitors, making it seventh on the list of most-visited museums in the United States, and was the third most-visited U.S. science museum. Much of the museum’s popularity is attributed to its large number of special or guest exhibits. The museum has five floors of permanent exhibits spanning astronomy, space science, Native American culture, paleontology, energy, chemistry, geology, seashells and Texas wildlife, alongside a slew of rotating special exhibitions. HMNS also houses three other venues: the Burke Baker Planetarium, Wortham Giant Screen Theatre and Cockrell Butterfly Center.

Houston is home to more than 10,000 restaurants, offering an array of cuisines from 70 global countries and American regions.

Tamales, breakfast tacos, pho and Viet-Cajun crawfish are the most eaten restaurant food items in Houston.

Houstonians eat out more often per week - 6.9 times - than any other American city.

Situated on Malone Street, Beer Can House is literally a house covered with over 50,000 beer cans. Built in 1968 by a railroad worker, the structure now signifies folk culture. Houston 24 Tour option.

Houston has the largest number of food trucks in the US, inspiring many other cities to adopt “grab-on-the-go” culture.

It is forbidden to sell the infamously pungent Limburger cheese on Sundays due to an old law, so remember to stock up early.

Houston has over 500 public institutions teaching performing and visual arts, technology, science and history.

The Houston Museum District is a treasure chest of 19 museums attracting eight million visitors per year.

The National Museum of Funeral History, Bayou Bend and Art Car Museum are Houston’s top three “eclectic” museums.

in Houston, Rice University is ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S.News &World Report. Rice has a six-to-one undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio, and a residential college system.

Bayou Bend is the Museum of Fine Arts Houston house museum for American decorative arts and paintings. An organized tour is scheduled for Houston 24 guests. Displayed in the former home of Houston civic leader and philanthropist Ima Hogg (1882-1975), the collection is one of the finest showcases of American furnishings, silver, ceramics, and paintings in the world. The house is situated on 14 acres of organically maintained gardens in Houston’s historic River Oaks neighborhood. Houston 24 Tour option.

Regarding education, there are 100 trade and business schools and 60 degree-offering colleges in Houston, including 14 major US institutes for higher learning.

Houston’s Theater District houses nine internationally recognized performing arts organizations within a 17 block region, making it the highest concentration in the country.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the world’s biggest rodeo with month-long events and 2.5 million attendees every year. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events with live performances, carnivals, games and food courts. The Rodeo is considered to be the city’s “signature event,” much like New Orleans’s Mardi Gras, Dallas’s Texas State Fair, San Diego’s Comic-Con and New York City’s New Year’s Eve at Times Square.

The Houston Marathon boasts of over 13,000 participants each year.

Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert was a live performance by musician Jean Michel Jarre amidst the skyscrapers of downtown Houston on the evening of April 5, 1986, coinciding with the release of the Rendez-Vous album. The concert celebrated the 150th anniversary of Houston, Texas and NASA’s 25th anniversary. For a period of time, it held a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest outdoor “rock concert” in history, with an estimated 1.5 million in attendance.

There are 198 golf courses in Houston within a 50-mile downtown radius.

Owing to the immensely diverse terrain, Houston has been the filming location for hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters. Urban Cowboy, Robocop 2, Space Cowboys, Armageddon, Apollo 13, Tree of Life, Boyhood and Evening Star were filmed across Houston.

Houston Art Car Parade: 2023 winner Spacerider.

Houston would rank as the world’s 26th richest economy, if the city were its own country. That is more than Iran and Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product.

Academy Sports & Outdoors, Lowe’s, CVS Health, H-E-B, Fiesta Mart, Kroger, Home Depot, Lewis Food Town, Sysco, Macy’s, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target and Walgreen’s are the top retail employers in Houston.

Houston Rodeo

The average daily wage in the Houston metro region is $1,315.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport gates over 40 million passengers annually. It is the world’s 28th busiest airport.

The most expensive home in Houston is spread over two acres and has 12,000 square feet of living space. It is located on Longfellow Lane in Rice District and is listed for sale at $16,500,000.

Houston is the operations base for the international oil and gas exploration, production industry, and some of the nation’s largest global engineering and construction firms.

More than one in every four Houstonians was born outside the US. Houston’s timezone falls within the central North American timezone.

Houston has the fifth tallest skyline, behind New York, Chicago, Toronto and Miami in North America.

Jeff McKissack, a mail carrier in Houston, Texas, transformed a small suburban lot near his wood-frame house into The Orange Show in honor of his favorite fruit. The Orange Show has evolved into the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art and since 1980 is a non-profit organization. As a form of folk art, The Orange Show captures a segment of late 20th Century American culture. Programming at the Orange Show is for both children and adults and includes hands-on workshops, music, storytelling and performance, the eye-opener tour program and Houston’s most popular public art event, the Houston Art Car Parade

Minute Maid Park is the downtown retractable-roof stadium ballpark in Houston for the Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros. It has a seating capacity of 41,168, which includes 5,197 club seats and 63 luxury suites. The stadium has a natural grass playing field. It was built as a replacement for the Astrodome, the first domed sports stadium ever built, which opened in 1965. The ceremonial entrance is the historic Union Station. Houston 24 Tour option

In 1909, during the time when West End Park was Houston’s premier residential area, the Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company commissioned the design of a new Union Station for the city from New York City-based architects Warren and Wetmore. The location called for the demolition of several structures of Houston prominence. Horace Baldwin Rice’s residence and Adath Yeshurun Congregation’s synagogue among other structures were removed. With an original estimated cost of $1 million, Union Station was constructed by the American Construction Company for an eventual total of five times that amount. Exterior walls were constructed of granite, limestone, and terracotta, while the interior used an extensive amount of marble. It was completed and opened on March 1, 1911. At the time, Houston, with 17 railways, was considered the main railroad hub of the Southern United States. This is also evident by the Seal of Houston, which prominently features a locomotive. Two more floors were added the following year. The station served as the main inter-city passenger terminal for Houston for over seven decades thereafter. Passenger rail declined greatly after World War II, and the last regularly scheduled train, the Lone Star, moved its service to Houston’s current Amtrak station on July 31, 1974. With this move, the building became only office space for the HB&T as well as the Missouri Pacific Railroad. On November 10, 1977, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service. Houston 24 Tour option.

Station

Minute Maid Park

HERMANN PARK

Houston Museum of Natural Science, Hotel ZaZa, Houston Zoo, Herman Park Golf Course, Miller Outdoor Theatre, McGovern Lake, Japanese Garden, Houston Garden Center, Reflection Pool & Obelisk, Exercise and Greenway Trails, Duck Pond, Bayou Parkland, Hermann Park Railroad, Playground for all Children

NEWLY RELEASED FOHBC MUSEUM EXHIBITION

AMERICAN ANTIQUE GLASS MASTERPIECES

A major museum exhibition showcasing the Sandor P. Fuss Collection

The depth and breadth of the Fuss Collection place it among the greatest groupings of Early American glass ever assembled. Many of the objects are unique and of those with multiple examples known, Sandor has chosen the finest available. The Fuss Collection is a monumental achievement made possible by his great eye, unwavering focus, and determination. It is a joy to share this fabulous glass with the World! [Jeff Noordsy]

The American Antique Glass Masterpieces exhibition will occur in the Brown Gallery at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The ribbon-cutting opening ceremony will occur on Thursday afternoon, 01 August 2024 at 1:00 pm and will signify the start of the FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition.

The museum-quality, 302 page, full-color, hard-bound book with dust jacket, will be sold at Houston 24 and afterward by the FOHBC for $95 each. (Discount for FOHBC members) Book signing available at opening.

BOOKS ON SALE AT THE HOUSTON 24 EXPOSITION

WILBER & GUGLIOTTI BARBER BOTTLE COLLECTIONS

Being avid barber bottle collectors, we were excited when Joel Bartsch, president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, asked us to help produce this book. We knew we would get to handle some of the greatest barber bottles and related glass items in existence. The group of items Joel has assembled includes the Dave Wilber collection, the Anthony Gugliotti collection and still others Joel purchased separately. The Wilber collection is massive, more than 1,000 pieces, and we knew it contained some great pieces that were sold at auction 15 to 30 years ago. The Gugliotti collection contained hundreds of items, and included a lot of rare shaving paper vases. We were familiar with numerous pieces in the Gugliotti collection because they are pictured in earlier books about barber bottles. [Ed & Kathy Gray]

The David P. Wilber and Anthony Gugliotti Barber Bottle exhibition will occur in the Hamill Gallery at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The ribbon-cutting opening ceremony will occur on Thursday afternoon, 01 August 2024 at 1:00 pm and will signify the start of the FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition.

The museum-quality, 308 page, full-color, hard-bound book with dust jacket, will be sold at Houston 24 and afterward by the FOHBC for $95 each. (Discount for FOHBC members) Book signing available at opening.

“GLASS in the GRASS”

Houston 24 Pre-Event Wednesday, 31 July 2024

[7:00 am to 1:00 pm] Brookshire, Texas (1 hour west of Houston 24 Venues)

Sell antique bottles and glass and related antiques from the back of your vehicle or from under a self-provided tent at “Glass in the Grass.” Open to all antique bottle and glass dealers even if you are not setting up at Hotel ZaZa. $25 gate fee for dealer vehicles. Relax, mingle and wander under the many large pecan trees surrounding the hay field. First come-first choice in dealer location. The temperature on the lower Brazos River plains is typically pleasant during summer morning hours of the event. Buyers and visitors enter free.

Breakfast Taco Truck Catering.

“Lost Bottle Trail“ through woods.

Cowgirls on Patrol

RIDDLE ONE:

The man who makes it, sells it. The man who buys it, doesn’t use it. The man who uses it, doesn’t see it.

(Two answers, not drugs)

RIDDLE TWO: It is sharp, it is smooth, it is marked by grooves. It is not painted, it is not stained, yet the color is not always the same. It usually holds things without form. It usually is held by things that are warm. It is copied by many, but it stands alone, by the way you make it ring unlike the phone. I will give you one hint without telling the rhyme. In the sun you may squint if you have aligned.

(One answer, not drugs)

MICHAEL MACKINTOSH

Houston 2024

Sandor P. Fuss

Katsushika Hokusai

South Wind, Clear Sky

Collector of Fine Japanese Prints

Katsushika Hokusai

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Jules Hauel

John O’Neill

Make plans to participate or attend the Texas Hold ‘Em! An exciting antique bottle and glass judged competition at Houston 24!

This year at Houston 24, we will entertain three categories in our Texas Hold ‘Em competition including (1) best Texas Embossed or Applied Color Label Soda Bottle, (2) best Texas Medicine (Includes bitters, cures and remedies, but does not include drug store) and (3) best Glass Insulator.

(1) Best Texas Soda Bottle. Embossed or Applied Color Label.

(2) Best Texas Medicine (Includes bitters, cures and remedies, but does not include drug store)

(3) Best Glass Insulator. Thursday 01 August 2024 [7:00 to 9:00 pm] Hotel

Let’s see if you have a contender that can pass muster with our paneled judges! First, second and third place awards will be given. As with all FOHBC National events, security will be provided. For additional information please contact Brad Dalton (brad.daltongang@yahoo.com) or Ferdinand Meyer V (fmeyer@fmgdesign.com)

See FOHBC.org Info Packet Competition Application for more information. Entrant registration will be at 6:00 pm in the adjacent Room with a View. Walk-in contestants encouraged and allowed!

The FREE event will be catered with Hors d’oeuvres. Cash bar. Parking at Hotel ZaZa is $12 for the event.

AMERICAN ANTIQUE GLASS MASTERPIECES

On sale at front H24 FOHBC tables in Piano Man Lounge and FOHBC.org after the Expo.

G EMSTONES & G LASS

Houston 24 Commemorative Jug Raffles

•Friday afternoon through Sunday 02 to 04 August 2024 Hotel ZaZa Museum District | Piano Man Lounge

Raffle tickets for two Jim Healy Houston 24 Commemorative Jugs will be on sale at Houston 24 Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. Jim Healy, from Tribes Hill, New York, is a talented potter and restorer of old jugs. Jim has designed and made our FOHBC national convention commemorative jugs for many years. Details at the FOHBC desks located at the Piano Man Lounge. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. The third Jim Healy Houston 24 jug will be included in the Bayou City Sunset Auction on Saturday evening, 03 August 2024.

Jim Healy comes through again for Houston 24 !

Drake’s Plantation Bitters

Houston

24 Expo Commemorative Bottle

The Drake’s commemorative bottles will be on sale first at the Houston 24 Expo and will most likely sell out. First come, first serve. Limit, one Drake’s per FOHBC membership. Michael Craig donated his time and money to produce a mold and hand blow 250 pontiled, cobalt blue, signed bottles with master glassblower, Treg Silkwood. A laborious project. The FOHBC will ensure that the mold is secure. Two one-off (sapphire and teal) pontiled examples were blown (one for raffle and the other for the Sunset Auction). No advance reservations or sales.

AVAILABLE AT THE Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale at Hotel ZaZa. Friday, 02 August 1:00 to 5:00 pm

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

A N N U A L

FOHBC

General Membership Breakfast Meeting

Friday morning, 02 August 2024 Hotel ZaZa Museum District, Grapevine room. 7:30 to 8:30 am. You can arrive at 7:00 am for the Buffet.

The FOHBC General Membership Breakfast Meeting will occur on Friday 02 August 2024, from 7:00 to 8:30 am with the membership meeting starting at 7:30 am in the Hotel ZaZa Grapevine room on the 11th floor. Please join us for a buffet breakfast and our annual membership meeting. This event is specifically for current and paid-up FOHBC members only and will be at no cost to FOHBC member and associate member attendees. Donations accepted! We encourage you to come and be part of the FOHBC by participating in this event, our once-a-year General Membership Meeting. Get the latest news on the Federation, the Virtual Museum and our hobby, and participate in electing the 2024-2026 board of directors, and bylaws revisions. You will be able to join the FOHBC, or renew membership prior to the breakfast. Event hosted by FOHBC president Michael Seeliger.

Friday 02 August 2024

Houston 24 Cocktail Mix & Mingle•[6:00 to 7:30 pm] Houston Museum of Natural Science | Morian Hall of Paleontology

Relax with your antique bottle and glass collecting friends at the Houston 24 Cocktail Reception from 6:00 to 7:30 pm before the FOHBC Dinosaurs Banquet on 02 August 2024 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science – Morian Hall of Paleontology. What better way to start an evening than to mix and mingle with dinosaurs? Two stories tall and the length of a football field, this dramatic hall will invite FOHBC guests to embark on a “Prehistoric Safari” through exhibits with 21st century interactivity. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available for your favorite beverage. Informal banquet seating will be from 7:00 to 7:30 pm.

FOHBC Dinosaurs Banquet•[7:30 to 10:00 pm] Houston Museum of Natural Science | Morian Hall of Paleontology

Following the Cocktail Reception, paid Banquet attendees will be seated for the FOHBC Dinosaurs Banquet within the Houston Museum of Natural Science Morian Hall of Paleontology. The program will start at 7:30 pm and conclude around 10:00 pm. You do not have to be a FOHBC member to attend, though membership is encouraged! The cost for the FOHBC Banquet is $55 per person. After seating, brief introductions and announcements will be made followed promptly by dinner. When coffee and dessert is served, our Keynote Speaker, Joel A. Bartsch, CEO HMNS, will speak about topics relevant to our great hobby and his museum. Next we will honor any new inductees into the FOHBC Hall of Fame and Honor Roll and conduct the award presentations for our FOHBC Club and Member Contests. The FOHBC will conclude the evening’s festivities with a few fun contests and a brief presentation remembering the past years. Don’t miss this event!

Keynote Speaker•Joel A. Bartsch, CEO, Houston Museum of Natural Science | Morian Hall of Paleontology

An alumnus of Concordia Universit y and Rice University with a BA and an MA, respectively, Joel A. Bartsch has been the president and CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) since 2004. Immediately prior to that, the Texas native served HMNS as its curator of the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, its director of earth sciences, and a project manager. In his first year as the president and CEO of HMNS, Joel restructured the organization and returned it to profitability. He subsequently spearheaded a period of significant growth that culminated in the construction of the Dan L. Duncan wing and an energy science education center. Joel collects many things as you might imagine, and one of them is early American antique bottles and glass.

Joel A. Bartsch

Sunset AuctionBayou City

SATURDAY EVENING 03 AUGUST 2024 HOTEL ZAZA

Brought to you by Crow ded House Auctions and the FOHBC

Featuring rare antique bottles, glass, insulators, ephemera and advertising. Online auction starts Friday, 25 July 2024. Live auction starts at 7:00 pm on Saturday, 03 August 2024. Event at Hotel ZaZa, Grapevine room. Cash bar and hors d’oeuvres in the adjacent Room with a View cocktail party at 6:00 pm.

LOW SLIDING CONSIGNMENT FEE!

All auction proceeds go to the FOHBC. There is a 15% buyers premium.

Contact: Martin Van Zant, Crowded House Auctions, mdvanzant@yahoo.com or Ferdinand Meyer V, FOHBC, Houston 24 fmeyer@fmgdesign.com

ACL, Advertising, Ephemera, Insulators, Jars Medicines, Signs, Sodas, Texas and just plain fun objects.

FThe Three Cobalt Blue Bitters and the Drake’s

By Michael Seeliger

ew bottles are as legendary as the “Three Cobalt Blue Bitters.” This includes what we affectionately call the Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters (figural cabin), Sazerac Aromatic Bitters (lady’s leg) and Fish Bitters (figural fish). They were together in private collections at one time, but they have been apart for quite some time. The FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition brings them “Together Again” briefly as the opening act of the American Antique Glass Masterpieces exhibition at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

I remember seeing the blue Fish Bitters for the first time on a window shelf in Ferd and Elizabeth Meyer’s home back in 2014. I couldn’t help but stand there in awe, mesmerized and taken in by its beauty. The pure dark cobalt glass of the figural fish with such pronounced, shiny scales compels one to commit this beauty to memory. Honestly, I found it hard to look away.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the blue Sazerac Aromatic Bitters lady’s leg several times over the years. Each time, I can’t help but fixate on the sheer elegance of the elongated, curved neck, the depth of cobalt blue, and the smoothness of its body. Holding it is practically an out-of-body experience for me!

The blue Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters? I have not seen this in person, so Houston 24 will grant this elusive wish. I anticipate the dark cobalt glass showing off the classic figural cabin bottle will be even better than the striking image I have in my mind.

Each of these figural bottles represents the Holy Grail for their caretakers, the culmination of their search for the well-known, classic bottle in a very rare color. Owning all three at the same time has been an experience enjoyed by only a few collectors. Let me take you through the journeys of these coveted bottles.

Probably the most famous of the three is the Blue Fish Bitters. The story, as we know it, begins with Keith Swearingen, a bottle collector from Waupaca, Wisconsin. According to Keith, the bottle came from an old farmhouse in Ogdensburg, Wisconsin, where it was supposedly used to feed medicine to calves. The long neck made it ideal for this purpose so Keith thought the “story” was entirely possible. He also suspected it might be a reproduction, but he decided to take a chance on it. He purchased the Blue Fish Bitters for less than $50.

Keith contacted Bill Mitchell from Stevens Point, Wisconsin and showed him the bottle. Bill took a picture of it alongside a ruler to show its height and said he would contact some collectors who might know something about the bottle. Bill wasn’t convinced it was authentic, either. The cod liver oil fish from the 1920s are well-known and a familiar sight at bottle shows, kitchens and medicine cabinets. However, Wheaton Glassworks’ reproduction bottles were popping up nationwide, so their suspicions were justified. At the Chicago Bottle Show, Bill sought out the opinions of fellow collectors. One, Jim Cope, believed it could be original and decided to follow Bill home from the show to take a look.

At the time, Bill did not own the bottle, but he knew where it was and decided to invest some money in it to find out the truth. He approached Keith to see if he wanted to sell it. Neither Keith nor Bill knew what price to put on it, but Keith said his wife wanted a new sofa, which was priced at $350, so that became the agreed-upon price. In 1971, with a wife and growing family, $350 was a big investment for Bill. But, the bottle was beautiful and Bill was almost sure it was original. He gathered up the money, paid Keith, and proceeded to ask well-known collectors Charlie Gardner and Ed Johansen what they thought. Charlie wasn’t convinced it was original but said if it was, “It may bring over $1,000.” Surprisingly, he never made Bill an offer for the bottle even though in the early 1970s he owned both the blue Old Homestead and the blue Sazerac Aromatic Bitters.

Ed Johansen offered Bill $1,600 in $100 bills. That $1,600 made lots of house payments in 1971, and Bill maintains that he has no regrets about selling the bottle he had owned for just one week. But he is glad to be part of the story and has followed its whereabouts ever since. Ed held on to the bottle for several years.

The story of the blue Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters and the blue Sazerac Aromatic Bitters begins with Charles Gardner. Although the bottles may have equally interesting stories, their early whereabouts remain unknown or lost. Both bottles were in Charlie’s auction in 1975. The Old Homestead Bitters went to Bill Pollard of Virginia for $16,500, and the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters brought $7,000 from Harper Leaper of Texas. There exists a picture of Harper and his “dancing lady’s legs” from a 1976 Old Bottle Magazine photo showing displays at different shows that year. Unfortunately, the image is in black and white, so we don’t really know if the cobalt Sazerac is included, but the time frame fits, so it is probably represented.

So, in 1975, the “Three Cobalt Blue Bitters” were in three different hands. Soon after purchasing it, Harper sold the Sazerac to Tony Shank, who had already acquired the cobalt Fish from Ed Johansen. Tony now owned both the blue Sazerac and Fish Bitters. Meanwhile, Bill Pollard decided to collect blue flasks, and a large collection was coming up for sale, so he sold the Old Homestead to Tony for a rumored $20,000. The three blue figural bottles were together for the first time. Tony, a logger from the South, decided his primary interest was Southern pottery. So, in 1983, he sold two of the bottles, the Sazerac and Old Homestead, to Don Keating. That was followed a few years later, in 1988, with the sale of the blue Fish Bitters to Frank Kurczewski. Soon, Frank bought a house, partially paid for by selling the Fish to Don Keating for $22,000.

By late 1988 or early 1989, Don Keating was the second person to own all three bottles, which he held on to through the 1990s. In early 2000, Don changed his collection focus and put all three cobalt bottles up for sale. He sold the Old Homestead and Fish Bitters to Eric Schmetterling and Bob Currans. He finally sold the Sazerac—through Larry Marshall, Jim Mitchell, and others—to Bill Taylor for an amount rumored to be $55,000.

Then, in 2011, Eric and Bob sold the Fish Bitters to Ferdinand and Elizabeth Meyer in a pre-arranged meet at the FOHBC 2009 National Antique Bottle Show in Pomona, California for what was rumored to be in the $75,000 range. In 2018, Sandor Fuss acquired the Fish Bitters from Ferdinand and the Old Homestead Bitters from Eric. Rumors swirl that the sales for these two bottles topped $200,000 and $300,000! But the blue Sazerac Aromatic Bitters remained in Bill Taylor’s collection.

So that brings us to 2024 and Houston 24, the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors’ National Expo, which will showcase some of the finest early American glass known to exist…including the three cobalt blue bitters using the marketing phrase “Together Again.” This will happen through the generosity of Joel Bartsch, Sandor Fuss and Bill Taylor. Included in the American Antique Glass Masterpieces exhibition, the three blue bitters will take center stage and bring back many memories for those who have owned, held, or just heard about these “Holy Grails.”

So many questions surround the origin of these bottles. Why were these vibrant blue colors made— for the glasshouse owner’s spouse for window display? So the gaffer could keep it as a souvenir? Were they ever filled, labeled and sold? Or were they just oddities made to fill a quota for a specific job using whatever glass was molten at the time? Note that these three bottles were each made in different glass houses.

Don Keating and I believe they were never filled but taken home by glass house employees. Others dispute that conclusion and feel they were oddities made to fill an order. With yellow or greenish tints or dark amber or dark green, gaffers used whatever glass was available to complete an order. Most bottles were made in various shades of amber, green, aquamarine and clear.

Bottles like Drake’s Plantation Bitters, which were made for a long period of time, no doubt included a wide range of colors, which is what makes collecting color runs so interesting. Warner’s bottles were made for an extended period, but the amber color was part of the Warner trademark. Only when the trademark was no longer significant did a few bottles appear in odd colors. Cobalt is a rare color for glass and would cost more to manufacture. The color was primarily used for poisons and pharmacy bottles, so when cobalt is found in a different types of bottle from the 1800s to early 1900s, it is special and highly sought after by collectors.

To commemorate reuniting the three cobalt blue bitters at Houston 24, the Federation commissioned a limited edition of a blown cobalt blue reproduction of the Drake’s Plantation Bitters figural cabin bottle. Using one of my Drake’s six-log molds as an example, Michael Craig in California digitally created a mold out of graphite, requiring lots of trial and error, modifications—and time, especially for the applied top. Making the mold was not as easy as initially thought. It was also much more expensive than he anticipated, but he had volunteered to do this, so he soldiered on. After five months of tooling and retooling, the mold was ready.

Mike has been blowing glass as a hobby for several years under the tutelage of master glass artist Treg Silkwood, and they were both intrigued by the prospect of blowing a bottle like the ones produced by 19th-century glassblowers. Mike had already introduced Treg to early blown figural bottles such as the Indian Queen, Ear of Corn, and Fish Bitters, and they both appreciated what early glassblowers could accomplish.

Blowing the glass into the mold created additional problems. The embossed letters were not coming out bold enough, the weight and quantity of the glass was too much to replicate the original, and the aluminum applied lip tool melted. The second applied lip tool, made of wood, burned up. Hand tooling the lip would be time-consuming and produce inconsistent results, so Mike created a graphite lip-forming tool.

Let the glassblowing begin. After 15 tries, Mike and Treg finally devised a system to make the bottles pretty close to perfect. They had determined the correct amount of glass, the exact amount of heat, and the ideal timing of gathering the glass and getting it into the mold so that it would flow all the way into the embossing on the roof. Glass gathered for the applied lip was just the right amount to make a perfect lip reproduction. The final parts of the process were finishing the pontil and impressing the signature mark on the base. Using brilliant cobalt blue glass was decided at the beginning of the project.

For weeks, they worked to develop a smooth flow to the process, allowing the bottles to be made relatively quickly. They set a goal of ten minutes per bottle. With each batch of 20-25 bottles, Mike would report their progress to me, more excited each time. By the beginning of June, they had produced 250 cobalt blue Drake’s commemorative bottles to be sold exclusively at Houston 24.

As the final pieces of the project, they blew one bottle in sapphire blue for a Houston 24 raffle

and another in teal for the online and in-person Bayou City Sunset Auction on Saturday evening, August 3, at Hotel ZaZa.

To be the commemorative bottle for Houston 24 featuring the American Antique Glass Masterpieces exhibition, each one of these bottles had to be a masterpiece itself. Both Mike and Treg are consummate perfectionists. When you see these bottles in person, I’m confident you’ll agree they achieved this and more.

To view some of Treg’s other masterpieces in glass artistry, visit Silkwoodglass.com.

To see a professionally produced video of the entire process and meet Mike Craig and Treg Silkwood, make sure to attend Michael Seeliger’s seminar at Houston 24. After Houston 24, visit FOHBC.org to view the video program.

To see many more historical pictures of the three cobalt blue bitters, please attend the Michael Seeliger H24 seminar and visit FOHBC.org for a post-event write-up.

Wea ponized Bottles: Fighting Witches & Demons in

Colonial America

Seminar #1

By Andy Rapoza

EvilFriday, 02 August 2024, 9:00 am

Hotel ZaZa|Room with a View

Andrew Rapoza, historian and author of Promising Cures, a four-volume, three-century history of health in a New England community, will present the little-known evidence of colonists using counter-magic including “witch bottles” to fight witchcraft in the decades before and after the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692.

—the colonists felt surrounded by it. As they settled in the wilds of the New England and Mid-Atlantic colonies, their faith was constantly tested, and their fears often seemed overwhelming—with good reason. They were assaulted by life-threatening challenges: droughts, crop failures, sudden death of farm animals, bread that wouldn’t rise, family members who fell sick from strange, unrecognized sickness, and much more. They were convinced the Devil was using witches to destroy them. Many tried to protect their families by carving magical symbols into their houses and hiding magical objects under floors and behind walls—the most powerful of these were bottles they packed with particular objects designed to kill witches. Ministers warned that they were falling under Satan’s power by doing these things. But they were desperate...

Author of “Promising Cures” series in AB&GC

Th e Holy Grail: The three cobalt blue figural bitters and the commemorative Drake’s Plantation Bitters.

By Michael Seeliger with commentary from Michael Craig & Treg Silkwood

This seminar will present the story behind the figural cobalt blue Fish Bitters, Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters and the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters. The presentation will include images and anecdotes from the collectors who held each bottle at one time or another and the few collectors who had all three specimens at one time. The seminar will also include discussion and speculation as to why they were made. We will then transition into a discussion of the glassblowing of a limited number of hand-blown, pontiled Houston 24 commemorative cobalt blue Drake’s Plantation Bitters made explicitly for the Exposition. We will review the process in detail, including videos of the creation of the molds and the glassblowing—highlighting the great difficulty in making the mold, the applied lip, and then the blowing of the glass, even using today’s equipment. Attendees will gain insight into the artistry required of glassblowers in the 19th century.

Friday, 02 August 2024, 10:15 am

FOHBC president, Michael Seeliger

Gemstones & Glass : Looki

ng at H24 Exhibition examples paired with HMNS Cullen Hall Gems and Minerals

Seminar #3

Ferdinand Meyer V and Eric McGuire

The visually stimulating and informative seminar will present two things that typically do not mix—rocks and bottles...except at Houston 24!

Friday, 02 August 2024, 11:30 am Hotel ZaZa | Room with a View

Seminar #4

By Brandon DeWolfe

Saturday, 03 August 2024

10:00 am

Hotel ZaZa|Grapevine

DA Decade of Galveston Digging

The History, the Methods, and the Finds

igging for bottles in a low coastal city such as Galveston is an “experience” that often involves mosquitos, fire ants, water, sand, and disappointment. The seminar will delve into Brandon’s 12 years of digging bottles in Galveston, the fascinating history of Galveston, methods, and tools for finding locations to dig, some epic digs, and some odd, mundane, unusual, and incredible things that have been found while digging.

In 1985, Brandon DeWolfe’s parents bought 60 acres of New Hampshire land, including a small “farm dump.” The family dug through the bottles before cleaning up the dump and Brandon’s love for digging bottles began. He dug throughout northern New Hampshire during his childhood but moved to Florida in 2003 and then to Texas in 2007. In 2012, a fellow digger (Everett Morris) invited him along on a dig in Galveston, and the rest, as they say, is history. Brandon and his children Grayson, Crosby, and Lyla have been actively digging in Galveston since that day and have dug hundreds of privies and trash pits throughout the historic island city. Brandon collects New Hampshire bottles and pottery as well as Houston and Galveston bottles and pottery.

TOM ASKJEM DIGGING

Seminar #5

Tom Askjem

The seminar presentation will focus on Tom’s excavations across the  United States and the artifacts recovered. His video documentation of these excavations has become the biggest YouTube channel in its category.

Hotel ZaZa

Saturday, 03 August 2024

2:00 pm Grapevine

My name is Tom Askjem. Since a young age, I’ve been interested in history and buried artifacts. I’ve traveled coast to coast in the US, excavating pioneer-era wells, cisterns, and outhouse pits in search of the items discarded in them long ago. I’ve excavated over 1,700 of these types of features.

As seen on YouTube

Houston 24 Displays and Exhibitors

Display Coordinator: Andy Rapoza

The FOHBC encourages collectors to share their knowledge, enthusiasm and interests with other collectors by displaying their collections or related material. Please visit the Displays and vote in two categories: “Best in Show” and “Most Educational.” Announcement of the winners and presentation of ribbons will occur on Sunday, 04 August at 2:00 pm prior to the Houston 24 Expo close. The voting box will be at the front FOHBC tables in the Hotel ZaZa Piano Man Lounge.

1. Kids Digging Texas•Grayson, Crosby & Lyla DeWolfe

2. FOHBC History•Brian Bingham

3. Texas Medicine Patents•Eric McGuire

4. Soda Water Bottles & Stoneware of William H. Hutchinson, Chicago, Illinois•Brad Dalton

5. Rare Colored Texas Soda Water and Related Bottles of San Antonio & Surrounding Areas•Brad Dalton

6. Texas Picture Hutches•Jay Kasper

7. Cabinville, Texas•Ferdinand Meyer V

8. Wannalancet Indian Bitters•Tom Paskiewicz

9. Promising Cures – Andy Rapoza

10. American Pontiled Snuffs•Brian Commerton

11. Wilson Pottery, 1857-1904: from Slavery to Makers & Distributors of Stoneware in Frontier Texas•Jon St Clair

12. A Sampling from the Dr. Richard Cannon Collection•Brandon & Tessa DeWolfe

13. Early Houston, Texas Soda Bottles• Brandon DeWolfe 14. Reverse Glass Jars, Bottles & Signs•Henry Tankersley

15. Wm. Radam’s Jugs and Bottles• Steven Weber

Cider Bottles•Tim Boyd 17. Barber Bottles•George Persick

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

The official publication of the FOHBC and the leading publication for those interested in all aspects of antique bottle and glass collecting.

Informative articles related to the collecting, digging, finding and history of all types of antique bottles, glass, flasks, jars, stoneware, advertising, and related collectibles.

Annual subscription comes with FOHBC membership and includes six issues (bi-monthly) of the all-color, 72-page plus covers publication.

Digital memberships available.

Past issues and articles archived and indexed at FOHBC.org Members Portal.

WANTED ARTICLES

FOR Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Our editor, staff and designers eagerly await helping you in any possible way. We do the layout and design!

Please consider telling us about your collection or someone else’s. Tell us about your latest digging or picking adventure. Write a fictional bottle story. Tell us about an area or component of antique bottle and glass collecting that you find interesting. Every bottle has a story. Tell us about your favorite medicine man, merchant, or proprietor who is related to our bottles or about a glasshouse. Write an auction or show report. Tell us about a club outing, or maybe a visit to a glass museum. Maybe it is something you have learned in the hobby or have concerns with. Really, the sky is the limit. Don’t be shy. Young or old, new to the hobby or a veteran, please unmask that author that is hiding inside!

Thank You!

FOHBC VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF HIST ORICAL BOT TLES AND GL ASS

FOHBC virtual museum .org

Thinking back to Flip Book Animation, it might remind some of us of early attempts to make an object or thing come to life.

According to Wikipedia, a flip book or flick book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually, from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.

Can you imagine finding a great bottle back then and really wanting to share it with your far away bottle friends? I guess you could illustrate the bottle from every angle or take a lot of sequential pictures. Then you just make your flip book. Easy, right? Well, we found a better way with 36 spectacular rotating images in high definition captured by our outstanding photographers. All this and more at the FOHBC Virtual Museum.

OPEN 24/7/365

$575 August 2017 Heckler Auction #154

84: “General Washington” And Bust – “E Pluribus Unum / T.W.D.” And Eagle Portrait Flask, Kensington Glass Works, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1820-1830. “Firecracker” Blue aquamarine with a strong olive tone, sheared mouth – pontil scar, pint; GI-14 (light exterior high point wear). Bill and Betty Wilson collection.

$8,960 May 2012 American Glass Gallery #8

26: “General Washington” And Bust – “E Pluribus Unum T.W.D.” And Eagle Portrait Flask, Kensington Glass Works, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1820-1830. “Firecracker” Medium red amber with a strong olive tone, sheared mouth –pontil scar, pint; (light exterior high point wear). GI-14 Dr. Timoth Shuttle collection.

$15,690 September 2020 Glass Works Auctions #121

251: “General Washington” And Bust – “E Pluribus Unum / T.W.D.” And Eagle Portrait Flask, Kensington Glass Works, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1820-1830. “Firecracker” Medium amber with a strong olive tone, sheared mouth – pontil scar, pint; (light exterior high point wear). GI-14. Dr. Gary and Arlette Johnson collection.

$15,690 September 2020 Glass Works Auctions #121

251: “General Washington” And Bust – “E Pluribus Unum / T.W.D.” And Eagle Portrait Flask, Kensington Glass Works, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1820-1830. “Firecracker” Medium amber with a strong olive tone, sheared mouth – pontil scar, pint; (light exterior high point wear). GI-14 Tremont Labeth collection.

$65,520 February 2019 Heckler #180

215: “General Washington” And Bust - “E. Pluribus Unum / T.W.D” And Eagle Portrait Flask, Kensington Glass Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1826-1840. Medium cobalt blue, sheared mouth - pontil scar, pint; (light exterior high point wear). GI-14 Known as the “Firecracker Flask”, this iconic piece is both beautiful and historically important. Fine condition with bold embossing. Ex Edmund and Jayne Blaske collection, Dr. Charles and Jane Aprill collection.

Firecracker GI-14

Now Available to FOHBC Members!

Online Auction Price Report. Search on your smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. Includes 10 years of results from American Bottle Auctions, American Glass Gallery, Glass Works Auctions and Heckler in Phase 1. The Auction Price Report will only be available to FOHBC members. Joining the FOHBC will give the new member 24/7/365 access. What a great tool this is for collectors, diggers, pickers, researchers and the generally curious! Visit FOHBC.org Members Portal

FOHBC Online Webinars Every Month!

Schedule posted on FOHBC.org, Facebook and

The FOHBC is conducting monthly 1-hour online Zoom webinars with presentations and imagery on a broad range of topics relating to antique bottle and glass collecting. Join us for an exciting series by leading authorities in their fields discussing antique bottle and glass collecting, history, digging and finding, ephemera, photography and displaying, and so much more. Webinars occur on Tuesday evenings during the first, second or third week of each month at 7:00 pm Central. Time will be left for questions and answers. FOHBC president Michael Seeliger hosts and moderates all webinars, which are recorded and available in the FOHBC Members Portal within a week after the event. Webinars are FREE for FOHBC Members and *$15 for non-members. *For a short time only, all webinars are free to all!

When you RSVP at FOHBCseminars@gmail.com you will receive a Zoom email invitation with a link for each event. Simply join us at the noted time, sit back, relax, and enjoy. Attend via desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone if you prefer. Attend them all or a la carte.

Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors

Join Now!

Membership to the FOHBC includes the bi-monthly 72-page plus covers, Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, National Event VIP Status, FOHBC Virtual Museum, Monthly Webinars, Newsletter, Auction Price Report, FOHBC.org website, Members Portal, Archived Historical Information, Display Advertising Opportunities and so much more!

History, Fun, Latest News, Digging, Finding, Early American Glass, Bottle & Glass Shows, Virtual Museum, People, Research, Auctions, Preserve Jars, Free-Blown Glass, Pattern Molded Glass, Blown Three Mold, Bitters, Medicines, Spirits, Foods & Sauces, Ink Bottles, Soda Pop, Historical Flasks, Spring & Mineral Water, Soda Water, Perfume & Cologne, Marbles, Fire Extinguishers, Target Balls, Lightning Rod Balls, Utility, Poisons, Merchandise, Lost & Found, Member Photos, Milks, Beer & Ale, Insulators, Tableware, National Convention, Hall of Fame, Online Seminars, Judged Displays, and anything to do with antique glass!

FOHBC.org

There will be a series of daily raffle drawings during the FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale hours at the FOHBC tables at the Piano Man Lounge on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. One hundred dollar ($100) vouchers will be given to the lucky winners to be spent at the show.

Drawing times will be Friday, on the hour from 2:00 to 5:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday, on the hour during all bottle show & sale hours. We thank Jeff Wichmann (FOHBC Hall of Fame) with American Bottle Auctions for his generous $5,000 contribution along with a $200 contribution by Bill Baab (FOHBC Hall of Fame) to be used for Children’s Raffles. Each Dealer and Early Admission VIP will receive one raffle ticket in their Registration Packet.

Dealers will redeem vouchers at the FOHBC tables for cash either during the event or afterward.

Public Saturday & Sunday Only

RIBBON-CUTTING EVENTS

Houston 2024 Museum Exhibition Opening

Thursday 01 August 2024 [1:00 pm]

Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Hall

Come watch the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and the start of the American Antique Glass Masterpieces (Brown Gallery) and Wilber-Gugliotti Barber Bottle (Hamill Gallery) Exhibitions on Thursday, 01 August 2024 at 1:00 pm at the Houston Museum of Natural Science – Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Hall. Book sales and signing. Most, if not all, Houston 24 Team Members and other VIPs will be present for the cutting.

Houston 2024 Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale

Friday 02 August 2024 [12:50 pm]

Hotel ZaZa Museum District | Hotel ZaZa Exterior Entry Drive

Come watch the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and the start of the FOHBC Houston 24 Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale on Friday at 12:50 pm at the Hotel ZaZa exterior Entry Drive. This event will start promptly 10 minutes before the doors open for Dealers and Early Admission and VIP attendees. Most, if not all, Houston 24 Team Members and other VIPs will be present for the cutting.

FOHBC NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS EXPO

HOTEL ZAZA FIRST FLOOR PLAN

HOUSTON 24 VIP ALL ACCESS

Dealers, Displayers, Early Admission, Presenters, Volunteers and other VIP’s are listed in alphabetic order. List will not be totally accurate due to reservations after the printing of the Souvenir Program.

An updated Plan and Dealer locations can be obtained at FOHBC H24 tables in Piano Man Lounge.

Alucema, Edie

Alucema, Nicolas

American Bottle Auctions

Anderson, Daniel & Sheryl

Ashloch, Dawnette

Askjem, Tom

Bartsch, Joel

Beith, Clifton

Katy, Texas

Katy, Texas

Sacramento, California

Castle Rock, Colorado

San Antonio, Texas

Buxton, North Dakota

The Woodlands, Texas

Courtland, Mississippi

Bell, Jim New South Wales, Australia

Berlin, Ken & Liz

Biesbrock, Aaron

Bingham, Brian

Booth-Wickman, Alicia

Boyd, Tim & Missi

Britton, Ronnie & Wanda

Bubash, Chris

Campiglia, James

Cantwell, Dave

Brighton, Colorado

Maineville, Ohio

Oceanside, California

Houston, Texas

Vero Beach, Florida

Palestine, Texas

Dayton, Ohio

Deadwood, Colorado

Houston, Texas

Carney, Rick Brunswick, Maine

Cassetta, Craig

Cater, Helen

Cedillo, Sebastian & Joshua

Childers, James

Ciralli, Rick & Vicki

Commerton, Brian

Cooper, Francoise

Craig, Michael & Kathie

Crislip, Terry

Chico, California

North Canterbury, New Zealand

Boerne, Texas

Ozark, Arkansas

Bristol, Connecticut

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Houston, Texas

Campbell, California

Newbury, Ohio

HOUSTON 24 VIP ALL ACCESS

Dalton, Brad & Carol Boerne, Texas

Dalton Roman, Brenda Boerne, Texas

DeMaison, Alan Painesville, Ohio

DeWolfe, Brandon & Tessa Spring, Texas

DeWolfe, Grayson, Crosby, Lyla Spring, Texas

Dickman, Mike Santa Fe, New Mexico

Driskill, Jay Walters, Oklahoma

Dziak, Kelly & Taunya

Tonganoxie, Kansas

Fikes, Rebecca, Chad & Caitlyn Houston, Texas

Forbes, Jerry & Helen

Big Sur, California

Fox, Dennis Placerville, California

Fuss, Sandor, Oana & Jackson Denver, Colorado

Gildea, Chuck Laguna Hills, California

Gillis, Terry Fort Payne, Alabama

Granger, “Balsam” Bill Lebanon, Indiana

Gray, Ed & Kathy Debois, Pennsylvania

Hall, Hal Moss Point, Mississippi

Hart, Paul Barlchamsted, Connecticut

Hecker, Henry & Diane Mukwonago, Wisconsin

Heckler Jr., Norm Woodstock Valley, Connecticut

Henness, Mike Ione, California

Hubbell, Stephen Gig Harbor, Washington

Hughes, David

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Hunter, Jim Hope, Arkansas

Jackson, Stephen R. Suffolk, Virginia

Johnson, Jeff Parker, Colorado

Johnston, Hank and Toni

Marinette, Wisconsin

Kasper, Jay Shiner, Texas

Kennedy, Charles &Amy Beverly Hills, Florida

Ketcham, Steve & Chris

Edina, Minnesota

HOUSTON 24 VIP ALL ACCESS

Kimmon, Carisa

Klotz, Jack

Knapp, Tim

Kokles, Kim & Mary

Konvicka, Dwayne & Megan

Kramer, Amy & Lauren

Lakatos, Dan

Lane, Bob

Larson, Michael

Lewis, Guy

Lines, Tom & Susan

Lindblom, Terry & Karen

Longdyke, Peter & Amy

Luthi, Bobby

Maler, Jana

Martin Jr, Charlie & Jane

Maryo, Dave & Cindy

McGrew, Mike

McGuire, Eric & Lisa

McIntosh, Libby & Adam

McIntosh, Aria, Kyrie, Corban & Roland

Mooresville, Indiana

Louisiana, Missouri

Sequin, Texas

Gordon, Texas

Sugar Land, Texas

Landenberg, Pennsylvania

Elgin, South Carolina

Pueblo, Colorado

Bellingham, Washington

San Jose, California

Auburn, Alabama

North Attleboro, Massachusetts

Murphy, North Carolina

San Jose, California

The Woodlands, Texas

Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts

Victorville, California

Pearland, Texas

Petaluma, California

Tomball, Texas

Tomball, Texas

McIntyre, Earl Sugar Land, Texas

McJunkin, Mike & Karen

Meek, Fred

Meyer, Adriana

Meyer, Bella

Meyer, Elizabeth & Ferdinand

Meyer, Patrick

Meysing, Will

Migl, Clayton

Hutchinson, Kansas

Hallettsville, Texas

Katy, Texas

Katy, Texas

Houston, Texas

Auburn, California

Austin, Texas

Hallettsville, Texas

HOUSTON 24 VIP ALL ACCESS

Miller, Michael & Karen

Peoria, Arizona

Mitchell, Bill & Kathy Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Morill, Ken & Taylor

Corralitos, California

Nauman, Maria Live Oak, California

Nelson, Mark Kirkland, Washington

Neatherlin, Kenny Highlands, Texas

Noordsy, Jeff & Holly Cornwall, Vermont

Olson, David Conway, South Carolina

Olson, Richard & Laurie Lone Pine, California

Parry, Jack

Bullhead City, Arizona

Paskiewicz, Tom North Billerica, Massachusetts

Pellegrini-Ott, Gina

Pellegrini, Lou & Bonnie

Pleasanton, California

Los Altos, California

Persick, George & Kevin Zachary, Louisiana

Peters, Tim & Michele

Nixa, Missouri

Platt, Suzanne Houston, Texas

Price, Russ Holland, Michigan

Putney, Christine Woodstock Valley, Connecticut

Rakes, David Kyle & Debby Summerfield, Florida

Rapoza, Andy & Gail Conroe, Texas

Rapoza, Nicolas & Gwen Conroe, Texas

Reynolds, Cheryl Oceanside, California

Ritz, Frank & Laurel

Healdsburg, California

Roberts, Warren North Canterbury, New Zealand

Robertson, Jeff Harpswell, Maine

Roman, Steven Boerne, Texas

Rusch, Barbara Ontario, Canada

Sadar, Chris Edina, Minnesota

Schonebaum, Mike Denver, Colorado

Scovil, Jeff Phoenix, Arizona

HOUSTON 24 VIP ALL ACCESS

Seeger, William J. Lincoln, Nebraska

Seeliger, Michael & Alice Brooklyn, Wisconsin

Seline, Anita Houston, Texas

Shephard, Bruce Tampa, Florida

Shope, Larry & Linda Sand Springs, Oklahoma

Silkwood, Treg & Candace San Jose, California

Simms, Doug Montgomery, Alabama

Siri, Richard Santa Rosa, California

Siri Jr., Rick Santa Rosa, California

St. Clair, Jon Austin, Texas

Tankersley, Henry Tulsa, Oklahoma

Taylor, Bill & Kathy Wausau, Wisconsin

Terry, Bob & Linda Georgetown, Colorado

Terry, David Monument, Colorado

Trapani, Joseph Baldwin, New York

Tucker, Rich & Kathy Laguna Hills, California

Van Loon, David West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Van Zant, Martin Mooresville, Indiana

Vollmer, Marty Lexington, South Carolina

Von Mechow, Tod & Sue Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Watson, Maya Denver, Colorado

Weber, Steven & Janice

Buda, Texas

Wichmann, Jeff Sacramento, California

Williams, Leysha Denver, Colorado

Winston, Leslie Maineville, Ohio

Zaldin, Donald Ontario, Canada

Come on Down!

Cabin Fever!

FOHBC HALL OF FAME

1981 – Helen McKearin

In 1980, the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs, in conjunction with its subsidiary, the National Bottle Museum, created the bottle collector’s Hall of Fame.

Nomination and induction into the Hall of Fame honors significant and enduring contributions to the bottle-collecting hobby. Descriptions of activities and achievements are gathered by the nominator(s). Distinguished services to the hobby are noted and documented. Successful candidates are then officially inducted into the Hall of Fame. All documentation is bound and filed in the FOHBC’s archives. The following pages summarize the accomplishments of these honored collectors. Note: Descriptions accurate (or current) as of time of induction.

In recognition of her outstanding literary achievements in the field of research and writing, resulting in the publication of comprehensive reference books and periodicals on the subject of American glass and bottles. She co-authored American Glass with her father, George S. McKearin.

1983 – Charles Gardner

Known as the “Father of Modern Day Bottle Collecting,” he was the link between past greats in the hobby, such as Stephen Van Rensselaer and George and Helen McKearin. He was a master collector for 45 years, stimulating the hobby’s growth to what it has become today–a vibrant collecting community filled with camaraderie and adventures.

1985 – Edmund R. & Jayne Blaske

The Blaskes were dedicated collectors and researchers in the field of historical flasks. Teachers of many young and new collectors, they were popular banquet speakers, as well as active supporters of many local clubs, the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (now Collectors) and the National Bottle Museum in Ballston Spa, New York.

1985 – John C. Tibbitts

Founder and first president of the first U.S. bottle club: the Antique Bottle Collectors Association of California. The club eventually had a national membership of more than 250 persons representing 23 states and was the model for the formation of many others. He was the first to edit a club newsletter. It was called The Pontil

1985 – Harry Hall White

A great bottle archaeologist, his excavations of glasshouses and research of public libraries produced sound data that was used by authors such as Kenneth Wilson and George McKearin in writing books that enriched the knowledge of glass collectors. “Harry Hall White is the outstanding pioneer in this field of research and investigation,” McKearin wrote in American Glass, published in 1941. In November of 1926, his story on Early Pittsburgh Glass Houses was featured in the magazine Antiques to which he was a frequent contributor for more than two decades. Mr. White was born in 1884 and died in Shelbyville, Indiana, at the age of 60 in April 1944. He was buried in Cleveland, Ohio.

1987 – Paul L. Ballentine

A collector who became an authority on Midwestern glass, he was a noted author, speaker, collector, club founder, educator and friend. He will be remembered by members of a hobby that he promoted, preserved, advanced and loved. He was ably and lovingly supported by his wife, Mary.

1987 – Dr. Cecil Munsey, Ph.D

Dr. Munsey was a bottle collecting pioneer noted for significant contributions to the organized hobby, not the least of which was his 1970 book, An Illustrated Guide to Collecting Bottles. He also authored The Illustrated Guide to the Collecting of Coca-Cola. He was a

Helen McKearin

skilled researcher, writer and editor.

1988 – Bernard C. Puckhaber

He helped popularize the collecting of “Saratoga-type” mineral water bottles by writing and publishing a book, Saratogas in 1977. He helped further the educational aims of the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (now Collectors) and was instrumental in establishing the National Bottle Museum in Ballston Spa, New York.

1989 – George S. McKearin

His commitment to bottle collecting resulted in extensive research and development of two major books with daughter Helen–American Glass and Two Hundred Years of American Blown Glass. He spoke extensively throughout the United States and Europe and was consulted by major museums, collectors and auction houses. His unequaled early glass collection sold at auction in 1931-32, being dispersed in collections across the U.S. His figural (historical) flask identification chart remains the singular means of describing each specimen.

1990 – Jean Matthews Garrison

She lived the FOHBC slogan: “The Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (now Collectors) strive to promote, foster and encourage all activities toward the betterment of bottle collecting.” She became national chairman of the Federation in 1980 and served as public relations chairman for eight years. A life member of the Federation, Jean was active in no fewer than seven bottle clubs. Sam Fuss, in 1990 the Northeast Region chairman (now called director) said in nominating her to the FOHBC Hall of Fame, “She was like an auto spark plug getting things started and finding proper people to finish the job, a vote for Jean is a vote for America, motherhood and apple pie!” She did not live to enjoy her hobby’s ultimate honor, passing away in her sleep at Walter Reed Army Hospital on March 16, 1990.

1992 – Dr. George Herron

He became a member of the original bottle club (in Sacramento, Calif.) in 1965 and two years later, “Doc” and his wife, Ruth, were among the original charter members of the Iowa Antique Bottleers established in 1967. He retained membership and leadership in that group and the hobby until his death. He began a regular column in Old Bottle Magazine called “Herron’s Hunches” in July of 1989.

1993 – Stephen “Peck” Markota

The Federation’s first honorary director, Peck and his wife, Audie, dug, cleaned and collected bottles and researched, wrote and taught others about them. He helped found the Federation and later the Markotas published a book called Western Blob Top Sodas.

1993 – Verna L. Wagner

Her tireless efforts in organizing the first national bottle show—the 1976 EXPO in St. Louis—set a standard of excellence. She was an officer and ambassador, in person and in print, for her local club and Federation and guided its growth, made lots of friends, and loved every minute of it.

1994 – Harold G. “Hal” Wagner

His vision and chairmanship of the first national show gave lasting strength to the Federation and hobby. The Federation was not financially able to follow through on his suggestion to hold a national show in St. Louis during the nation’s Bicentennial Celebration in 1976. He volunteered to use his own money, to be reimbursed after show profits were collected. It was the crowning achievement in his three decades of local and national leadership.

1995 – Alice Creswick

She took up the formidable task of documenting fruit jars and authoring The Red Book of Fruit Jars, among other publications, for a quarter of a century. She authored six editions of the Collector’s Guide to Old Fruit Jars, more commonly known as the Red Book, bringing to light more than 3,000 varieties of fruit jars.

1995 – John C. Fountain

A bottle-collecting pioneer, he operated the first bottle shop (in Sacramento, Calif.), was the first bottle wholesaler, wrote articles and co-authored three books about bottles. He also published the National Bottle Gazette, one of the first publications geared to the hobby. He always saw to it that a full page was available for Federation use–free of charge.

1996 – Carlyn Ring

Early collector and historian who amassed what was believed to be the most complete bitters collection, she wrote For Bitters Only, which became the primary reference of bitters bottle collecting. She later collaborated with California collector Bill Ham in publishing the massive Bitters Bottles and Bitters Bottles Supplement books.

1997 – Doc Ford

Considered one of the chief ambassadors of the bottle hobby, for 30 years he traveled the country supporting shows and displaying his collections, making many friends in and for the hobby.

1997 – Richard “Dick” Watson

Author of the first major book on bitters collecting, Bitters Bottles (1965), setting a standard for all the bottle books that followed, he later published a supplement to the book (1968). His service to the Federation came at a time when leadership was greatly needed. He and his wife, Elma, amassed outstanding collections of bitters and Saratoga waters. He later served as the Federation historian and was a long-time member of the board of directors.

1998 – Dr. Burton Spiller

Giving lectures and writing articles, putting on programs and sharing his vast knowledge, Dr. Spiller worked tirelessly to promote our hobby.

1999 – Howard Dean

His literary contributions and work with the Federation, the National Bottle Museum and bottle clubs have made a lasting and enduring impact on the hobby. His activities continued even into his 90s.

2002 – John Eatwell

One of the giants of the hobby, he was the Federation’s first chairman (now called president), designed the organization’s first logo, and was the first to suggest the possibility of holding a national show. He was an active member of the Antique Bottle Collectors of Colorado since 1967, serving as its president. He was famous for his collection of Pike’s Peak flasks and co-authored (with David K. Clint III) the comprehensive and beautifully illustrated landmark book, Pike’s Peak Gold, in 2000.

2002 – Bob Ferraro

Bob was president of the Federation from 1977-79, and was a collector since the mid-1950s. He built outstanding collections of figural bitters, eastern whiskeys and Nevada bottles. He co-authored, with first wife Pat, The Past in Glass (1963) and A Bottle Collector’s Book (1964). He continued to serve the Federation (first vice president 2008-14) and director at large (2015). He passed away in 2017.

2002 – Elma Watson

The per fect helpmate to husband and Hall of Famer, Dick Watson, she was an important leader in the Federation, serving as treasurer for many years. She was co-chair of the 1994 National Show in Cherry Hill, N.J., and helped establish and arrange bottle exhibits at the Wheaton Museum and assisted with the establishment of the National Bottle Museum in Ballston Spa, New York. She was an important contributor to her husband’s books—Bitters Bottles (1965) and Supplement to Bitters Bottles (1968).

2003 – Norm & Junne Barnett

Early Federation members, the Barnetts specialized in fruit jars. In 1972, Norm joined Roger Emory of Hagerstown, Indiana, to organize the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar and Bottle Club. Norm served as president for all but 10 years of its existence and was show chairman at the same time. Junne served as club newsletter editor for 30 years, retiring in 2006. She did the souvenir program books for the FOHBC 25th anniversary show in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (1994) and the Nashville, Tennessee Expo (1996).

2007 – Bill Ham

Avid bottle collector and author of numerous articles on historical glass, he collaborated with Carlyn Ring to produce the comprehensive Bitters Bottles, as well as the Bitters Bottles Supplement. He also contributed to the revised Whiskey Bottles of the Old West. He is always willing to share his vast knowledge and has given many talks on his favorite subject to various organizations. Bill is also co-author or Bitters Bottles Supplement 2 published in 2020.

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2008 – Betty Zumwalt

She researched and co-wrote Spirits Bottles of the Old West with her first husband, Bill Wilson. They later published Western Bitters and 19th Century Medicine in Glass (1971). She was an active member of the first bottle club–the ABCA of California. She was instrumental, with Bill and Dick Hansen, in drawing up the first draft of the Federation bylaws. After parting with Bill, she researched and published Ketchup-Pickles-Sauces, 19th Century Food in Glass (1980). It has become the standard for this division of bottle collecting.

2008 – Tom Caniff

Since 1995, Tom authored The Label Space (complemented by the photographic skills of wife, Deena) in Antique Bottle & Glass Collector From 1999, he authored Fruit Jar Rambles in the same magazine. He entered the bottle collecting world in 1975, became active in Midwest collecting circles and served a term as president of the Jefferson County Antique Bottle Club in Steubenville, Ohio. Tom served a two-year term as co-editor of the Federation newsletter (1978-80), was the Northeast Region newsletter editor from 1981-83 and served as editor of the Federation’s annual newsletter contest in 1995. He was vice president and president of the national Jelly Jammers between 1990-93. He is the recognized authority on the various Flaccus family companies and their food-packing competitors along the Ohio River. Tom passed away in 2022.

2008 – Junior Carl Sturm

Completing his 19th straight year as a member of the FOHBC board of directors and his third term as president of the organization, Carl freely gave his time and himself for the betterment of the hobby and fellow collectors on a local and national scale. He became editor of The Federation Glassworks newsletter in 1988 and played a key role in the acquisition of Bottles and Extras, the magazine having been privately published by Scott Grandstaff and Kitty Roach, who gave it to the FOHBC as a gift. Carl’s favorites among his own collections are cures, half-pint pictorial flasks, black glass and tobacco tags.

2008 – Jim Hagenbuch

After an accidental start (through marble collecting) landed him into the bottle-collecting hobby in the early 1970s, Jim Hagenbuch has become an authority on such diverse collectibles as pottery pigs and historical flasks. After the Firestone Tire and Rubber Plant at which he worked for 14 years closed its doors, he became a full-time bottle dealer to earn a living for himself, his wife, Janice, and daughter, Jessica. After Old Bottle Magazine and another publication went out of business in 1983, he decided to publish Antique Bottle & Glass Collector and the first issue came out in May 1984. It was an instant hit with collectors, and has become a forum for topics relating to bottles around the world. In 1986, he started Glass Works Auctions, selling reasonably priced, high-quality, full-color catalogs so potential buyers could see what they were bidding on, at the same time giving collectors options to obtain bottles not often seen. His catalogs have become collectors’ items.

2009 – Johnnie Fletcher

A founder and several-times president of the Oklahoma Territory Bottle & Relic Club, Johnnie has served as editor of Oklahoma Territory News since the club was founded in 1987. In 1991, he published Oklahoma Drug Stores; in 1994, he published the first edition of his Kansas Bottles 1854-1915; in 2006, he published the second edition of Oklahoma Bottles, and was working on a St. Joseph, Missouri, bottle reference book. He won FOHBC awards for best newsletter and best story in 2003. He was nominated for inclusion on the Federation Honor Roll, but board members voted him Hall of Fame status instead because of his important contributions to the hobby.

2011 – Bill Baab

A collector of antique bottles since 1969, Bill joined the Federation in 1996 and a few years later volunteered to become Southern Region editor when Mary Jane Ferguson was forced to resign because of illness. His goal was to improve the quality of FOHBC club newsletters by urging more historical research. His regional reports were designed to contain news of interest to all bottle collectors, leaving out items of interest only to member clubs. He updated the FOHBC Hall of Fame and Honor Roll lists. He also collected information to be used in sketches of the FOHBC presidents. His suggestion that errors of fact in stories published in Bottles and Extras be corrected in the following issue, thus raising the Federation’s credibility with members, was adopted. He also designed a style book for regional editors, following guidelines in The Associated Press Stylebook. Bill proofreads all stories and President’s Messages carried in Bottles and Extras. He also proofread copy in Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club Gazette, and Ralph Finch’s target ball newsletter On Target! In 2009, he inaugurated a series of state-by-state bottle collecting histories which continue

today. He resigned as Southern Region editor in mid 2011. Bill was given President’s Awards from Ralph Van Brocklin (2004) and John Pastor (2006). Bill and his wife, Bea, self-published four books on Augusta bottles. He retired as outdoor editor and sports writer from The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle in 2000 after 36 years. He still edits the newspaper’s Friday fishing page each week.

2012 – Jack Sullivan

Author of an incredible number of bottle and pottery-related stories, Jack Sullivan’s name has been a familiar one to collectors for many years. He has written extensively for collector publications in the U.S., England, Australia and Canada. A resident of Alexandria, Virginia, since 1965, he writes frequently for Bottles and Extras now Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, the Ohio Bottle Club’s Ohio Swirl newsletter and the Potomac Pontil, the online publication of the Potomac Bottle Club. He is a member of both clubs. He also has written three self-published books on whiskey containers and other collectibles. Jack also maintains two online blogs devoted to aspects of collecting and history—“Bottles, Booze and Back Stories,” and “Those Pre-Prohibition Whiskey Men.” His collecting interests include glass and ceramic whiskey containers, whiskey collectibles, breweriana, hillbilly items and paperweights. Jack holds B.A. (1957) and M.A. (1960) degrees in journalism from Marquette and a PhD in international relations from American University (1969). He is married to Paula Boyer Sullivan and is the father of two sons, John, an icthyologist at Cornell University, and Brian, an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Louisiana.

2012 – Warren Friedrich

Warren was born in Southern California in 1954, the son of a World War II barnstormer and his University of Southern California-educated wife. Seeking a better environment for their only child, they set their sights on Nevada City, a tiny rural community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and put down roots. While his parents worked, young Warren began to explore the area, spending his days miles from home, digging up artifacts. While his friends were spending hot summer afternoons in the coolness of a movie theater, Warren was picking his way through dark tunnels of long-abandoned mines. As he grew into adulthood, Warren continued to seriously collect bottles, amassing a modest collection of western bitters. He began traveling to bottle shows, meeting many like-minded people. He joined the local Mother Lode Antique Bottle Club, then the Federation, and in 1993 co-founded the Downieville Antique Bottle Show. He has authored articles for Antique Bottle & Glass Collector as well as Bottles and Extras. He has helped put on local shows and has a keen interest in encouraging a younger generation to get active in the hobby. Years of research led to the 2010 publication of the book, “Early Glassworks of California,” with revisions made in 2011.

2013 – Gene Bradberry

In 2010, the FOHBC was in trouble. Internal squabbling was pushing the organization away from being the paternal parent of the hobby. Its future was bleak. In stepped Gene Bradberry as president, a job to which he was no stranger. He’d also served previously. But this time it was different. A retired Memphis, Tennessee policeman, he quickly laid down his brand of law and, as a result, the FOHBC arose, like the phoenix, and headed in the right direction. Ed Provine, Gene’s long-time good friend and fellow collector, in his letter of nomination, pointed out that many collectors know of Bradberry’s dedication and hard work for the Federation. He joined the FOHBC in 1969 and quickly became active behind the scenes. He served as 2nd vice chairman (1971-72), chairman (1972-74), President (as chairmen became) (1988-94), Membership Director (1994-2000), Expo 2004 show chairman, 1st vice president (2004-06), Membership Director (2006-10), President (2010-2012) and Director at Large (2012-2018). He also found time to serve his Memphis Bottle Collectors Club and was show chairman. Gene passed away in 2017.

2013 – Alan Blakeman

Worldwide fame, at least in the antique bottle collecting hobby, long preceded the publisher of British Bottle Review magazine. Through that medium, Blakeman has become the European spokesman and watchdog for the hobby. His magazine editor, Guy Burch, felt it was high time his boss received recognition from his peers. His peers unanimously agreed. The fact that Blakeman is a Brit did not matter. Other non-Americans have been honored by the FOHBC. “Anyone who knows Alan well will realize that money does not motivate him,” Burch said in his nomination. “He is simply in love with bottles and the related fields of pot lids and salt glaze stoneware (he was once a potter).” Based at Elsecar Heritage Centre in South Yorkshire, in addition to publishing the magazine, Blakeman organizes four auctions and four bottle and related packaging antique fairs per years. He is author of eleven books on the subject and publisher of three others.

2015 – Ralph Finch

FOHBC Board members didn’t have to ask Ralph what he had been doing to promote the hobby of antique bottle collecting since he

became involved nearly 50 years ago. His articles featuring bottles and well-known collectors in the field number more than 500 and have appeared in many of the hobby-related journals. In 1969, following his discovery of more bottle-bug-bitten people in his native Detroit, he played host in his apartment to a meeting that resulted in the organization of the Metropolitan Detroit Antique Bottle Club. In 1994, he founded and published On Target! It is a newsletter geared to those who love and collect the glass spheres and it also led to Ralph building a collection that’s become “the largest and most important collection ever amassed.” Highly respected, Ralph, 75, and his expertise moved into the ketchup bottle world. He and his collection of some 1,800 have been featured in at least two TV documentaries. That he has a sense of humor can be found in many of his stories. Ralph has earned numerous awards, including a Distinguished Service Award (1969-1977) from his home club, a Journalism of Excellence Award from the Ohio Bottle Club as well as the 1981 Best of Show Award from the Genessee Valley Bottle Collectors Association for his target ball display. In 1979, he became a charter member of the National Bottle Museum Society and is a supporter of the museum in Ballston Spa, New York. Ralph is also a feature writer and contributor to Antique Bottle & Glass Collector.

2016 – Jeff Wichmann

Jeff W ichmann is a California native who has parlayed his vast knowledge of antique bottles and glass into a full-time, related business called American Bottle Auctions. His was the first auction house to provide full-color, glossy catalogs sent to interested collectors at no charge. He also launched what is believed to be the first online antique bottle auction. In 2013, Jeff was inducted onto the FOHBC Honor Roll, but given his increase in antique-bottle-collecting-related activities, including financial support of the Federation, the board of directors voted to move him up to the organization’s highest honor level. Photography of old glass is one of his strong points. He also shares his knowledge on his web site americanbottle.com. In 1999, he published The Best of the West - Antique Western Bitters Bottles, a book containing information of value to collectors of that genre.

2017 – Charles & Mark Vuono

It’s hard to believe this father-son duo wasn’t nominated to the FOHBC Hall of Fame years ago because of their continuing contributions to the antique bottle hobby in general and the world of historical flasks in particular. Had it not been for his wife Grace’s love of all things antique, Stamford, Connecticut’s Charles Vuono might not have gotten out of his car and entered an antiques store, wondering why his wife was taking so long, and found himself checking out a historical flask. Of course, it wasn’t that simple, but such trips eventually led to his purchasing of and fascination with early American glass and his building a collection of historical flasks second to none in the world. He wasn’t satisfied to just place a bunch of beautiful flasks on a shelf, but he thirsted for the stories behind each. And he satisfied that thirst, thanks to the availability of like-minded, pioneer collectors of his era who were pleased to share their early research with the latest enthusiast. Charles’ son, Mark, happily joined his father in their adventures to not only collect and document the stories behind the flasks, but also the early glass works that manufactured them. His father shared his knowledge with everyone who expressed an interest and, since his passing, Mark continued this tradition until his untimely death in 2020. To this day, thanks to his stories published in Antique Bottle & Glass Collector magazine, as well as personal contact with collectors, his knowledge continues to inform the hobby. Mark’s passion has rubbed off on his son, Andrew, whose time in the limelight will come.

2018 – Richard Allen ”Dick” Roller

Fruit jar enthusiast Richard Allen “Dick” Roller’s legacy continues to stay alive and well 20 years after his untimely death at age 67 in 1998. Historical material on fruit jars and their makers that Roller netted by years of tough research before the Internet Age is still being used by collectors and writers such as FOHBC Hall of Famer Tom Caniff, who continues to give Roller credit for facts outlined in Caniff’s once-monthly Fruit Jar Rambles in Antique Bottle & Glass Collector magazine. Like many others in the hobby, Dick was glad to share his new-found information, most of which corrected and/or eliminated erroneous stories that had been around for years. “When Dick started collecting and studying fruit jars, he was appalled by the conjecture, hearsay and inaccurate material in the fruit jar books that had been published,” said the late Vivian “Granny” Kath. “He decided then and there to do some serious research into the history of glasshouses and the jars they made.” Roller’s contributions are still to be found in the Fruit Jar newsletter, Fruit Jar Clearing House and New Fruit Jar Newsletter, but collectors really benefited from The Standard Fruit Jar Reference he published in 1983. Its information remains valid today.

2018 – Richard T. Siri

For someone whose brother lit the fuse that sparked an interest in collecting historical bottles, Richard Siri has come a long way. The

first chapter in his story notes that his brother, Ted, was working on a road construction project in Willits, California in the mid 1960s and an 1890-1900 dump containing a pile of early Western whiskey bottles was uncovered. Fast forward to the present day, supported by his wife, Beverley, Richard, 77, is known for his extensive Western bottle collections having amassed one of the most complete Western bitters bottle collections, as well as extensive collections of whiskeys, Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters and USA Hospital bottles, among other things. He is always willing to share his knowledge on his favorite subjects and that knowledge has found a public place inside many books, articles and exhibitions about antique bottles. He has held several offices within the Federation, most notably that as president in 2008. Richard co-chaired the FOHBC 2012 Reno National Antique Bottle Expo and the most recent, FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo and FOHBC Reno 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention. He is also a major supporter and an active member of the Northwestern Bottle Collectors Association. In 2009, Richard Siri first brought forth the concept of developing the FOHBC Virtual Museum. He now serves on the museum Board of Directors and he, along with his wife Beverley, is a major financial contributor to the museum.

2020 – Willy Van den Bossche

Willy Van den Bossche is one of our hobby’s most distinguished individuals who was previously inducted onto the FOHBC Honor Roll in 2003. Born in Belgium in 1943, Willy became an industrial engineering graduate in 1967. He decided to specialize in glass technology, working two years as a chief plant engineer in an Antwerp bottle manufacturing industry in his native country. Naturally, this led to his collecting European antique bottles. From 1971 until his retirement in 2003, Willy worked as a chief patent examiner in the field of glass technology at the European Patent Office in Holland where he searched more than 4,000 glass patent applications from all over the world. In 2001, he penned his first major reference work, Antique Glass Bottles – Their History and Evolution (1500-1850). The scholarly work, was self-described as “A Comprehensive, Illustrated Guide with a Worldwide Bibliography of Glass Bottles.” The 440-page book is illustrated by color photos of 770 European bottles, jars, and seals from his private collection. A second major reference work, Bibliography of Glass: From the Earliest Times to the Present, was published in 2012. Its 3,426 titles in 347 pages capped 10 years of research and was published in the English, French, German and Dutch languages. An updated digital edition with 4,210 titles was published in 2019. Not only authoring those works, during his life-in-glass history he built a 4,200-book personal library containing all the significant literature devoted to antique glass and glass bottles written in all languages. He is a member of several international associations dealing with the history of glass including the prestigious glass committee of the International Council of Museums. Today, he enjoys his retirement in his native country.

2021 – Ferdinand Meyer V

Ferdinand Meyer V is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and has a BFA in Fine Art and Graphic Design from the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design. Ferdinand is the founding Principal of FMG Design, a nationally recognized design consultation firm, and is a passionate collector of American historical glass specializing in bitters bottles, color runs, and related classic figural bottles. He is married to Elizabeth Jane Meyer and lives in Houston, Texas with their daughter and three grandchildren. The Meyers are also very involved in Quarter horses, antiques, and early United States postage stamps. Ferdinand is the past 6-year President of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, past Vice-President, and current Director at Large. Ferdinand is the director of many FOHBC projects including the FOHBC website, social media, magazine merger, the redesign of Bottles and Extras to Antique Bottle & Glass Collector and is one of the three founding members of the FOHBC Virtual Museum. Ferdinand has been on the national show chair teams for many years and is responsible for the design, look, and theme of these events along with the FOHBC design standards. He has written extensively for antique bottle and glass magazines and designed and put together Bitters Bottles Supplement 2, a 475-page volume of bitters bottles and related ephemera. He is also the creator of Peachridgeglass.com, an immense website, and resource for glass collectors encompassing over 50,000 images and thousands of blog posts. The Meyers’ collection was featured on the televised series Extreme Collectors. In 2023, The Meyer’s founded Peachridge Collections, LLC. with the purpose of designing and publishing antique bottle and glass books.

2023 – Jerome “Jerry” McCann

Jerry McCann Widely known as Jerry throughout the fruit jar and bottle hobby, Jerome John McCann is a Chicagoan through and through. He was born, raised, infused with Mid-Western values, educated, came of age, and still lives there. He began collecting fruit jars in 1967 and has added a wide variety of other antique categories including 19th Century artwork to American art pottery (especially Rookwood). Jerry now has a general fruit jar collection of 2,000 pieces made from the early 1800s to mid-century 1900s. He specializes in oversize

jars (those of one-gallon capacity to five gallons) with more than 30 examples. He has also chaired shows in Chicago, Eastern Michigan and Muncie, Indiana, for the FOHBC, 1st Chicago Bottle Club, Ball Collectors Club and Fruit Jar Collectors of the Midwest. He has been published in Antique Bottle World (1977-1984), Fruit Jar Annual (The Guide to Collecting Fruit Jars, 1996-2020), and The Standard Fruit Reference 2011. By trade, he is a teacher of Biology and Chemistry and an Attorney at Law with an advanced degree in Federal and State Taxation. His hobbies include road bicycling, hiking, backpacking, wilderness canoeing and car camping. He has become what fellow Federation Hall of Fame member Ralph Finch humorously called him at different times “…the world’s first full-time used fruit jar salesman…” and “…perhaps THE fruit jar expert in the world.”

1ST CHICAGO BOTTLE CLUB

FOHBC NATIONAL EVENTS

2016 Sacramento, California

Why are you here? That’s an easy question, but the answer may not be. You might be here because of a chance to buy quality bottles for your collection. Or you might be here to visit with friends. Or it may be a combination of both answers, with a few personal reasons thrown in. Whatever the reason, the facts remain that you are happy to be here, and you plan to make the most of it

Before 1976, when the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (as it was then known) held its first national show in St. Louis, antique bottle shows were strictly local or regional, attended mostly by collectors and members of the curious public who resided within those locales. The FOHBC now conducts the biggest antique battle and glass event of the year using a three or four-day convention and expo format. Let’s take a look at some of the past shows leading us up to the FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition.

1976 National Antique Bottle & Jar Exposition – St. Louis, Missouri

There is no doubt this show set the standards for those to follow. There were 140 outstanding displays of bottles and fruit jars, many of which had never been in the public view; 280 sales tables, and 4,000 collectors. Hal Wagner was chairman and Jerry Jones co-chairman of the event. The program featured articles by some of the legends of the hobby, including Helen McKearin, Alice Creswick, George Herron, William E. Covill Jr., Dr. Cecil Munsey, Dick Roller, John Wolf and Paul Ballentine. Ken and Shirley Asher, Old Bottle Magazine publishers, devoted 17 pages to photos of the displays, unfortunately, all in black and white, because color was expensive to print back in those days. There was a surprise awaiting visitors—a commemorative Expo bottle in the shape of a scroll flask with the Federation’s distinctive eagle on one side and crossed flags on the other. How many of these bottles sold during the Expo still exist?

1980 National Antique Bottle-Jar Exposition – Rosemont, Illinois

The St. Louis extravaganza was a tough act to follow, but show chairman Ken Sosnowski and co-chairman Jim Hall did their darnedest and, in the opinions of those who were there, succeeded. There were 330 sales tables and 70 displays...the latter including a Hutchinson bottling display by Bob Harms and Sean Mullikin. Demonstrations on how Hutchinson bottles were actually filled were held every two hours. The 96-page program included articles by Betty Zumwalt, Bob Ferraro and Clevenger Glass Works’ Jim Travis, among others. Souvenirs included a commemorative paperweight to display owners, a miniature stoneware jug to those attending the banquet and suitably inscribed log cabin bottles in cobalt and amethyst made at the Clevenger factory which sold for $20 apiece.

1984 Antique Bottle, Jar & Insulator Exposition – Montgomery, Alabama

After the two previous shows were held in the Midwest, the sunny South finally got a chance to shine and highlighted insulators on the cover of its 78-page program. Chairman James Robbins called the show “my dream come true.” Feature articles were written by Bernie Puckhaber (Saratogas), Dick Bowman (Insulators) and Dennis Smith (Pioneer Glass Works), among others. The latter also found time to put together an outstanding exhibit on Celery Cola (on which he is still THE authority). There were 32 exhibitors and 204 dealers listed in the program. There also was a heat wave as one might expect in the Deep South during the August show dates so visitors and hosts alike built up lots of sweat equity. One specially made quilt was raffled (and brought $3,400) and the other was auctioned (for $1,600). Profits from the two plus auction of a one-of-a-kind Federation bottle ($325) were donated to the Verbeck House/National Bottle Museum in Ballston Spa, New York.

1988 Antique Bottle & Jar Exposition – Las Vegas, Nevada

Show chairman Lou Pellegrini and his crew of volunteers “hit the jackpot,” according to comments from many of those who attended the

Federation’s fourth Expo. There were 285 dealers set up on 365 tables and there were 53 displays. Show-goers likened the atmosphere as comparable to that of the St. Louis Expo and, while there were a few glitches, a bulk of the comments were positive. Bob Harms had his traveling Hutchinson bottling machine there, while other displays ranged from Alex Kerr’s target balls and go-withs to a display of historical flasks. There was something to please just about everyone.

1991 Bottle & Advertising Show – Memphis, Tennessee

Display of a pair of $40,000 bottles owned by Frank Brockman was one of the highlights of the show at the Memphis Cook Convention Center. One was the Northbend-Tippecanoe Cabin and the other the sapphire blue Columbia-Eagle flask. “He brought them in from California at my request and we used them in our pre-show publicity,” said show chairman Gene Bradberry. “I borrowed the artwork for the full-color, slick-paper flyer from Norm Heckler and used it with his permission. We had 200 sales tables and (Atlanta collector) Bob Simmons handled some great displays. Heckler, Jim Hagenbuch and Dick and Elma Watson were among well-known collectors in attendance.” Bradberry’s idea at the time was to create a national show every year. “There were still those who wanted an Expo every four years so we compromised and had the national shows every year between the Expos.”

1992 Antique Bottle & Jar Exposition – Toledo, Ohio

Show chairman Adam Koch and his Ohio Bottle Club volunteers had to get used to hearing exclamations of “Holy Toledo!” from excited visitors at the show at the Seagate Centre. A bulk of the comments from show-goers was highly positive. The program was the thickest ever, 110 pages counting the covers, with features by Ralph Finch, Bill Agee and Stanley and Isabel Sherwood. There were a bunch of specialty group meetings taking place, too—the Jelly Jammers and those who liked fruit jars, Saratoga Waters, painted label sodas, poisons, whimsies, glass knives, milk bottles and infant feeders. There was a chance for early buyers to get into the show in advance of the rest of the crowd and this did not sit well with many. But as one dealer among those manning a record 550 sales tables put it: “those people were there to buy and they did.” There were 60 displays, all outstanding.

1993 National Advertising & Bottle Show – Richmond, Virginia

Somewhere in the Federation board of directors records, there is mention of someone who probably was suffering from bottle show withdrawal pains suggesting that instead of waiting another four years for an Expo to roll around, why not hold annual national shows. This Virginia show was the first of many and it was a good one. “The show was great and went off without a hitch,” said Federation Chairman Gene Bradberry. There were 17 displays, including a genuine wagon showing off hundreds of medicine bottles and go-withs. Post-show stories never gave a dealer count, but comments given to reporter Ralph Finch were mostly on the positive side.

The 25th Anniversary National Bottle & Advertising Show & National Convention – Cherry Hill, New Jersey

The Federation was “born” in 1968 so the Silver Anniversary show was a special one, thanks to Dick and Elma Watson of New Jersey and Jerry McCann of Chicago. The Watsons had come up with the idea of a bus trip to Wheaton Village in Millville, New Jersey, and McCann got the ball (and the bus) rolling, according to a post-show article. The Federation rented the bus for $500 and each one who made the trip paid $10 that included the trip, admission to the museum and a box lunch. The next day, the Watsons arranged for a Wheaton glassblowing display to set up in the hotel parking lot. Collectors from Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, Grenada and the United States came to the show. Some of the visitors made it to the Watsons’ “bottle house.” Jon Panek of Deerfield, Illinois, said his visit there “was like dying and going to heaven!”

1995 National Bottle Show – Chicago, Illinois

Dealers set up on 210 tables and there were 11 outstanding displays. Many visitors were able to take a Friday night cruise on the Chicago River and out into Lake Michigan. John Panek of Deerfield, Jerry McCann of Chicago and Barb and Bob Harms of Riverdale, Ill., came up with lots of neat extras not normally found at such shows. At previous shows, visitors lamented that two days was just too short. The complaints at this one were that the show was too long. Perhaps the 90-degree heat had something to do with that. One of the most unusual items sold during Jim Hagenbuch’s Glassworks Auction was a salt-glazed jug imprinted with “Lancaster Tonic Bitters C.A. Wood & Co. 37 Haverhill St. Boston.” It sold for $400. Hagenbuch’s 3-day-old van was stolen, and that was bad enough, but happily there were no bottles inside.

1996 National Antique Bottle Exposition – Nashville, Tennessee

“Music City, USA,” attracted 665 sales tables staffed by 461 dealers and many of those in attendance came in a vacation mode. There 111

were 45 displays. Bitters maven, Carlyn Ring, was named to the Federation Hall of Fame. Many visitors, among them non-smokers, enjoyed a trip to the Museum of Tobacco Art & History. Show chairman, Claude Bellar, and his staff of volunteers were lauded for their efforts. Norm Heckler conducted the auction and among noteworthy items were an 1820-30 Concentric Ring Flask that netted $20,000 and a cobalt Columbia Eagle Portrait Flask that garnered $21,000. There were no awards given for the displays, but each entrant received a commemorative bottle of Jack Daniel’s best stuff. Ken Anderson’s trailer, which held all of his Indian cures, go-withs and the great medicine wagon he displayed them in, escaped being damaged when the trailer broke loose from the hitch and wound up in a ditch. “It must have been Indian magic,” commented one observer.

1997 National Antique Bottle Show – Jacksonville, Florida

The show was smaller than usual, with 120 dealers manning 160 tables, but enthusiasm was high for the first show held in the South since the 1993 affair in Richmond, Va. Dick Watson and Doc Ford were inducted into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Carl Sturm celebrated his birthday and a slice of key lime pie with one candle was delivered to him. There were several outstanding displays, ranging from Wayne Boynton’s “Celery Cola” display to Ron Rasnake’s “Pictorial Case Gins” to Joe Brock’s “Jacksonville’s Past in Glass,” among others. Another highlight was a dinner cruise up the St. Johns River.

1998 National Antique Bottle Show – Cincinnati, Ohio

Bur ton Spiller gave a nostalgic talk about the early days of bottle collecting as he remembered them and that was one of the highlights at the Cincinnati Convention Center. Another event was more personal for Spiller, with his induction into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Fifteen terrific displays attracted lots of attention. There were 160 dealers’ tables and, at one of them, a dealer was going to put out some Beanie Babies. But show chairman Adam Koch was adamant that Beanie Babies had no place at an antique bottle show and sale. Good for him!

1999 National Antique Bottle Show – Cincinnati, Ohio

No one made a bid to play host to this year’s show, so Adam Koch & Co. agreed to do a two-peat. Howard Dean, long-time collector of Saratoga Springs bottles and author of many stories relating to the bottle hobby, was elected to the FOHBC Hall of Fame during this meeting. Kevin Sives, an FOHBC member and early user of the Internet, gave a user-friendly talk about using that medium to one’s advantage. There were two programs on inks and labeled inks by Keith Leeders and John Hinkle, respectively.

2000 National Antique Bottle Exposition – Denver, Colorado

Dave Cheadle succeeded Dave Hinson as editor of Bottles and Extras and found time to give an educational talk on trade cards and bottles...one of the Rocky Mountain highs during the show. Sheryl Anderson was show chairman and did a remarkable job. There were new books galore from Pike’s Peak Gold by John Eatwell and David Clint III, Antique Glass Bottles by Willy Van den Bossche of Holland, and Bitters Bottles by Bill Ham and Carlyn Ring. Seven countries and 33 states were represented at the event and the Federation picked up 60 new members, according to post-show reports. It was noted that the first FOHBC convention was held in Denver back in 1969, presided over by John Eatwell.

2001 National Antique Bottle Show & Sale – Muncie, Indiana

Thir teen exhibits featuring fruit jars, water bottles, poisons and show globes, among others, and 140 sales tables highlighted the show in “Fruit Jar Country, USA.” Future Federation president, Ralph Van Brocklin, gave a slide presentation on “Western Whiskey Flasks.” The show was chaired by Norman Barnett, with lots of help from his wife, Junne. The Federation made a nice profit via an auction conducted by Norm Heckler with lots ranging from inks to barber bottles. Collectors came from California, Colorado and Georgia. The Minnestrista Cultural Center housed a collection of patent models of fruit jars plus other exhibits relating to Muncie history and the Ball Brothers Fruit Jar Co. Visitors literally had a ball!

2002 National Antique Bottle Show & Sale – Syracuse, New York

The 72-page program featured 16 pages of “Pride of New York” bottles in full color and is definitely a coveted collector’s item. Ralph Van Brocklin, who was elected FOHBC president, gave a seminar on Western Flasks, and George Waddy, a featured columnist in Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, gave one on Saratoga Bottles. There was more on Saratogas inside the program written by authority, Howard Dean, while Kevin A. Sives wrote about New York glass houses of the 17th through 19th centuries. Elma Watson, John Eatwell and Mayor Bob Ferraro were inducted into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Phyllis and Adam Koch wrote a touching tribute to Elma Watson in the

September Bottles and Extras. Mrs. Watson died of cancer on August 26, 2002. There were 252 sales tables and 29 exhibits and the show’s auction conducted by Norm Heckler grossed $25,000.

2003 National Antique Bottle Show & Sale – Louisville, Kentucky

More than 200 tables awaited early buyers at this show co-hosted by Wayne and June Lowry of Raymore, Missouri, after two years of planning. Long-time collectors, Norm and Junne Barnett, were inducted into the Federation Hall of Fame. They set up their famous collection of unusual fruit jar closures as one of 16 educational exhibits. Orville Seals of North Jackson, Ohio displayed more than 100 Louisville mini jugs (mostly from the Bauer Pottery). Norm Heckler called the auction which grossed more than $30,000.

2004 National Antique Bottle Exposition – Memphis, Tennessee

Ralph Van Brocklin closed out his last term as FOHBC president with the triumph that was this Expo. Chaired by his friend and long-time Federation member, Gene Bradberry, in the latter’s home town, the show featured 371 sales tables and 23 displays. Seminars included such topics as baby bottles, locating sites and digging them, black glass dating, fruit jars and bitters. Twelve authors got a chance to sign and sell their books. Jimmie Wood of Denver, North Carolina, was awarded the FOHBC People’s Choice ribbon for his stunning display of applied color label sodas from North and South Carolina. There also was a forum describing the trials and tribulations of becoming a book author, with Jack Sullivan, Dewey Heetderks, Jerry McCann, John Eatwell and Bill Ham chiming in.

2005 National Antique Bottle Show – Grand Rapids, Michigan

Thir ty one outstanding displays awaited visitors’ attention at the show where chairman John Pastor and his crew of volunteers did a marvelous job. Seminars were plentiful and first class, with Red Book author Doug Leybourne discoursing on fruit jar closures, Carl Sturm speaking about identification and dating of black glass bottles, Dann Louis talking about cures, Dan Simons on Michigan bottles, Wayne (Jar Doctor) Lowry about cleaning old bottles, Dr. Darell Erickson on infant feeders, Rick Ciralli about Connecticut glass and Mark Vuono on historical flasks. Norm Heckler again loaned his auctioneering talents to the Federation. One of the outstanding bottles sold was a green Drake’s Plantation Bitters for $10,500.

2006 National Antique Bottle Show – Reno, Nevada

This was the first national show held in a Western state since the 2000 Expo in Denver, Colorado, and it was a roaring success, thanks to the efforts of FOHBC conventions director Wayne Lowry, show chairman Marty Hall and Reno-Sparks club members. There were 287 in line for early admission and 315 more for general admission, making for standing room only around the 266 sales tables. A significant piece of Federation business was the approval to publish Bottles and Extras bi-monthly instead of quarterly. California collector Richard Siri was the keynote speaker and his discourse on Hostetter’s Bitters was complemented by his 190 variants of those well-known bottles. The displays drew this rave from Ralph Van Brocklin: “Hands down, THE BEST group of displays I have ever seen at a show!” Wonderful seminar topics ranging from target balls to historical bottle research were highlights of the meeting. Bottles and Extras editor, Kathy Hopson-Sathe, gave the show coverage more than 17 pages of the Fall issue and Van Brocklin did a masterful job of describing what went on.

2007 National Bottle Show – Collinsville, Illinois

“Back To Where It All Began” was the theme at Collinsville’s Gateway Center, pointing to the inaugural national show held in 1976 across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. Special pins were presented to “Long Timers” who attended both shows. Wayne (Jar Doctor) Lowry was show chairman, with assists from Curt and Ellen Faulkenberry, Jim and Debbie Taylor and Pat Jett. Wayne’s wife, June, business manager for the Federation, was stunned to receive the President’s Award from Carl Sturm. Seminars ranged from “Something for Everyone” by Jelly Jammer members Phyllis Pahlman and Margaret Shaw to “Chero-Cola - There’s None So Good” by Dennis Smith to “Using the Internet to Collect Bottles” by John “Digger” Odell to “Ink Symposium” by Keith Leeders, John Hinkel, Ed and Lucy Faulkner, Frank Starczek and Don Carroll. Long-time collectors and Federation members, Gene Bradberry and Ed Provine, did a show-and-tell session on early glass-blowing methods and tools of that trade. Other highlights included 19 outstanding displays. Greg Hawley, one of a group of treasure hunters who found and excavated the steamboat Arabia, was the banquet speaker.

2008 National Antique Bottle Exposition – York, Pennsylvania

Collectors from across the country and around the world (Australia, Germany, United Kingdom) made the trek to the ninth Federation Expo where they enjoyed seeing 32 terrific displays ranging from fruit jars to California perfumes. They also attended outstanding

seminars on Saratoga waters, black glass, inks, the Lancaster, N.Y. Glass Works and the Kola Wars. Convention Director R. Wayne Lowry reported 415 sales tables had been sold. Perhaps the show’s only negative aspect came at the banquet where featured foods were in short supply and some of the 246 guests had to accept substitutes. The FOHBC Hall of Fame grew by four new inductees in Tom Caniff, Jim Hagenbuch, Carl Sturm and Betty Zumwalt. Steve Ketcham and the late Katie Foglesong were inducted onto the Honor Roll. Norm Heckler once again was the auctioneer for the Expo event, with an early, olive-green “Wryghte’s Bitters London” the top lot with a $3,900 bid. Russ Smith of the United Kingdom and Rex and Joanna Barber of Australia penned views of the Expo from their perspectives in the November-December Bottles and Extras. Former FOHBC president, John Pastor, resigned as Midwest Region director and Jamie Houdeshell was named to take over the post. Mr. Pastor accepted the position of second vice president and remains on the board of directors. June Lowry became editor of Bottles and Extras after Kathy Hopson-Sathe was forced to step down because of illness.

2009 National Antique Bottle Show – Pomona, California

Highlight of this show, host of which was the Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club, was the awards banquet during which many collectors received their just rewards. It was the first Federation National Show to be held on the West Coast and was ably chaired by Pam Selenak. Onlookers included collectors and dealers from Australia and England, as well as from 18 states. Outstanding exhibits included Richard Tucker’s historical flasks (winning the People’s Choice ribbon) and Terry Monteith’s well-displayed collection of demijohns and carboys which captured the FOHBC Most Educational ribbon. Alan DeMaison received the President’s Award for his outstanding contributions as Federation treasurer from Richard Siri. The FOHBC Hall of Fame gained another member in Johnnie Fletcher of the Oklahoma Territory Bottle & Relic Club. Johnnie was originally nominated by his friend, Ed Stewart, of Paola, Kansas, for inclusion on the FOHBC Honor Roll, but Johnnie’s dedication and contributions to the hobby led board members to vote him into the main shrine. Midwest Region Editor Joe Coulson’s Glass Chatter of the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club was a first-class winner in the newsletter category. The Ohio Swirl, edited by Phyllis Koch of The Ohio Bottle Club, was second. Huron Valley Antique Bottle Club’s show flyer was first and the Antique Bottle Club of San Diego placed second. Jack Sullivan, of Alexandria, Va., won for the best researched article for “The Night the Axe Fell on Cleveland.” Dave Maryo, the host club’s president, was second with his article, “Forsha’s Balm is Endorsed by President Lincoln.” Mike Bryant won the best true story award for “The Snake in the Glass” and best fiction for “Ask Aunt Blabby.”

2010 National Antique Bottle Show – Wilmington, Ohio

Best thing about this show, those who attended would agree, was the Roberts Centre showroom with its well-lighted, wide aisles, offering plenty of room for 297 sales tables, 20 wonderful displays and hordes of people. Show chairman, Jamie Houdeshell, became ill a few days before the show, but co-chairman, Joe Hardin, and chief coordinator, Patty Elwood, stepped up. They were assisted by Jamie’s parents–Jim and Mira Houdeshell, as well as Richard Elwood and John and Margie Bailey. Jamie’s pet project was the auction and, thanks to his early efforts, the event grossed just shy of $20,000. A highlight of the show was the induction of Scott Grandstaff and Kitty Roach, of Happy Camp, California, into the FOHBC Honor Roll. Joining them was another Californian, Jeff Wichmann. Scott and Kitty founded the original Bottles and Extras magazine, eventually giving it to the Federation when it got too much for them. Sheldon Baugh gave an educational talk about Ohio’s Shaker communities and displayed Shaker bottles from his own collection.

2011 National Show – Memphis, Tennessee

FOHBC President, Gene Bradberry, played the perfect host as the Federation returned to the South for the first time since 2004. That show also was held in Memphis, known for its downtown trolley cars and barbecue. Second Vice President, Ferdinand Meyer V, outlined his progress on the FOHBC website (FOHBC.org) and Virtual Museum during the semi-annual board meeting held prior to the show and sale. Seminars were held dealing with inks (John Hinkel), bitters (Ferdinand Meyer, Don Keating and Sheldon Baugh), odd-closured fruit jars (Dick Watson), German colognes (Carl Sturm) and applied-color-label sodas (Randee Kaiser). Seven outstanding displays sparked interest, with “Base-Embossed Cylinder Whiskeys” by Steve Schingler winning the Most Educational Award and “Patented Labeled Medicines” by Henry Tankersley garnering the People’s Choice Award. Ninety one lots were offered during the FOHBC National Auction, with the highlight of the sale the Morning Call Bitters going for $5,460, which was $1,460 over the high estimate. The unique variant, light amber with a hint of olive in color, sports deeply indented panels and arched column corners. Another highlight was the induction of Bill Baab, of Augusta, Georgia, into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Former Federation Treasurer, Mike Newman, of Martinez, Georgia, nominated the 76-year-old Baab, who joined the Federation in 1996 and later became its Southern Region editor.

Those who were there at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino included long-time collector and published author, Mike Polak, of Long Beach, California. Let’s hear all about it from Mike: “Over the years, I’ve attended a large number of club bottle shows, national shows and expos, and I need to say that the Reno 2012 Expo was absolutely fantastic and probably the best all-around show I’ve ever attended!” If that comment didn’t make show co-chairmen Marty Hall and Richard Siri proud, who knows what will? This was a show of “firsts” in the hobby. Complementing the thousands of words written about the show were a series of great color photos from the lenses of the first professional show photographer, Scott Selenak. (“There was so much action, my camera couldn’t stop firing,” he said later). Norman C. Heckler & Co. conducted the first “Drakes, Whiskey & Umbrella Ink Shootout” where more than 200 people showed up. Competing in back-to-back-to-back “duels” were Circle Cutter Whiskey cylinders, Drakes Plantation Bitters and umbrella inks. After all was said and done, Judges Bruce Silva, Dennis Bray and Ralph Hollibaugh awarded Steve Hubbell, of Gig Harbor, Washington, top billing in the Cutter category for his olive green-amber specimen. Drakes Judges Jeff Noordsy, Jeff Burkhardt and Rick Simi picked a blue-green example owned by Ferdinand Meyer V, of Houston, Texas as No. 1. Umbrella inks Judges Holly Noordsy, Bryan Grapentine and Jamie Houdeshell chose a mint and pontiled puce ink owned by Jim Jacobitz, of San Francisco. “I learned how to have a shootout with killer glass bullets and still remain friends,” said veteran collector Lou Lambert. Two long-time contributors to the hobby, Warren Friedrich, of Grass Valley, Calif., and Jack Sullivan, of Alexandria, Va., were inducted into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Fourteen scintillating displays ranged from David Hall’s fantastic assortment of E.G. Booz bottles to Dennis Bray’s outstanding EC&M insulators to eye candy Swirls, Whirls, Twists & Twirls from Dwayne Anthony, featuring bottles, fruit jars and insulators.

2013 National Antique Bottle Show – Manchester, New Hampshire

When collectors of antique bottles and early glass think of New England, early glass works come to mind. Like Keene, Stoddard, Temple, Lyndeboro. “I had never seen so much world-class glass under one roof before,” said FOHBC Hall of Famer Bill Baab after having attended the Federation’s first National Show to be held in New England. The “roof” belonged to the Radisson Expo Center and the place was Manchester, New Hampshire July 19-21. Co-chairs Michael George and Maureen Crawford and their Merrimack Bottle Clubbers pulled out all the stops to make this show one attendees will remember for the rest of their lives.

Nine seminars covering as many different areas of collecting got the crowd going in the right direction early on Friday, July 19. Presenters were Rick Ciralli, Connecticut Glasshouse Rarities; Tom Haunton, Last Links to the Past: 20th Century South Jersey Glass; Ian Simmonds, American Mold-Blown Tableware 1816-35; A Fresh Look at “Blown Three-Mold”; Michael George, New Hampshire Glass Factories and Products; George Waddy, Mineral Waters from Yankee Country; Jim George, Early 20th Century Milk Marketing in New England; Brian P. Wolff, Mount Vernon Glass Co. - History, Products, People; David Hoover, Uncovering Demijohns, and Al Morin, Markings and Seals Embossed on Milk Bottles. In addition to the glass and pottery offered by the 168 dealers present, collectors were treated to 17 displays of outstanding glass and pottery. The People’s Choice Award was won by Michael George for his awesome display of Stoddard glass, including inks, a flask with embossed U.S. flag (featured on the souvenir program’s front cover), medicines and utilities. Most Educational Award was won by Ken Previtali, of Glastonbury, Connecticut for his wonderful ginger ale bottle display, with many of the bottles displaying an astounding array of paper labels featuring great graphics. Other exhibitors were Tom Marshall (New England Inkwells), Mark Newton (Lyndeborough Glass), Dale Murschell (Wistarburgh Glass), Jeff and Holly Noordsy (Utilitarian Vessels from New England and New York State), Bob Kennerknecht (Sunburst Flasks), Dave Olson (Bonney Ink Bottles), Dave Waris (Moxie Bottles), Rob Girouard (Striped Sandwich Glass), Kevin Kyle (Blue Sodas), Dennis Gionet (Manchester-produced Bottles), Paul Richards (New Hampshire glass shards), Jim and Karen Gray (Stoneware Jugs), Bobby Heton (cone inks) and Jim Bender (Reproductions). The high quality of the exhibits made judges wish there were more awards to present.

Next came the New England Bottle Battle, sponsored by Norman C. Heckler & Co., and directed by Michael George, dressed in full 19th century regalia. Categories were Whimsical Objects, Colored Medicines and Utility Bottles. And the winners were: (Whimsical Objects), Kevin Sives, Apalachin, N.Y., for his handled E. Waters Ink; (Colored Medicines), Dr. Charles and Jane Aprill, New Orleans, half-gallon cobalt Dr. Wynkoops Sarsaparilla; (Utility Bottles), Rick Ciralli, Bristol, Conn., multi-sided utility bottle. Wrapping up the first night’s activities was the Madness in Manchester Auction put on by Jim Hagenbuch of Glass Works Auctions, with John Pappas the auctioneer. One of the highlights was Lot No. 44, a wide-mouthed Sunburst flask/snuff jar in light greenish aqua. Pre-auction estimate was $40,000 to $60,000, but it sold for $24,000. Inducted into the FOHBC Hall of Fame were Gene Bradberry, of Bartlett, Tenn., and Alan Blakeman, of the United Kingdom. Bradberry is a long-time Federation member, having served more than one term as its president, as well as in other capacities. Blakeman, publisher of British Bottle Review, is England’s “Mr. Bottle Man.”

2014 National Antique Bottle Show – Lexington, Kentucky

It was Tom Phillips’ last show as Conventions Director and he made the most of it, teaming with co-chairmen Randee Kaiser and Sheldon Baugh to make the FOHBC’s first visit to Lexington and Blue Grass horse country most enjoyable. One hundred forty-seven dealers set up at 204 tables and offered a bounty of glass and ceramic treasures and most were ecstatic about their successful sales. “One said that within an hour of setting up, he made over $3,000,” said Randee’s wife, Sue. “Another said he made four times the profit as what he usually collects at shows.” The numbers of early buyers (178) and general attendees (320) exceeded the numbers at past shows, said Phillips, whose good work was acknowledged when he received the President’s Award from FOHBC President Ferdinand Meyer V. The show was headquartered at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and held at the adjacent Lexington Center, a wonderful venue with lots of space, great lighting and enthusiastic staff. Events got underway on Friday, August 1, with a series of six seminars: Jerry McCann’s “Mid 1800s, The Evolution of Bottles Through Fruit Jars;” “The History of ACL Soda Bottles in Kentucky and Beyond,” by Randee Kaiser; “Here’s to Beers,” by Gary Beatty; “FOHBC Virtual Museum Progress,” by Ferdinand Meyer V and Steve Libbey; “The History and Evolution of the Shaker Herb and Medicine Industries” by Sheldon Baugh, and “Ohio River Privy Digging” by Jeff Mihalik. All were entertaining and educational.

This show was notable for a number of “firsts.” A ribbon cutting with Randee and Sheldon utilizing the oversized scissors (enough ribbon was left over for next year’s Chattanooga show and 2016’s Sacramento show) opened the showroom doors. There was an appraisal table under the charge of Martin van Zant (who became a Kentucky Colonel) and friends who saw a cool master ink, a Japanese balsam from Cincinnati, lots of Coca-Cola bottles, an aqua double eagle historical flask “and a ton of common stuff,” he said. California antique bottle auctioneer Jeff Wichmann donated a cool $5,000 to be raffled in smaller segments. Scott Selenak, who has become the Federation’s chief photographer, recorded everything on his trusty digital cameras. Friday night’s banquet featured Michael “Mr. Bourbon” Veach as the guest speaker. He later signed copies of his book, Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. Veach’s friend and co-author, Chet Zoeller, signed copies of his book, Bourbon in Kentucky, on the show’s final day.

Since Lexington is home to the Kentucky Derby, it was appropriate that the Federation hold its own Run for the Roses. Instead of Thoroughbreds, the contest featured wax sealer fruit jars, scroll flasks and Midwestern swirl decanters. FOHBC member Chip Cable videotaped the bottles and projected each onto a large screen. Sue Kaiser tracked down the finishers: WIN–Midwestern Swirl Decanter–John Pastor; New Hudson, Mich., Historical Scroll Flask–Steve Schingler, Braselton, Ga.; Wax Sealer Fruit Jar–Jerry McCann, Chicago, Il., PLACE: Midwestern Swirl Decanter–Tom Lines, Birmingham, Ala.; Historical Scroll Flask–John Pastor, New Hudson, Mich.; Wax Sealer Fruit Jar–Ryne Henrich, Crystal Lake, Ill., SHOW: Midwestern Scroll Flask–Dave Maryo, Victorville, Calif.; Historical Scroll Flask–Mike Henrich, Crystal Lake, Ill.; Wax Sealer Fruit Jar–Perry Driver, Live Oak, Fla. There were 13 educational displays running the gamut of subjects, with Tom Sproat’s 19th century glass-making tools winning the Federation’s Most Educational Award. Jim Hubbard’s outstanding display of Kentucky pocket flasks won the FOHBC Best of Show Award. Worth mentioning was Federation historian Dick Watson’s display tracing the history of the organization that started in 1969. Unfortunately, Dick and David Olson, of Carver, Mass., were involved in an automobile accident just minutes away from Dick’s New Jersey home while heading to Lexington. Happily, both have since recovered. Another novel idea was the fancy hat contest, won with a bottle-and-horse-themed example worn by Leanne Peace. Capping the night’s activities was the “Thoroughbred Auction” conducted by Jim Hagenbuch.

2015 National Antique Bottle Show – Chattanooga, Tennessee

The Federation found itself on the right track after picking Chattanooga as the perfect site for its Southern Region national show July 31st to August 2nd. So “Choo-Choo to Chattanooga” was the theme engineered by great graphics on the show’s logo showing an old-time steam engine. Chattanooga itself was made famous by the Glenn Miller tune “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” sung or hummed during the 1940s-50s: “Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?” Federation president Ferdinand Meyer V expressed it well in the lead of his main story in the September–October issue of Bottles and Extras: “The train arrived in all of its glory, met us at the station, and carried its passengers on a grand three-day excursion in the great southern city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It left us with memories that will last a lifetime.” Show co-chairmen Jack Hewitt and John Joiner co-wielded the giant scissors to cut the ribbon allowing “passengers” to stream into the showroom of the Chattanooga Convention Center on Saturday afternoon. Dealers were allowed in first, then early buyers, instead of everybody en masse as in previous shows.

Opening the event on the evening of July 31 was the FOHBC Banquet and Awards session in the Marriott Hotel’s ballroom. It was preceded by a cocktail party during which old friends greeted each other and made new friends. Highlights included the induction of 116

target ball collector and expert Ralph Finch, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, into the FOHBC Hall of Fame, and an amusing and emotional address by keynote speaker Tom Hicks, of Eatonton, Georgia. Hicks later became ill and, to his dismay, missed the show and the Rolling Thunder Auction held Saturday night. The Federation Board of Directors surprised president Meyer with a special award denoting his outstanding service not only to the Federation, but to the hobby as well. The President’s Award went to Jim Bender, of Sprakers, New York, “for his outstanding service as FOHBC historian.” Other honors were bestowed on winners in the club newsletters, show flyers, web sites, articles-research/information, best true story and best original fiction story categories. Bottle-knowledgeable Mike Newman, of Martinez, Georgia, was the perfect emcee of the Battle of Chattanooga Bottle Competition capping the first day’s activities. He was ably assisted by Chip Cable of McMurrayville, Pennsylvania, who filmed and projected the images of each entry. Bob Riddick and Mark White, both of Lexington, South Carolina, checked each bottle and made sure each was returned to its respective owner. First-place winners were Dr. Charles Aprill, of New Orleans, for his 9 ½ inch tall, cobalt blue Wells, Miller, Prevost sauce bottle. Dr. Aprill is well-known for his love of cobalt blue bottles. Eric Schmetterling, of Moorestown, New Jersey, won the colored sodas category with his amethyst Blagroves Superior Aerated Mineral Waters, Brooklyn, New York, 10-sided, iron-pontiled, tenpin-shaped bottle. Best Bottle South of the Mason-Dixon Line winner was Dr. Aprill with his blue wine with embossed grapes and leaves. It was an unembossed variant of the Imperial Levee, J. Noyes, Hollywood, Miss. Judges also gave Dr. Aprill a first-place tie with his pontiled blue Dr. Leriemondie’s Southern Bitters. It was unmarked, but known to be from Brookhaven, Mississippi.

Another innovation introduced by president Meyer was the membership breakfast on Saturday morning. Previous membership gatherings were held on Friday afternoons and were lightly attended since many show-goers did not arrive until later. This one attracted 110 members who voted to increase the Federation dues package to keep up with growing expenses and re-institute life memberships. One of the best programs is the seminars held during the morning prior to the show’s opening. Presentations included: Charleston, South Carolina Colored Sodas by Tommy Schimpf; Every Bottle Has a Story, with Jack Sullivan and Ferdinand Meyer V; The History of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey by Mike Northcutt; Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware of the Edgefield District by Jim Witkowski of Charleston, South Carolina; The Evolution of the Coca-Cola Bottle by Doug McCoy and Bottle and Relic Digging by Rick Phillips and Paul Sampson. Show scenes were documented by talented Mallory Boyle, Jack Hewitt’s daughter, and her photos were displayed throughout the Bottles and Extras issue featuring summaries of the show. Twelve wonderful, colorful and educational displays under the title of Great Southern Bottles were curated by Tom Lines, Birmingham, Ala., and Ed Provine, Millington, Tenn. “Best in Show Award” was presented to Mike Newman, Martinez, Ga., for his stunning array of colored sodas from Georgia and South Carolina. The “Most Educational Award” was given to Tom Sproat, Covington, Kentucky, for his display of glass-making tools. Other displays were Tenn-Cola, Gene Bradberry, Bartlett, Tenn.; Dale Murschell, Springfield, W. Va., paperweight perfume bottles; Walter Smith, Augusta, Ga., Edward Sheehan sodas from Augusta; Mike Jordan, Ocala, Fla., Hyacinth Vases; Bill Haley, Chattanooga, Glass Insulators; Amy Autenreith, Chattanooga, Houston Museum Bottles; Dennis Smith, Buffalo, N.Y., Celery Colas; Jim Berry, St. Johnsville, N.Y., Inks, and Mike Northcutt, Lynchburg, Tenn., History of Jack Daniel’s.

Ninety-two-year-old Dorothy “Tootsie” Hood, of Apison, Tenn., a long-time bottle collector, became a member of the FOHBC when her grandson bought the membership...a treasure trove of items from E. Dexter Loveridge of Wahoo Bitters fame was auctioned off...James Penrose came from far off New South Wales...Alicia Booth, Houston, Texas, donated a Success to the Railroad historical flask as a hat contest prize in honor of her late husband, Tom... Liz Maxbauer, New Hudson, Mich., won it... the Souvenir Program’s 107 pages carried features by Jack Sullivan and Charles David Head as well as a listing of the Top 25 Tennessee Bottles... there were 230 sales tables.

2016 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo “Back to Our Roots” – Sacramento, California

“A Celebration of People and Our Hobby:” That’s how FOHBC president Ferdinand Meyer V headed the lead story in the follow-up November-December issue of the Federation’s magazine, Bottles and Extras. The organization took root in 1969, some 10 years after John C. and Edith Tibbitts organized its predecessor, The Antique Bottle Collectors of California, in their Sacramento home. That club caught the imaginations of antique bottle collectors from “sea to shining sea,” including Charles Gardner, of New London, Connecticut, known as “The Father of Antique Bottle Collecting.” Federation officers and board members pulled out all the stops to make this venture into Gold Rush Country a memorable and memory-making, strike-it-rich experience. First stop was the privately owned McClellan Conference Center and Lions Gate Hotel at the decommissioned McClellan Air Force Base (1935-2001) seven miles northeast at Sacramento. Sacramento resident, Jeff Wichmann, held an open house at his American Bottle Auctions office where visitors “ooooed” and “ahhhed” at his collection of outstanding historical bottles and related “goodies.” The Lions Gate General’s House played host to a reception for dealers and their assistants, early buyers, displayers and seminar conductors on Thursday evening (the first day of the event). The

Sacramento Shootout followed that evening back at the hotel with whiskeys (Jesse Moore Sole Agent cylinders, U.S.A. Hospital Bottles and Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters) in the bottle battle. Richard Siri, who spearheaded the Shootout, found himself the hospital bottle winner. Dale Mlasko captured the top whiskey prize, while Mike Henness’s Hostetter’s topped that category. The inaugural FOHBC Membership Breakfast Meeting was held at the 2015 Chattanooga show and was a great success, so it was repeated on the Lions Gate Hotel patio. Nothing like free food to attract a crowd. A fine array of speakers presenting educational seminars on Warner’s Safe Cures and Products (Michael Seeliger, Mike and Kathie Craig), the A.W. Cudworth Business Journal (Tom Jacobs), Early American Scent Bottles (Chris Hartz), Early California Stoneware (John O’Neill), Red Wing Advertising Stoneware (Steve Ketcham) and Gold Rush Artifacts (John Schroyer) followed.

The mud flats at Benicia, California are unlovely to behold. Just when they revealed their hidden iridescent glass treasures is a matter of conjecture, but their unique colors were on a wonderful display called Benicia Glass–Nature’s Tiffany by Michael and Karen Peart. It was just one of 20 outstanding displays of bottles, jars, miniatures, Owl Drug bottles, Hostetter’s Bitters and an apothecary cabinet filled with gems. The Warner’s Safe Bottles and Posters display took both “Best in Show” and “Most Educational” ribbons. Collectors holding early admission badges joined the rush of dealers into the McClellan Conference Center show room at 1 p.m., Friday. There was a bit of confusion when the supply of early admission badges gave out, but a runner was sent to a local office supply company for name stickers. The crowd may have been a record number for a first day and most were in a buying mood.

That set the stage for the FOHBC Cocktail Party and Banquet Friday evening. There had been 115 reservations, but 150 showed up to feast. Highlight of the meeting was an emotional speech by Betty Zumwalt, the 2008 FOHBC Hall of Fame inductee and noted authority on antique glass, as well as an author. Jeff Wichmann, who had been named to the Federation Honor Roll in 2010, was “bumped up” to the Hall of Fame following his many contributions to the bottle hobby. The late Tommy Mitchiner, of Gordon, Georgia, was placed on the Honor Roll for his role as the Peach State’s most famous antique bottle collector and researcher, particularly relating to the Savannah, Ga., bottles of John Ryan (1852-1870s). John Joiner, of Newnan, Georgia, was presented the President’s Award for an outstanding job at the 2015 Chattanooga National Antique Bottle Show. Mike Bryant, of the Antique Bottle Club of San Diego, hauled off four awards to lead club honors.

Show room doors opened at 9 a.m., Saturday, August 6, and almost 700 folks piled through the door. General admission tags gave out. A tour bus arrived loaded with Reno Antique Bottle Club members. The future of any hobby is its ability to attract younger members and Richard and Bev Siri were ready. The show’s co-chairmen had prepared 44 children’s grab bags, each filled with two or three newspaper-wrapped bottles from the Siri collection. The day was capped by the 49er Bottle Jamboree Auction conducted by Fred Holabird, president of Holabird Western Americana based in Reno, Nevada. Star of that western bottle-themed auction was an early yellow-green Gold Dust Whiskey from San Francisco (1871-74), a flawless example of only eight known. It brought $34,500 including the auction house premium. Eyes of 200 in-house bidders plus hundreds more online (including a collector aboard an aircraft carrier) shattered previous FOHBC auction records, according to president Meyer. Also setting a record was the 134-page Souvenir Program, surely to become a favored collector’s item.

2017 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo – Springfield, Massachusetts

When one thinks of Springfield, Massachusetts, the legendary Springfield rifle comes into the mind’s eyes of many people, but not antique bottles; that is, until the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors held its annual National Show and Exposition there. The four-day, high-caliber event (pun intended) started with the reception at historic Springfield Armory on August 3, setting the tone for the rest of the week. There was a small glitch not of the Federation’s making: A Tennessee company conducted an auction at the host hotel during the reception, leading to a future rule prohibiting such things from happening during FOHBC shows next year in Cleveland and in Augusta, Georgia in 2019 and beyond. Co-show chairmen Jim Bender and Bob Strickhart did an amazing job in taking control of the show. “We both felt it was what a show chairman does,” Bender said. “So everything good or bad was on us.”

The Sheridan Springfield Place Monarch Hotel was host for the show and the staff could not have been more helpful. The Springfield Bottle Battle took place in the MassMutual Center. These contests give collectors the opportunity to see rare examples of the best bottles known from that Massachusetts area. Judges Ed Gray, the bewigged Jim Hagenbuch and John Pastor were up to the challenge and didn’t go off half-cocked. The winner was Mike George with a very rare pontiled “Phelps’s Arcanum.” Jack Fortmeyer was runner up with a very rare Massachusetts Fire Extinguisher, and Ron Ranka was third with a super-rare, lavender-colored “J&IEM” monitor ink. Matt and

Elizabeth Lacy and Louis and Lindsey Fifer made sure the event ran smoothly and Chip Cable again was present to videotape all of the bottles and show them on the big screen for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Here are the other categories, judges and winners: Best Sandwich Glass, Judges Eric McGuire, Greg Bair and Mike George. Ed Beard, first; Nick Wrobleski, second and third. Best Saratoga-Type Spring Water Bottle, Judges Jeff Ullman, Jim Berry, Jim Bender. Rich Strunk, first, peach-toned Excelsior Rock Springs quart; Strunk, second, rare beveled-corner John Clarke quart; Rick Ciralli, third, Lynch and Clarke quart.

Six seminars on varying subjects were held Friday morning and, as usual, attendees had to make up their minds which of the two held at the same time they wanted to attend. The FOHBC tried to remedy the situation by video-taping each, with plans to make the tapes available in the future. The programs were Glassmaking in New England (Michael George), The Marketing of Milk in the 1940s (Peter Bleiberg), Flask Classification 101 (Mark Vuono), Colors of Sandwich Glass (Wes Seeman), Excavations of The Mount Vernon Glassworks (Richard Strunk and Mark Yates) and Dr. Sweeting and the Flag Salt Remedy Co. (John M. Spellman).

The late Dick and Elma Watson were among the honorees at the Friday evening banquet, with Jim Bender, Bob Strickhart and Phyllis Koch sharing their memories of the Hall of Fame collectors and their collections. The Watsons’ son, Steve, presented an emotional Bender with a small flask of a man holding a flag that was a part of his parents’ collection. FOHBC president Ferdinand Meyer V enjoyed the moments when he inducted long-time collector and Mohawk Valley Antique Bottle Club founder, Jon Landers onto the Honor Roll and Charles and Mark Vuono into the Hall of Fame. Together, the father-son duo built what is believed to be the best collection of American historical flasks in existence. Ferdinand presented the annual President’s Award to five women for their hard work at the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Show and Expo. They are Val Berry, Alicia Booth, Elizabeth Meyer, Linda Sheppard and Bev Siri.

Next came the Watson One Auction on Saturday morning, conducted by Jim Hagenbuch’s Glass Works Auctions and called by Jesse Sailor. The idea for the event came from the co-chairmen who knew Dick and Elma would have loved to be involved in the show. Specially designed stickers in the shape of Massachusetts with the lot number, Springfield and the auction house logo were placed on each bottle. Another of the highlights came from Norman C. Heckler & Co. The auction house had no fewer than seven display tables placed in a living room setting, including tables and chairs and many spectacular bottles. Speaking of displays, Fran Hughes was credited for coordinating the set up of no fewer than 11 displays. The dealers in attendance voted Rick Ciralli’s Connecticut Glass the Best of Show Award. The People’s Choice and Most Educational were presented to Richard Campbell for his spectacular dose measure glasses.

The FOHBC Virtual Museum is gathering momentum. The brainchild of Richard Siri, the museum “is a digital and online expression of what one might find in a real museum, containing (but not limited to) images of bottles and glass.” There was a display held during the show. It revealed how the “spinner system” of photography works. Alan DeMaison demonstrated it for all the people who asked about it.

2018 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo – Cleveland, Ohio

Announcement that reception for the August 2-5 show would take place in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame was music to the ears of many bottle collectors. That venue also inspired the post-show writer whose imagination led to “The FOHBC Rocks and Rolls Into Cleveland” headline topping the show summary in the November–December issue of Bottles and Extras. Most events took place at the Huntington Convention Center across the street from the host hotel, the Marriott Downtown at Key Center. Show co-chairmen Matt Lacy and Louis Fifer, with considerable help from their wives, Elizabeth and Lindsey, Alan DeMaison, Adam and Phyllis Koch, and John Fifer (Team Cleveland) put together a program that appealed to the visiting collectors of antique bottles.

John Fifer and Rick Ciralli took charge of the “Battle of the Bottles” competition with Chip Cable and Tom Masiarik projecting each entry onto a large screen so that everybody in the crowd could enjoy a super view. Taking home special awards sponsored by John Pastor were first-place winners Jim Hall and his egg-shaped “A.T. Blake” soda, a unique Cincinnati bottle; Matt Lacy’s GII-126 electric blue eagle wreath flask in Midwestern Flask category, and John Fifer’s Mantua creamer in the Pattern Molded Tableware contest. Runners-up in the Ohio Soda category were Jon Dickinson, cobalt-paneled David Baker soda from Cincinnati in second and third was Hall again for his paneled J. Printz soda from Zanesville, Ohio, John Fifer; placed second in Pattern Molded Tableware with a citron Kent pan and third was a 20-rib, yellow broken swirl flask made by the Franklin Glassworks. Matt Lacy’s amber Ravenna Glassworks iron-pontiled flask was runner-up in the Midwestern Flask category while Tom Lines’ yellow-green GII-69 cornucopia eagle was third.

Seminars occupying most of the second morning featured many knowledgeable folks, with Dennis and Nathan Huey revealing secrets of privy digging in Ohio; Jim Bender amazing his audience with the history of reproduction bottles...many of which looked like the real

thing; Bill Barrett unveiling the histories behind Zanesville glass manufacturing companies; Tom Sproat showing off his considerable knowledge of the Hemingray Glass Company; exploring the Erie Canal through the eyes of Ohioan Bob Koren and a “Bitters” Journey traveled by Ohio Bottle Club member Ted Krist. Attendees at the annual membership breakfast held Friday morning got their last look at outgoing FOHBC president Ferdinand Meyer V who will be missed. “It was time,” he said, and then incoming FOHBC board members were introduced, including new President Matt Lacy. All face new challenges not only to the Federation, but to the hobby as a whole.

One notable change in traditional events was with the auction billed “Electric Auction.” The auction was held Saturday morning, and was managed and executed by the show chairs whilst being called by auctioneer Jesse Sailor instead of outsourced to an auction house. The overall expectation of the auction was not met, with less than ideal outcomes and minimal participation. Bidders wound up with quality glass at low prices. The main event was the FOHBC banquet held Friday evening, with guest speaker Terry Kovel, the renowned antiques expert. Among Ferdinand’s last official duties was the honoring of Richard Siri and Richard “Dick” Roller by inducting each into the FOHBC Hall of Fame. Then Ohioan Alan DeMaison was given the 2018 President’s Award for outstanding service. Among door prizes was a commemorative two-foot-long guitar and a souvenir jug turned and decorated by master potter Jim Healy. Linda Shepard won the guitar, while Patricia Sprang took home the jug.

Other show highlights included 15 outstanding displays. Tom Sproat’s “Glass Jars Made or Patented in Ohio before 1880” earned the Most Educational Display Award, while Ted Krist’s “Bitters” in all the bottles’ colorful glory grabbed the “Best in Show” award. Other displays included Duane Rader’s “Milk Bottles,” Roger Hardesty’s “Cleveland Advertising Stoneware,” Alan DeMaison’s “War Slogan Milk Bottles,” Phyllis Pahlmann’s “Jelly Glasses,” Berny Baldwin’s “Glasshouse Whimsey Turtles,” Jim Berry’s “Inks,” Jim Hall’s “Ohio Sodas, 1840 to 1860,” Dennis and Nathan Huey’s “Cleveland Ohio’s Sodas and Ales,” Jim Bender’s “FOHBC History,” Alan DeMaison’s “FOHBC Virtual Museum,” Brian Gray’s “Barber Bottles and Their Molds,” Jim Hagenbuch’s “A Selection of Midwestern Pattern Molded Glass” and Tim Kearns’ “Knowles, Taylor, Knowles Chinese Whiskey Jugs.”

Post-show comments by several of the attendees were mostly positive, but one was disappointed by the low turnout. “Unfortunately, the show was not well-supported by the bottle community” (in Ohio, as well as in the surrounding states), noted collector Jerry McCann, who lives in Illinois. “It was an opportunity lost for hundreds, no, thousands of collectors to make this show the spectacular event it should have been. And a lost opportunity to have experienced the bottle community at its best.”

2019 FOHBC 50th Anniversary National Show & Convention – Augusta, Georgia

Teamwork. That was the key that led to the overall success on August 1-3 for the first Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors National Show & Convention ever held in Georgia. Making it even better was the fact that the Augusta show marked the 50th anniversary of the founding body. Instead of having the show directed by a chairman and co-chairman, it was decided to share the responsibilities with a six-member “consortium,” also called Team Augusta. Handling pre-show publicity and setting up the six seminars was Bill Baab. Walter Smith, of Augusta, was in charge of the educational exhibits, including one of his own, while retired banker, Mike Newman, of nearby Martinez, became the show treasurer. He also chaired the Sweet Georgia Peaches Bottle & Pottery competition and held an open house. Eric Warren and Marty Vollmer, from Lexington, S.C., signed up the dealers and set up tables on the 100,000 square foot showroom floor. Both have had plenty of practice because they are key players in a group conducting the South Carolina Bottle Club shows each February in Columbia. The team “quarterback” was Ferdinand Meyer V, of Houston, Texas, who dipped into his vast reservoir of national show knowledge garnered over the years and kept the team moving in the right direction. He was responsible for the layout, design, and contents of the 140-page Souvenir Program, national marketing, social media, and visual appearance for the show. We think we scored a touchdown!

The show venue at the massive Marriott Hotel and adjacent Augusta Convention Center with its huge Olmstead Hall showroom certainly played a key role. Centrally located in downtown Augusta, it was within walking distance of quality restaurants as well as next door to the Morris Museum of Art. Cooperation of hotel officials was front and foremost and our appreciation was expressed to hotel Manager Matt Ricker, Director of Events Robert Korzen, Convention Services Manager Casey Stringfield and Senior Convention Services Manager Marisa Barnes, Banquet Manager Brenda Corsano, Chief of Security Bill Tolbert, and his staff and Encore AV Director Rick Cook. All the pre-show meetings with those folks were cordial and professional and things got done.

The 15 educational displays featured a “first” subject for FOHBC national shows. Charles Hilton, of Graniteville, South Carolina, drove a restored 1956 Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company (DIVCO) milk truck through the open door and onto the showroom floor. Hilton owns

the Augusta area’s best collection of local milk bottles and many were included in the display anchored by the first milk truck ever exhibited at a national FOHBC show, according to those who should know. Other displays featured Bludwine and Budwine bottles from Mark Williams of Athens, Ga.; Charles Axt Catawba Wine Bottles from Paul Chance, Savannah, Ga.; a fabulous 19th-century drug store display from Henry Tankersley, Tulsa, Okla.; Fruit Jar Patents (with an array of incredible closures) from Tom Sproat, Ryland Heights, Ky.; Historical Augusta Bottles from Augusta’s Walter Smith; Vintage Soda Water Brandology from Bob Pettit, Safety Harbor, Fla.; Celery Cola bottles from Dennis Smith, Buffalo, N.Y.; Koca Nola Soda bottles and a 50-gallon stoneware crock from Charles Head, South Pittsburg, Tenn.; Lubricating Oil Bottles from Vern Huffstetler of Graniteville, S.C.; Marty McMurtry and Chris Prince, Bottles from the S.C. Bottle Museum, Whitmire, S.C., and Edgefield District S.C. Pottery from Samuel Ford of Aiken, S.C. Security was extremely tight before and during the show, with Tolbert and his staff sharing high visibility with armed and uniformed Richmond County Sheriff’s Department deputies and officers. It was noted before the show that the FOHBC had reserved the right to search bags and boxes for contraband. No negative incidents took place, as far as can be determined.

Among the first-day highlights was Mike and Julie Newman’s Open House. All of their world-class antique bottle collection and some of their antique jugs and pots filled nearly every room of their home, including their spectacular bottle room upstairs. There the collection of historical flasks, early soda water bottles, and numerous patent medicines, many from Augusta, glowed from back-lighted glass display shelves. The Newmans also took the opportunity to honor one of Georgia’s best-known diggers and collectors in a room dedicated to the memory of Tommy Mitchiner (1946-2013). Stanley Gwinnett, another pioneer Georgia collector, also was honored. Mitchiner’s widow, Sherry, and son, Ryan also were present. The latter was named for famous 19th century Savannah bottler John Ryan. Later that afternoon, the scene moved to the Augusta Museum of History where the FOHBC VIP Reception was held in the building’s rotunda. Visitors also moved up to the second floor where a small portion of the Bill & Bea Baab Antique Bottle Collection was on display. The Baabs in 2014 had donated 531 bottles which joined 88 Augusta drug store bottles given to the museum earlier. There also were several pieces of local pottery and miscellaneous items in the display cases as well. Museum Executive Director Nancy Glaser went all out to add to the display and her efforts were appreciated by all in attendance.

That first day’s activities were capped by the Sweet Georgia Peaches Bottle & Pottery Competition which drew 38 examples of the finest Southern pottery, best Georgia bottles, and best Southern sodas. The event was held back in the Marriott. First-place winners were: The best piece of Southern pottery was judged to be a 3-gallon decorated storage jar attributed to master potter Collin Rhodes of South Carolina’s Edgefield District and owned by John LaFoy, Greenville, S.C. There was a silhouette of a buggy and driver on the obverse and a two-color flower on the reverse. The best Georgia bottle dated to the 1790s and on an applied seal was embossed Dr. G. Harral Druggist Savannah, Ga. The best Southern soda was a tear-drop-shaped, deep olive green Finley & Phin and came from Charleston, S.C., where its owner, Jamie Westendorff, resides. During the windup of the show on Saturday, August 3, Elizabeth Meyer of Houston, Texas added a Georgia Peaches jug to her national show collection by winning a silent auction. She also owns the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Springfield Rifle, and Cleveland Guitar decorated jugs from previous national shows. Another jug featuring an Augusta Canal scene was won by Vaughn Jones, Statesboro, Ga., by raffle. New York state master potter, Jim Healy, designed and donated the Augusta jugs.

The second day was kicked off by a series of six seminars on a variety of subjects and all drew a good number of interested collectors, much to the satisfaction of the presenters. Veteran antique bottle collector Harvey S. Teal, 91, of Columbia, S.C., and Karl Harrar, of nearby Aiken, S.C. started off the series. Teal spoke on South Carolina Local Flasks used during the 19th century prior to the establishment of the South Carolina Dispensary System in 1891. Harrar explained the workings of his ground-penetrating radar system instrumental in easily locating yesteryear’s privies and trash pits. Doug Herman Sr., of the nearby community of Martinez, related the backgrounds of his paternal and maternal grandfathers. The former helped establish the Augusta Brewing Company in 1888 and the latter operated Savannah bottler John Ryan’s Augusta Branch before establishing his own in 1880. Dennis Smith, of Buffalo, N.Y., is widely known as an expert on early sodas and spoke about the competition in his Kola Wars program. A museum class display of early Charleston, S.C., sodas highlighted the program presented by long-time collector, Tommy Schimpf, of that coastal city. Mark Williams, of Athens, Ga., showed off his expertise on Bludwine and (later) Budwine bottles.

Baab utilized a pair of giant scissors decorated with FOHBC and cut the ribbon opening the show to 170 dealers and 107 early buyers at 1 p.m., Friday. Five hours later, all gathered in the Oglethorpe Ball Room for the annual cocktail reception and awards banquet. Among the main honors presented by FOHBC president Matt Lacy were a Special Lifetime Achievement Award to long-time member Sheldon Baugh, of Russellville, Ky., and the President’s Award given to Team Augusta member, Bill Baab, for his efforts in promoting the show. 121

Reno 2020 National Antique Bottle Convention – Reno, Nevada

Convention Canceled. Even with the best-laid plans it was just bad luck in Reno. Team Reno chaired by Richard Siri canceled the convention months prior to the big event due to the Covid-19 Pandemic arriving in full force that March. The FOHBC decided to reschedule the convention to 2022.

2021 Syracuse National Antique Bottle Show – Syracuse, New York

Convention Canceled. Covid-19 just would not go away. Chairs Jim & Val Berry, and Jim Bender, recommended that the FOHBC pull the plug in the first quarter of 2021. With very few commitments from dealers and show attendees, the cancellation was announced to the hobby world. The convention was not rescheduled.

Reno 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention – Reno, Nevada

As time and the Covid-19 Pandemic progressed, we knew Reno 2022 would be different. The world had changed around us. People crawled into shells, stayed and worked at home, cooked meals, and rediscovered conversation. The antique bottle shows were canceled, and we learned to satisfy our lives and collecting passions online. Restaurants and brick-and-mortar retail died while online shopping, video conference calls, and auctions flourished. It wasn’t until early January 2022 that we saw some daylight. Show Chair Richard Siri traveled back and forth constantly to the Grand Sierra Resort and met with the city of Reno, and every other Reno team member did their thing. Because of all this, we realized that our Reno 2022 convention would be different. Though the enthusiasm and buzz were off the chart, sales were sluggish. Richard reminded the FOHBC board that many of our dealers from past Western conventions had passed. Gas prices were breaking a record, airlines were reporting significant delays and price spikes, our national supply chain was broken, and new strains of Covid were making the news. Some days we would get three new tables or early admission attendees, and one or two would cancel. The good news was never fluid. We stayed optimistic, worked hard, and pulled it off. Typically, the FOHBC board meets annually in March at the Baltimore Antique Bottle Show and again at the FOHBC national event during the late July–early August date window. These meetings usually take four hours and are pre-planned with a concise agenda and support material. Unfortunately, we missed two years of in-person meetings during the Pandemic, so we held them online to keep the machinery running. This year’s meeting was excellent as we had outgoing FOHBC president John O’Neill chair the meeting with the incoming president and secretary, Michael and Alice Seeliger, at his side. Also in attendance from the board were Eric McGuire (Western Region Director), Elizabeth Meyer (FOHBC Business Manager), Henry Hecker (new FOHBC Midwest Director via Zoom), and Ferdinand Meyer V and Richard Siri (Directors-at-Large). Unfortunately, our first vice president, Jeff Wichmann, was absent due to health reasons, and our treasurer, Jim Berry, was on vacation. Also in attendance were DeAnna Jordt (Reno 2022 Treasurer), Bella Meyer (Youth Coordinator), and Richard Kramerich. Our event photographer, Gina Pellegrini-Ott, also photo-documented the meeting. We concluded the meeting at noon and probably could have gone longer if we had the time.

We downplayed our VIP Reception this year as we stayed on campus, so to speak, at the Grand Sierra Resort, which caters to a captive audience. With a casino, shopping, entertainment in the form of concerts, shows, events, a cinema, many types of dining and drinking establishments, nightlife, bowling, skating, a pool, and a spa, there is plenty to do without leaving the resort. Our reception was simply a cocktail party where you could socialize with your bottle friends, pick up your packet early and register for the convention. VIP, in this case, means dealers, early admission, displayers, speakers, and helpers. Relaxing, catching up with the news, and planning an exciting convention and bottle show were nice.

The Western Region loves its bottle competitions and shootouts, as they are affectionately called. Chairman Siri spearheaded this event as he has done for the past two or three Western conventions. The three categories and winners were: Group 1: Bay City Soda Water Co. S. F. 1st Place: Eric McGuire, Petaluma, California; 2nd Place: Larry Westfall, Poway, California; 3rd Place: Tom Jacobs, San Francisco, California. Group 2: J. F. Cutter Extra Old Bourbon (Shield & Star). 1st Place: Larry Westfall, Poway, California; 2nd Place: Richard Siri, Santa Rosa, California; 3rd Place: Craig Cassetta, Chico, California. Group 3: Old Sachem Bitters and Wigwam Tonic. 1st Place: Ferdinand Meyer V, Houston, Texas; 2nd Place: Bella Meyer, Houston, Texas; 3rd Place: Ferdinand Meyer V, Houston, Texas.

The FOHBC conducted a membership meeting breakfast. This year, FOHBC’s outgoing president, John O’Neill, was responsible for holding court. His agenda included a recap of the previous day’s Reno 2022 convention events, what was coming, a discussion about the proposed Houston 2024 convention, bylaw changes, and a summary of the previous day’s Board of Directors meeting.

We were fortunate to present some exciting educational seminars at Reno 2022 organized by seminar coordinator Eric McGuire. The seminars were held after the membership breakfast meeting, from 9 am until 12 noon, and were open to FOHBC members and the public. This year, Team Reno member Bella Meyer handled the equipment set up for each speaker. John Shroyer gave the first seminar, “Morgan Oyster Bed Bottle Finds.” John’s talk focused on those who raised oysters in these areas, what he found over the last 48 years, and why the bottles were preserved beneath the oyster shells. This well-attended seminar was fascinating, with good memories, imagery, historical recollections, and found bottles. John Burton presented the second seminar on the “Grace Brothers Brewing Company.” John discussed the company’s history, a significant force in the brewing industry. Michael Seeliger presented the third seminar, “Dr. Charles Craig, Dr. John Henion, and Hulbert H. Warner: Their connections, lawsuits, competition, and eventual business demise.” This “Warner’s” seminar covered the initial development and success of Dr. Craig’s formula and marketing and sales of his other various formulas.

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony has matured over the years into a signature event to gather the convention team and the FOHBC president as a bulwark between hundreds of advancing dealers and early admission ticket holders. A bright red Federation ribbon was used as a ceremonial barrier and focal point. The excitement is palatable, and the ribbon is on the edge of chaos separating great bottles and glass. At precisely 12:59 pm, show chair Richard Siri cut the ribbon, signaling that the showroom doors to the Summit Pavilion would open at precisely 1:00 pm. This year’s cost was $100, and we easily had over 300 paying this for the afternoon.

This year we tried a Silent Auction and toned things down a bit from the epic FOHBC–Holabird 49er Jamboree Auction at the 2016 Sacramento National that went into the wee hours of the morning on our final night. We asked that convention goers bid during the convention on 50 to 100 lots that were displayed adjacent to the Federation tables. All in all, we had some nice bottles and glass show up. Richard Siri provided many great lots, but to our dismay, the Silent Auction had little attention, with many items selling for a deal at their minimal cost. We will probably not be doing this again.

This year’s banquet was streamlined with less fanfare. President John O’Neill welcomed everyone with a few words and introduced our new 2022-2024 board president, Michael Seeliger. We focused on having a great dinner with friends, followed by Eric McGuire, our banquet keynote speaker. There were no club and member contests, no Hall of Fame inductees, and no contests or games. Everyone seemed relaxed, and the conversation and smiles lit up the room. Less is more sometimes.

We had 700 general admissions, not including 300 plus for early access. We usually have a strong gate at our Western events. Without a doubt, the S.S. Central America exhibition was a good draw. This once-in-a-lifetime exhibit titled “S.S. Central America Gold Treasure Artifacts” displayed, among many other items, recovered bottles, gold rush jewelry, firearms, luggage tags, photographs, currency, golpokes, clothing, and a treasure box and lid. The S.S. Central America exhibition anchored one long wall of the showroom floor that Richard Siri and display lead John Burton set up as a “display lane.”

The Western region always has excellent displays, and this year did not disappoint. There were fewer displays than we would have liked, but the ones there were outstanding. Also, display voting was more secure this year as we moved the ballot box from the showroom floor to the FOHBC tables. The Federation, per our bylaws, gives out two ribbons, “Best in Show” and “Most Educational.” This year’s displays included “Ammonia Utility Bottles” by David Hall. This outstanding display missed a Most Educational ribbon by two votes! Ron, Gary, and Jeannett Barnes had two displays. The first was “California Mini Jugs,” to the left of their ever-popular “Miniatures” display. Henry Guillen displayed his fantastic collection of “U.S.A. Hospital Department” bottles in a rainbow of colors. Each was meticulously arranged to complement adjacent bottles in this extraordinary color run. Russell & Kitty Umbraco had an attractive display called “Reno Brewing Company.” Their attention to detail made this display stand out from the other colored glass displays. Richard Burgarella was a proud father setting up and guarding his “Labeled Western Whiskeys” with pride. He has collected and upgraded to present examples without the expected rag-tag appearance of labeled bottles with a less-than-desirable proportion of labels vs. missing labels. Richard Siri displayed next to his son Rick Siri. Richard displayed the “Top 25 Western Whiskey Cylinders” while his son displayed “Small Town California Whiskeys.” These two collections, side by side and backlit, were terrific. Two more fine displays were to the right of the S.S. Central America exhibition. At the end were the “Prescription Bottles from Henry W. Davis Druggist Circa 1800s” displayed by Brian Bingham. This theatrical display presented the office of Dr. Davis, whose character surprised us on opening day in full costume—the “druggist bottle” display which took home the Most Educational ribbon. The “Food Bottles” display by Lou Pellegrini won the Best of Show ribbon.

As you entered the Summit Pavilion showroom floor, the FOHBC tables were first on your right, set within a long niche that you had to pass to enter. Here you could get your registration and dealer packets from Bev Siri or DeAnna and Helmut Jordt, join the FOHBC or renew your membership with our business manager, Elizabeth Meyer, purchase merchandise and the latest issues of Antique Bottle & Glass Collector and four new t-shirt designs. You could also buy raffle tickets for a beautiful Jim Healy stoneware jug made just for our event. Jim does this each year, and the jugs have become quite collectible. The FOHBC tables were also where the youth coordinator, Bella Meyer, was stationed. She corralled the children as they came in and asked them if they wanted a grab bag or to play Scavenger Hunt Bottle Bingo. This game was neat as some adults played and filled the whole card. They said they learned so much and had fun interacting with the dealers. $100 gift certificates were also coordinated from the FOHBC tables. Jeff Wichmann, with American Bottle Auctions, generously donated $1,000 for ten drawings. Richard Siri continuously called numbers as thrilled winners reached the podium. The redeemed certificate had to be used within the showroom to purchase dealer items or merchandise.

Across the wide entry and egress vestibule along “Display Lane” was a prominent area used for Virtual Museum imaging. We advertised all year that Alan DeMaison, our imaging chief, would be at Reno and asked if you had potential pieces for the museum to stop by the area or, better yet, make an informal appointment. With a big banner, multiple white cloth-covered tables, and his lighting, camera, and other equipment, Alan imaged and interacted with his “customers” and the crowd. It seemed that he was always busy and reported that he could image 90 excellent specimens for the museum. He also secured some generous gift donations.

On Saturday night of the convention, we tried something different and had a “Team Bowling Event.” We asked convention-goers to team up for the FOHBC Reno 2022 Bowling Event at the GSR Bowling Center, a stone’s throw from our entry doors to the Summit Pavilion. Back in 2019 or so, chairman Richard Siri proposed a bowling event. There were strikes, gutter balls galore, and some ringers hidden in our midst, like Richard Siri, who won with the best three-game overall score. Helmut Jordt had the best one-game high score. Showing up to bowl (and not watch like John Burton, Alan DeMaison, Henry Guillen, and Bev Siri, to name a few) that night in alphabetical order was Jerry and Helen Forbes (and Cutter), Cecelia Guillen, DeAnna and Helmut Jordt, Mike Lake, the Meyer team (Elizabeth, Bella and Ferdinand), the Pellegrini team, Gina, Jordan and Waylon, Dennis Fox, and Richard Siri. Everyone had fun; there was so much laughter it was contagious. The best thing was when Bev said afterward that she hadn’t seen her husband Richard smile and have so much fun in years! It’s events like this we will remember.

It was refreshing not to hear any complaints about how long the convention was and how appreciative everyone was. Our pent-up demand for camaraderie was evident, and the amazing glass that showed up was over the top.

State of Franklin Antique Bottles & Collectible Assoc.

27th Annual Show

Saturday May 3rd, 2025

9:00 am until 2:00 pm

Friday Auction Live & Online 7:00 pm

Gray, Tennessee (off I-26 at Exit 13)

Appalachian Fairground

sfabca.com

On July 25, 1986, Dr. Cecil Munsey, of Poway, California, sent a memo to Marilyn Schmieding, FOHBC Western Region representative, that the FOHBC “seriously consider establishing an ‘Honor Roll’ of people who have contributed significantly to bottle collecting. The Honor Roll would not replace the Hall of Fame, the greatest honor the hobby can bestow, but only supplement it.” The FOHBC Board of Directors adopted the idea and it was put into place the following year. The following pages summarize the accomplishments of these honored collectors. Note: Descriptions accurate (or current) as of time of induction.

1987

The following were nominated by The Ohio Bottle Club, Gary Beatty, President. Research was conducted by Paul Ballentine, Springfield, Ohio, and Gary Beatty, Galion, Ohio. “The Reward of True Excellence is to Obtain Honor.” The list was updated with capsule comments on each honoree (when available) by then Southern Region editor Bill Baab during 2008-2010, with help from Mary Ballentine, Sheldon Baugh, Ralph Finch, Norm Heckler, Cecil Munsey, Richard Siri, Dick Watson, Ralph Van Brocklin, Bruce Silva and Garth Ziegenhagen.

George S. McKearin, co-author (with daughter Helen) of American Glass, noted authority on early American glass in general, not just bottles.

Malcolm Watkins and Lura Woodside Watkins. Malcolm enjoyed an extensive career at the Smithsonian Institution, was curator of several collections including ceramics and glass. He was a pioneer in the field of historic archaeology. Lura, his mother, was a pioneer in the study of American cultural history, and collected extensively at New England’s unexplored pottery kiln sites. She later donated her collection to the Smithsonian. She was the author of Cambridge Glass, 1818-1888, The Story of the New England Glass Company

Stephen Van Rensselaer, was one of the earliest individuals to collect and study early bottles (1920s). His Early American Bottles and Flasks was published in 1926. It was revised in 1929. His research for the time was nearly impeccable, since he was able to interview former glassblowers, their wives, relatives and others who were familiar with local history and tradition. The book was reprinted in 1969.

Otha Wearin was a congressman during the early Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, and became an authority on figural bottles. He authored a book called Statues That Pour

James Gabel, early collector.

Ezra Feinberg, early collector.

Edgar F. Hoffman, of Maplewood, N.J., was a collector in the 1930s-50s who specialized in historical flasks, although he collected others such as bitters, sodas and figurals, according to his early 1950s correspondence with prominent Alabama collector Doy McCall. Hoffman became an expert on early glass and sold some to prominent collectors such as Charles B. Gardner of New London, Conn.

James H. Thompson was the author of Bitters Bottles (1947), the first specialty bottle book. He cited George McKearin, Sam Laidacker and Charles B. Gardner among the list of contributors to the book, which describes 500 bitters, as well as “amusing lore of the Bitters Era.”

Neil C. Gest, Mechanicsberg, Ohio, was a flask collector, researcher, writer, contributor to The Magazine Antiques. He was well-known for collecting rare Midwestern glass. He co-wrote (with Parke G. Smith) a feature story on glassmakers Johann Baltazar Kramer and his son, George, in the March 1939 issue of The Magazine Antiques. The Kramers were associated with the Stiegel factory and those of Frederick County, Maryland, particularly Amelung, and with the New Geneva and Greensboro works. Gest also wrote the foreword to the Parke-Bernet auction catalog describing the early American glass collection of William W. Wood III of Piqua, Ohio, in 1942.

Frederick W. Hunter, collector and archaeologist of the Harry Hall White type.

Lowell Innes was one of the country’s foremost experts and museum consultants on 19th century American glass making. As the

leading authority on Pittsburgh glass, he wrote many articles and lectured widely on the subject. He was responsible for the first public exhibitions of Pittsburgh glass in the early 1940s. Author of the book, Pittsburgh Glass 1797-1891. He died in 1985.

Rhea Mansfield Knittle was a prolific author and early authority (1920s) on glass, silver and pewter. She was one of the founders of and contributors to The Magazine Antiques from its inception in 1923. One of her books was Early American Glass

Maude Wilkerson owned a “Mom and Pop” motel and operated a bottle museum in Camdenton, Missouri, and was a contributor to Old Bottle Magazine for many years. Guests at her motel could enter the museum in an adjacent building for free. Bottles were displayed in cases around a room and many early bottle collectors went out of their way during the 1960s–70s to see what she had. She and Honor Roll honoree, Otha Wearin, were good friends and made many bottle trades over the years. After she died, some 1,900 items were moved to Skinner’s auction gallery in Bolton, Mass., and an auction was held there in 1976. Numerous glass candy containers were among the items sold.

Edwin Atlee Barber was an author who recognized the importance of early ceramics. Among his books was one about lead-glazed pottery written in the 1930s. He also authored one on early American bottles. He also authored American Glassware Old and New. The book was published in 1900.

Ruth Webb Lee authored books on antique fakes and reproductions, Victorian glass patterns, Sandwich glass and early American Pressed Glass, most published in the 1930s-40s.

George Horace Lorimer was an early editor of The Saturday Evening Post. It was published weekly in Philadelphia and its origins dated to Benjamin Franklin’s day. The Post was the most prominent magazine in Philadelphia along with Collier’s. He did publish (on Oct. 16, 1929) Edwin Lefevre’s story, “Why I Collect Empty Bottles.” Lorimer started collecting during the early 1920s, mostly great historical flasks and diamond-daisy types. His collection was donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is always partially on display. His philosophy on money was reflected in a quote published by investment firm Charles Schwab in the fall of 2009: “It’s good to have money and the things money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.”

Charles Baugh, with his wife, Roxy, of Menton, Ohio, pieced together a collection of early American glass that ranked at the top in rarity, condition, perfection of form and workmanship. The Baughs also made a thorough study of the fields in which they were interested.

Crawford Wettlaufer became an authority on early American glass and never hesitated to share his knowledge and collection, which contained many rarities, with other collectors.

Dale Kuhn, of Ohio, was a pharmacist who had amassed a wonderful collection of glass that eventually was sold by Garth’s auction house near Delaware, Ohio. The sale gave modern collectors an opportunity to buy treasured items that previously had not been available. There were no bottle shows during his era and the only recourse collectors had was to buy from some of the many lists sent through the mails, or advertised in the antique journals.

Earl Seigfreid. Early collector.

Parke G. Smith was a collector and authority on early American flasks. He authored bottle-related stories in The Magazine Antiques (See Neil C. Gest) and other publications during the 1930s and 1940s.

Edwin LeFevre was an early collector of bottles. His main claim to fame came when he authored a story, “Why I Collect Empty Bottles,” in the Saturday Evening Post of Oct. 16, 1929.

Charles McMurray was a well-known antiques dealer in Dayton, Ohio. He wrote articles for local newspapers and in 1927 published a small black handbook on bottles, using items from his own collection for the photos. In 1970, a Connecticut bookseller sent out a list of bottle books for sale. On the list was a small black handbook the bookseller said was authored by Charles B. Gardner and himself. Turned out that Gardner had only priced the bottles in the book, which was nearly identical in every way to McMurray’s 1927 book.

Sam Laidacker was the author

He

antiques in general. He operated an antiques shop in Bristol, Pa., and was considered an authority on antique bottles. He relocated to Bloomsburg, Pa., in the late 1960s and continued to deal from a large mansion and carriage house. His father was collecting flasks and Kentucky rifles in the early 1900s. His brother, John, had 1,000 historical flasks to sell in the mid-1960s. Sam’s son, Jack, became an authority on guns and military medals and an author on the subject. Sam also did cataloging for many of the prominent auction houses across the country. He helped FOHBC Hall of Famers Dick and Elma Watson develop an expertise in antique bottles and sold them many that became the foundation for their extensive collection.

1991

Dr. Julian Harrison Toulouse was a student of glass containers for more than 30 years. He was chief engineer and manager of quality control and operations research and later consultant to the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. He was chief of the glass container section of the War Production Board during World War II. He was the author of Fruit Jars: A Collector’s Manual, in 1969 and Bottle Makers and Their Marks in 1971.

1992

Ron Fowler was born in 1947 and is retired from the SAFECO Insurance Co. He became interested in bottles and their histories while serving as manager of the Triple R Ranch in Olympia, Wash. He discovered the ranch’s dump and excavated it over a period of several years. He researched the bottles he uncovered. He maintains a worldwide correspondence with fellow bottle collectors. He was a monthly columnist for Old Bottle Magazine from 1983 to 1986. The author of six books on bottle collecting, he received FOHBC awards for research and editing. He established the Hutchinson Bottle Collectors’ Association in 2007 and continues compiling data while documenting the existence of more than 15,000 Hutchinson bottles.

1993

Lew and Lois Roach were from the original group of pioneer western collectors from Sacramento, Calif. They put together a marvelous collection of label-under-glass back bar whiskeys and Lew became the authority on that variety. Lew designed, printed and hand-colored the first multi-colored show poster in 1968 for the Golden Gate Historical Bottle Society Inc. The show was held in Alameda, Calif., May 25-26. After the show, the poster was presented to FOHBC Hall of Famer Dr. Cecil Munsey, one of the poster’s admirers.

1995

Judge Edward S. MacKenzie began collecting by accident in 1959 during recuperation from a heart condition. His physician had ordered him to take walks and the judge found a few old bottles en route and became curious about them. Inspired by his wife, Romie, he and she eventually put together one of the finest general bottle collections in the world in their Brooksville, Florida home. The collection had eventually grown to more than 7,000. The first of a series of auctions was conducted by Norm Heckler Sr., on October 7, 1994. “This collection coming on the market carries the same weight, is similar in importance, as the glass collections of Charles Gardner, Edmund Blaske and even Paul Richards,” Heckler noted. MacKenzie died in 1994.

Kenneth M. Wilson was an early collector, book author and distinguished glass expert. He was the director of collections and preservation at Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. He teamed up with Helen McKearin to write American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry (1978), an update of George S. and Helen McKearin’s 1941 classic American Glass. Wilson also authored New England Glass and Glass-making on his own.

2000

Sam Taylor was a pharmacist and member of the St. Louis Bottle Club. He had one of the best collections of pharmaceutical items in the U.S. He transformed his basement into an early drug store atmosphere, displaying his great collection. Supported by his wife, Eloise, he shared his enthusiasm by inviting numerous collectors who happened to be in the area into their home and shared their hospitality and tremendous knowledge. It was like stepping into an early drug store of the past if you were lucky enough to be invited. The Taylors, who had no children, frequently attended the Mansfield, Ohio Bottle Show and stationed themselves near the front entrance. They were easily identified by their traveling companion, “Edith,” a full-blooded English bulldog of massive proportions,

who spent most of her time sleeping behind their tables. When the dog passed away, she was mourned by all the collectors who had come to know her.

2001

Robert Eugene (Bob) Barnett was born in Kootenai, Idaho on August 27, 1921 and was bitten by the bottle bug later in life than most, becoming active in the hobby about 1970. He specifically liked Western whiskies. He enjoyed what he called “a revolving collection,” buying and selling large numbers of bottles, most of which never stayed on his shelves more than a month or two. During the early 1970s, Bob and his wife, June, became permanent fixtures at just about every show west of the Rockies. He also began to mail monthly lists of western whiskies to an ever-growing number of collectors. His reputation for honesty, integrity and fairness was legendary. In 1979, Bob parlayed his vast knowledge into publishing his first book, Pacific Coast Whiskey Bottles. He published Western Liquor Bottles in 1987 and Western Whiskey Bottles in 1992 and 1997. He died June 4, 2007 in Lakeview, Oregon.

John Thomas was a collector, researcher and historian whose efforts contributed very significantly to the understanding of Western whiskey bottles as well as bottle collecting in general. He is perhaps best known among collectors for his research and publishing of Whiskey Bottles of the Old West (1969). His next book was Picnics, Coffins, Shoo-Flies (1974). He also authored Whiskey Bottles and Liquor Containers from the State of Washington and Whiskey Bottles and Liquor Containers from the State of Oregon (1998). His longtime hobby was the collecting of Western whiskey bottles, shot glasses and related advertising. He was a significant factor in creating a broad interest in the history and collecting of these bottles through his contributions to the hobby. He died in 2000.

2003

Neal and Mary Jane Ferguson, of Nashville, Tenn., were early collectors who in 1965 founded the Middle Tennessee Antique Bottle Club in Nashville. They were life members of the Federation. Quiet and unassuming, Neal was a driving force in the antique bottle hobby in Tennessee and an acknowledged expert on Nashville bottles. His special interests included Nashville sodas and he conducted extensive research into the Diehl and Lord, Ottenville and McCormack companies. He wrote many articles for his club newsletter as well as for the Federation. Mary Jane was a constant help to her husband and was involved in all aspects of the Federation and the hobby with him. She was Southern Region editor of the Federation until ill health forced her to retire during the 1990s.

Willy Van den Bossche was born in Belgium in 1943 where he graduated in industrial engineering in 1967 and then specialized in glass technology. For two years he worked as a Chief Plant Engineer in the bottle making industry in Antwerp (Belgium) where he started collecting bottles. From 1971 until his retirement, he worked as a Chief Patent Examiner in the field of glass technology at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Holland where he searched more than 4000 glass patent applications world-wide. In 1999, he authored the International Patent Classification in the field of Glass Technology (C03B) for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). For more than 50 years he has been a pioneer and a serious collector of European antique glass bottles (1500-1850) and utility glass, as well as all literature on glass, the art of glass and glassmaking from all over the world. In 2001, after capping 12 years of research and development, he authored his first major reference work Antique Glass Bottles–Their History and Evolution (1500-1850)–A Comprehensive, Illustrated Guide–With a World-wide Bibliography of Glass Bottles (440 p. with 770 European bottles, jars and seals illustrating in full color his entire private bottle collection). In 2012, he authored his second major reference work Bibliography of Glass: From the Earliest Times to the Present (347 p., 3426 titles) spending 10 years preparing this book in four languages (English, French, German and Dutch). His most important glass library (4,200 books) contains all the significant literature devoted to antique glass and glass bottles world-wide in all languages. Willy is a member of several international associations for the history of glass including the Glass Comity of the International Council of Museums (ICOM/Glass). He has lectured and written many articles on antique bottles and glass. He retired in 2003 and lives in Belgium.

2005

Frank Sternad is a graduate of the University of California School of Pharmacy. He has worked as a community pharmacist for 40 years. He is a historian who has studied and written about medicine for a number of publications, including those that specialize in collecting antique bottles. He has consulted with many collectors and is known for his vast knowledge of patent and proprietary medicine histories.

Katie Foglesong was a charter member and spark plug of the Iowa Antique Bottleers. She also was an early secretary of the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (later Collectors) and privately published an entertaining book, Trials and Trails of a Bottle Collector

Steve Ketcham began collecting antique bottles, advertising and stoneware in 1967 while still in high school. While attending the University of Minnesota, he began digging for bottles along the Mississippi River banks near the campus. He became charter member No. 11 of the North Star Historical Bottle Association in 1970 and a couple of years later joined Minnesota’s First Antique Bottle Club. He began attending regional meetings of the FOHBC in 1973, later serving as assistant chairman and then chairman of the Midwest Region. He established the Federation’s writers’ contest and served as chairman for several years. He was Federation president from 1982-84 and served on the board from 1982-98. A prolific writer, Steve contributed articles to Bottles and Extras and Antique Bottle & Glass Collector.

2010

The contributions to the bottle collecting hobby by Scott Grandstaff and Kitty Roach commenced in 1988 when the magazine Bottles and Extras took form on the kitchen table of their home in Happy Camp, California. With the help and support of FOHBC Hall of Famer, Dr. Cecil Munsey, of Poway, California, they published their first edition in 1989. In 1995, when the publication had grown too big for both of them, they decided to turn over the magazine and subscribers list to the FOHBC at no charge. Bottles and Extras (now Antique Bottle & Glass Collector in 2022) has become the Federation’s most tangible asset.

Native Californian Jeff Wichmann has been a collector of antique bottles for more than 40 years. In 1990, he established Pacific Glass Auctions, changing the name in 2001 to American Bottle Auctions. His was the first bottle auction house to provide full-color glossy catalogs sent to collectors at no charge. Other innovations that benefited collectors included launching the first online antique bottle auction. He developed americanbottle.com, a website loaded with news and features of interest to collectors. His bottle photography is considered by many to be the best in the business. In 1999, he published The Best of the West - Antique Western Bitters Bottles, considered one of the top resources for researchers.

2016

Thomas William “Tommy” Mitchiner. The antique bottle collecting hobby for Tommy Mitchiner, of Gordon, Georgia, started in 1966 following a newspaper article about people digging in Savannah, Georgia and finding lots of John Ryan sodas and other bottles. Between that year and 2013 when he passed away, Mitchiner had become Georgia’s most famous bottle collector and had amassed a huge collection of John Ryan sodas, many in rare colors, that was never duplicated. He became known as “the King of John Ryan Soda Collectors.” In addition, he conducted lots of research in the days before the Internet and became well-known throughout the Southeast as an authority not only on Savannah and many Georgia bottles, but hand-painted marbles and figural smoking pipes, most of which he dug from hundreds of privies in the coastal city. He willingly shared that hard-earned knowledge with any collector who asked. Mitchiner also had become an expert in cleaning dug bottles and many a collection owes its brilliance to that expertise.

2017

The hobby of collecting antique bottles attracts many people from all walks of life. After joining, many seem to disappear off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. That isn’t true for Jon Landers, of Utica, New York. Not only was he a founding father of the Mohawk Valley Antique Bottle Club in 1994, he also holds active membership in many other bottle clubs and historical societies and organizations. Once he started his collections of local bottles, he decided to investigate the histories behind them: Who made them, when and where? Answers to some of his questions weren’t immediately forthcoming so that meant Jon, with the support of his wife, Sue, had to spend much of his free time pursuing documentary evidence at sources such as libraries and newspaper archives. One of his outstanding efforts dealt with the history of the Mount Vernon Glassworks of which he has become an authority. He soon learned that research is an important part of the antique bottle hobby and was thrilled to find answers to questions that had eluded him. That research led him to the stories behind bottle-related businesses and the people who had developed them. Best of all, Jon shares each bit of information with fellow collectors by writing and posting stories in his club’s newsletter, “Bottles Along the Mohawk,” which he has edited since the club’s founding. He’s never missed an issue during those 22 years.

Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club

The Midwest Antique Fruit Jar and Bottle Club is an organization of people interested in collecting and learning about fruit jars and bottles. While the club is headquartered in the Midwest (Indiana), we have members from all over the country and some in Canada. Find out more at:

•Our website: FruitJar.org

•Facebook Page: Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club

•Famous annual Show and Sale every third Saturday in January in Muncie, Indiana.

Texas blob-top soda water & beer bottles•Quality bottles & collectibles from Duerlers, Central Texas to Rio Grande Valley•Rare Texas & US Territory Hutch-type soda water bottles•Rare picture & colored Hutches (Texas, Mid-West & Western)•Territory, Texas & Western colored drugstore bottles•Early related Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, OC & national brand bottles & “go-withs”•CC imitators, errors or 3rd shift bottles•General store: showcases, Victorian accessories, lamps & lighting•Early & 20th-century Texas art & paintings•San Jose pottery•Emerald, apple green, teal or citron variants of Art Deco & other soda, drugstore or bitters bottles•Soda water, automotive & gas advertising•Historical documents & ephemera

PROMISING CURES

Members of the Merrimack Valley Antique Bottle Club (Mass and New Hampshire). Remember our 49th Annual Show on September 15, 2024 and our FOHBC Northeast Director, Charlie Martin Jr. (and his wife Jane) Thank You!

Good luck from Tom & Nancy Paskiewicz, keeper of the Wannalancet Indian Bitters (W 27)

CLEMMONS ANTIQUE BOTTLE SHOW

Show Hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm – Dealer Set-Up Starts at 7:00 am Show Host: DAVID ERICKSON, 336-247-1928, Dave.erickson111@gmail.com FREE BOTTLE APPRAISALS

Contact show host to reserve tables. A document will be emailed or mailed to you showing a map with parking and entrance details. Tables are provided for $30, 3x6 or two tables for $45. You need to bring your own table covers. Chairs are provided. This is a continuation of the Greensboro Bottle Show. The location we have been using for years is no longer available.

Greetings to H24 from Señor Ginger Ale

Made from Clay History of 19th Century Pottery Makers of Wisconsin

Website: madefromclay.org

Henry Hecker, Mark Knipping and Peter Maas have been collecting examples and researching the history of Wisconsin pottery for a combined span of almost a century. Their website is intended to function as an open-ended forum to gather and disseminate photographic and historical materials which better document the potters and pottery of Wisconsin. Contact the site for possible attribution and other information about your pieces. We are here to share our expertise but are not appraisers. The site has photo galleries and several reports on pottery site excavations that substantiate our attributions.

Sunday Sept. 15, 2024 9:00 am to 2:00 pm

Polish Falcons Hall

445 Columbia Ave. Depew, New York

Admission – $4 (Children under 12 Free) Free Appraisals

NEW LOCATION

Sunday October 20, 2024 9:00 am to 2:00 pm

Owens Community College Education & Wellness Center 3200 Bright Rd., Findlay, Ohio

Free Parking, Admission $5, Under 12 Free Hot Food & Beverages Available Bottles, Stoneware, Fruit Jars, Collectibles, Insulators, Advertising, Small Antiques, Free Appraisals, w/paid adm.

Info: finbotclub@gmail.com

Website: finbotclub.blogspot.com

Dealer Info: Fred Curtis 419-424-0486

Early Bird Adm. Sunday Only 7-9 am - $20

Non-Profit Club – Member FOHBC

Info: mabacshow@yahoo.com milwaukeebottleclub.org

Tennessee Bottle Collectors Fifth Anniversary Show

Advertising, Signs, Soda Pop, Beer & Ales, Hutches, Bitters, Inks, Medicines, Milk, Soda Water, Whiskey, Jars, ACL’s, Blobs, Flasks, Insulators etc.

Tennessee

Show Chairmen: Greg Eaton, 865-548-3176 & Stanley Word, 615-708-6634

ADVERTISING INDEX

1st Chicago Bottle Club – 107

Abbott, Steve – 125

ACL Corner, Mike Dickman – 143

Adams, Theo – 162

American Antique Glass Masterpieces – 4, 5, 22, 23, 34, 35, 55

American Bottle Auctions – Inside Back Cover

American Digger Magazine – 147

A.M. Bininger Bottles – 142

American Glass Gallery – Inside Front Cover

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector – 76, 77

Antique Bottle Club of San Diego – 160

Antiques & Collectibles Insurance Group – 160

Baab, Bill & Bea – 137

Bartsch, Joel A. – 10, 11

Bayou City Sunset Auction – 62

Beith, Clifton – 136

Bender, Jim – 142

Bill & Jill Insulators – 126

Bingham, Brian 154

Bitters Bottles Supplement 2 – 143

Booth-Wickman, Alicia – 138

Burkhardt, Jeff “Froggy” – 139

Cabin Fever – 97

Cabaniss, Joan C. – 142

Cable, Chip – 148

Carney, Richard – 134, 135

Cassetta, Craig – 149

Charlton, Dana – 148

Ciralli, Rick (RCGlass, LLC) – 163

Clemmons Antique Bottle Show – 153

Craig, Kathie & Michael – 48

Crowded House Auctions – 127

Dalton, Brad – 143

Dalton Gang Antiques & Collectibles – 157

DeMaison, Alan – 153

DeWolfe, Brandon – 138

Drake’s Plantation Bitters Comm. Bottles – 59

Early Sodas of the Carolinas – 64

Explore Portals & Passages – 19

Feldmann, John & Sheila, In Memory of – 146

Finch, Ralph & Janet – 98

Findlay Antique Bottle Club – 158

FOHBC Auction Price Report – 82

FOHBC Exhibition Books – 42, 43

FOHBC Membership Breakfast Meeting – 60

FOHBC Membership – 84

FOHBC Online Webinars – 83

FOHBC Reno 2025 – 161

FOHBC Virtual Museum – 78, 79

Forbes, Jerry & Helen – 151

Forks of the Delaware Bottle Collectors – 156

Furniture Doctor, Inc. – 140

Fuss, Sandor P. – 50, 51

Glass Works Auctions – 47

Granger, “Balsam” Bill – 127

Gray, Ed & Kathy – 156

Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association – 155

GVBCA Rochester NY Bottle Show – 158

H24 Shirts – 57

Hagenbuch, Jim – 46

Hall, Jim & Jodi – 160

Ham, Bill – 143

Hands, Ron – 160

Hartz, Christopher – 141

Heckler – Back Cover

Heckler Jr., Norm – Back Cover

Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC – 108

Holabird, Fred– 108

Hotel ZaZa – 14, 15

Houston 24 Certificate Raffles – 85

Houston 24 Dinosaurs Banquet – 61

Houston 24 Displays & Exhibitors – 75

Houston 24 Jug Raffles – 58

Houston 24 Ribbon Cutting Events – 85

Houston 24 Seminars – 70-74

Houston 24 Youth Corner – 86, 87

Houston Museum of Natural Science – 10, 11

Hubbell, Stephen – 133

International Perfume Bottle Association – 63

Jackson, Stephen R. – 144

Jeffrey S. Evans & Assoc. – 56

Johnston, Henry & Toni – 151

Kasper, Jay – 152

Ketcham, Steve – 142

Kyle, Dave – 154

Land of Oz, Only in Houston – 8

Las Vegas Antique Bottle Club – 141

Little Rhody Bottle Club Schedule – 158

Lines, Tom – 149

Mackintosh, Michael – 49

Martin Jr., Charlie – 160

McGuire, Eric – 98

McMurray Antiques & Auctions – 125

Meier, Bill & Jill – 126

Meyer, Addy – 160

Meyer, Bella – 160

Meyer, Elizabeth & Ferdinand – 45

Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club – 141

Milwaukee Antique Bottle & Adv. Club – 162

National Associ. of Breweriana Advertising – 109

National Assoc. of Milk Bottle Collectors – 139

National Bottle Museum – 152

National Insulator Association – 99

Newman, Mike – 153

Noordsy, Jeff & Holly – 157

North American Glass – 89

North American Soda & Beer Bottles – 140

Northwest Bottle Collectors – 153

Ohio Bottle Club – 141

O’Neill, John – 52, 53

Oregon Bottle, Antique & Collectibles Show – 158

Painted Soda Bottles Collectors Association – 145

Paskiewicz, Tom & Nancy – 150

Pastor, John – Inside Front Cover

Peachridge Collections, LLC – 45

Pettit, Tom – 145

Phillips, Tom – 136

Pellegrini-Ott, Gina – 88

Price, Russ – 159

Promising Cures – 146

Rakes, David Kyle – 64

Rapoza, Andy – 146

Reynolds, Cheryl – 154

Sacramento Valley Mus. Bottle Show – 147

Sea Glass of Maine – 134, 135

Seeliger, Alice & Michael – 48

Señor Ginger Ale – 155

Shephard, Bruce – 155

Siri, Richard 150

Smith, Walter & Bruce – 140

Spurgeon, Greg – 89

St. Louis 55th Antique Bottle Show – 140

State of Franklin Antique Bottle Assoc. – 124

Taylor, Bill – 65

Tennessee Bottle Collectors 5th Ann. Show – 163

Texas Hold ’em Competition – 54

Tucker, Rich & Kathy – 80, 81

Van den Bossche, Willy – 143

Van Zant, Martin – 127

Vollmer, Marty – 142

Von Mechow, Tod – 140

Washington Bottle Collectors Association – 160

Welcome to Space City – 3

Wichmann, Jeff – Inside Back Cover

Wilber & Gugliotti Barber Bottles – 40, 41

Wisconsin Made from Clay – 155

Word, Stanley – 162

Texas Sweet

01 Aug – 04 Aug 2024

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is a light, sweet crude oil that serves as one of the main global oil benchmarks. It is sourced primarily from inland Texas and is one of the highest quality oils in the world, which is easy to refine.