Discover the beauty of early American glass FREE Appraisals We pay top dollar for your antique bottles Low consignment rates Over 20 years’ experience For more information, visit our website at americanbottle.com or email us at info@americanbottle.com
1-800-806-7722 American Bottle Auctions • 915 28th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
20 years in business!
Bottles and Extras
1
May - June 2015
Vol. 26 No. 3
May - June 2015
No. 219
Table of Contents FOHBC Officer Listing Late Persian Bottles - the Black Is There Really a Burton’s Bitters? 2014-16.................................................. 2 by Ferdinand Meyer V.................................16 Glass of the Middle East by Phil Culhane...................................48 President’s Message...........................3 The Big Drink: Buffalo Springs The National Bottle Museum Lithia Water Shards of Wisdom..............................4 by Jack Sullivan...........................................24 by Jim Bender.....................................56 FOHBC News The Tommy Mitchiner Story: Part From & For Our Members.................. 6 three of a four-part series on bottle collecting in Georgia Part 2: The Bottlers of Dubuque, by Bill Baab..................................................30 The Early Years 1854-1883 by Mark Wiseman............................... 12 This Anointing Bottle Fascinates Me by Dr. Don Alkema.......................................38
Next Issue
• A Jar From 1820s Indianapolis, J.R. Crumbaugh • Choo-Choo to Chattanooga! • Curiosity May Have Killed the Cat; Not This Curious Bottle Collector
Classified Ads & Ad Rate Info..................................... 65 Membership Directory.................... 67 FOHBC Show-Biz Show Calendar Listings................... 68 Membership Application................. 72
• The Jack Pelleteir Collection • Digging: From Bottle Collecting to Archaeology • How New York State got its Official Bottle
Don’t miss an issue - Please check your labels for expiration information. Fair use notice: Some material above has been submitted for publication in this magazine and/or was originally published by the authors and is copyrighted. We, as a non-profit organization, offer it here as an educational tool to increase further understanding and discussion of bottle collecting and related history. We believe this constitutes “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use”, you must obtain permission from the copyrighted owner(s).
WHO DO I CONTACT ABOUT THE MAGAZINE? CHANGE OF ADDRESS, MISSING ISSUES, etc., contact Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org, To ADVERTISE, SUBSCRIBE or RENEW a subscription, see pages 65 and 72 for details. To SUBMIT A STORY, send a LETTER TO THE EDITOR or have COMMENTS and concerns, Contact: Martin Van Zant, Bottles and Extras Editor, 208 Urban Street, Danville, IN 46122 phone: (812) 841-9495 or e-mail: mdvanzant@yahoo.com BOTTLES AND EXTRAS © (ISSN 1050-5598) is published bi-monthly (6 Issues per year) by the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. (a non-profit IRS C3 educational organization) at 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; Website: Fohbc.org Non-profit periodicals postage paid at Raymore, MO 64083 and additional mailing office, Pub. #005062. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bottles and Extras, FOHBC, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; Annual subscription rate is: $30 or $45 for First Class, $50 Canada and other foreign, $65 in U.S. funds. The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. assumes no responsibility for products and services advertised in this publication. The names: Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and Bottles and Extras ©, are registered ® names of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and no use of either, other than as references, may be used without expressed written consent from the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. Certain material contained in this publication is copyrighted by, and remains the sole property of, the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., while others remain property of the submitting authors. Detailed information concerning a particular article may be obtained from the Editor. Printed by Modernlitho, Jefferson City, MO 65101.
2
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a non-profit organization for collectors of historical bottles and related collectible items. Our Primary goal is educational as it relates to the history and manufacture of historical bottles and related artifacts.
FOHBC Officers 2014-2016
President: Ferdinand Meyer V, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: fmeyer@fohbc.org First Vice-President: Sheldon Baugh, 252 W Valley Dr, Russellville, KY 42276; phone: (270) 726-2712; e-mail: sbi_inc@bellsouth.net Second Vice-President: Gene Bradberry, 3706 Deerfield Cove, Bartlett, TN 38135; phone: (901) 372-8428; e-mail: genebsa@gmail.com Secretary: James Berry, 200 Fort Plain Watershed Rd, St. Johnsville, NY 13452; phone: (518) 568-5683; e-mail: jhberry10@yahoo.com Treasurer: Gary Beatty, 3068 Jolivette Rd., North Port, FL 34288; phone: (941) 276-1546; e-mail: tropicalbreezes@verizon.net Historian: Jim Bender, PO Box 162, Sprakers, NY 12166; phone: (518) 673-8833; e-mail: jim1@frontiernet.net Editor: Martin Van Zant, 208 Urban St, Danville, IN 46122; phone: (812) 841-9495; e-mail: mdvanzant@yahoo.com. Merchandising Director: Val Berry, 200 Fort Plain Watershed Rd, St. Johnsville, NY 13452; phone: (518) 568-5683; e-mail: vgberry10@yahoo.com Membership Director: Position Open
Conventions Director: Position Open Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org Director-at-Large: Bob Ferraro, 515 Northridge Dr, Boulder City, NV 89005; phone: (702) 293-3114; e-mail: mayorferraro@aol.com. Director-at-Large: Steve Ketcham, PO Box 24114, Edina, Minnesota 55424, phone: (952) 920-4205; email: steve@antiquebottledepot.com Director-at-Large: John Pastor, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165; phone: (248) 486-0530; e-mail: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com Midwest Region Director: Matt Lacy, 3836 State Route 307, Austinburg Ohio 44010, phone: (440) 228-1873, e-mail: info@antiquebottlesales.com Northeast Region Director: Andrew Vuono, 34 Ridgeway Street, Stamford, Connecticut 06907, phone: (203) 9759055, e-mail: amvuono@gmail.com Southern Region Director: Ron Hands, 913 Parkside Drive, Wilson, North Carolina 27896, phone: (330) 338-3455, e-mail: rshands225@yahoo.com Western Region Director: Eric McGuire, 1732 Inverness Drive, Petaluma, California 94954, phone: (707) 778-2255, e-mail: etmcguire@comcast.net Public Relations Director: Rick DeMarsh, 3049 Galway Road, Ballston Spa, New York 12020, phone: (518) 225-3467, e-mail: ricksbottleroom@gmail.com
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
3
FOHBC
President’s Message Ferdinand Ferdinand MMeyer eyer V V FMG Design, Inc.
FMG Design, Inc. 101 Crawford Street 101 Crawford Street Studio 1A Studio 1ATexas 77002 Houston, Houston, Texas 77002 fmeyer@fohbc.org ferdinand@peachridgeglass.com
It is Sunday morning and I“page sit here reflecting very twoearly months, I am faced with a blank 3” of the upcomingat issue of Bottles ThisKeene, is whereNew the President of the FOHBC TimoleonÕs DinerandinExtras. quaint Hampshire while is supposed tosome give acoffee message. blankness until I start hitting drinking to The warm me up is(itexpansive is 45 degrees outside, the keys on my laptop and set the wheels in motion. A cup of coffee next to chilly for a Texan). The Yankee Bottle Show starts here shortly me, with the dogs fed and asleep at my feet…it is time to write my message. and bePresident, a fun conclusion long Members weekendand of most bottleimportantly, events I Afterwill all, as I report to to theaBoard that started out with a gathering at Federation members Mark report to our great and expanding membership. I report to you. and Annie VuonoÕs in Stamford, Connecticut on Friday and Did you notice that the great BaltimoreDay Antique Bottle Show a week included the Heckler Columbus Hayfield eventwas in Woodlater this year? Talking to the show chairs, this was a weather gamble that stock Connecticut yesterday. I am thinking that this paid offValley, even though there was yet another snow event on the Thursday was exactElizabeth spot, two years ago today, greatto beforethe the show. and I actually switched flightsthat fromthe Thursday Friday morning to avoid traffic That paid off too as weExtras, landed Feldmann story that Iair retell indelays. this issue of Bottles and mid-day Friday, in frigid but weather. We and had apictures. super timeJohn as got its wings. I hope youbeautiful enjoy the article we stayed in the Inner Harbor near Little Italy, which was mostly frozen and Sheila are wonderful people that represent the foundation over. I love Baltimore, my home town. You can read, “2015 Baltimore and cornerstone our great hobby. Antique Bottle ShowofAnother Success” by Jim Bender, club historian, on the What web a whirlwind of events since our great EXPO in late Federation site. July in Reno, Nevada. Every time I think of this event, I am Speaking ofof Baltimore, we hadIour meeting reminded how grateful am,semi-annual and we allFOHBC shouldboard be, of Martyon Saturday morning. It usually lasts four hours, but we finished a little bit early Hall, Richard the Reno and theinlegions of and covered all ofSiri, our agenda items.Bottle This hasClub not happened a long time. helpers that pulled offthe this mega event. Marty reported Teamwork! You can read notes on the FOHBC webeven site. All meetingaand conference notes aresuccess posted by FOHBC Secretary Jim Just go to the strong financial that demonstrates yetBerry. again, that our horizontal greenisbar, select the FOHBCand drop marching down menu forward. and click “Notes organization getting stronger The of Record.” Following the meeting, I sent the following e-mail to the board 2013 FOHBC National in Manchester, New Hampshire next members with gratitude on my mind: year is progressing smoothly with a majority of the tables already being sold. Lexington, Kentucky will be our location Dear Board Members: for the 2014 National, so make your plans here, too. You can Thankinformation you for a veryfor productive be very that we get both meeting. events We by should visiting ourpleased website, covered the entire agenda and even finished early! That’s a first, at least for FOHBC.org. Tom Phillips, our Conventions Director, was me. even in the southeast this week looking at venues for the 2015 I am especially pleased votedago to approve the were Tiered much Membership National. It was notthat toowelong that we more including Life Membership andthis Digital Membership. With aand membership short-sighted. Now with advance planning public vote in Chattanooga, we can finally put this to bed and move forward. A announcements, we can stake our claim on a date that will help special shout-out to Jim Bender and Jim Berry for heading up this effort. other show chairmen decide when to hold their events. As an aside, youclose know that there this We also did are very to filling BOTH were vacantnine boardbottle membershows positions. We may haveincluding this wrapped up across next conference call where can vote for weekend, one the pond? Our we hobby is so approval. strong. I see the glimmer of change even with our shows. LetÕs promote and grow ourbehobby. people shows. The HALLmore OF FAME vote will a silentBring vote and occur to thisthe week as Bottles, glass and positive change are contagious. approved by the Board. Elizabeth Meyer will be conducting the silent bid
E
process. Look for an e-mail on each of the three candidates by Thursday or so with and option to vote YES, NO, Abstain and COMMENT. Theisresults Federation membership is also drastically up which excit-will be confidential. We walked into the meeting with questions about the Northeast National
Antique Bottlebe Convention in 2017. We left new the room with a plan. drive ing. We will announcing a major membership Jim Bender and Bob Strickhart are acting Co-Chairs. We will vote to later this month that uses a 2,000-member target. We are confirm this next board conference call. There was quite a buzz and nearing 1,200 memberswith now. if you are a member, stay with excitement at Baltimore thisSo news. us, if youÕre are undecided, please join! There are so many Val Berrythings and Elizabeth, who staffed our greatBottles looking Federation exciting planned. Our magazine, and Extras, is Table, signed up 9 new members, 7 renewals and soldweb 23 magazines, undergoing a major face lift, we have a new site, by the two t-shirts and received one donation to the Virtual Museum. Thank time you read this, we will be 1,000 members plus on our you!!!! FOHBC facebook page, the FOHBC Virtual Museum is This is just off the(look top offor my ahead. Stillannouncement in Baltimore at the hotel.and Offwe moving forward major soon) to Greenville, morn. Complete to meeting notes will be of have just sent S.C. our tomorrow first digital newsletter a large audience issued by Jim Berry. people. The new Federation, your FOHBC. We need new blood and persons to carry the torch. I will be Ferdinand reaching out to some of our membership for pictures of your FOHBC President bottles, assistance on the web site, articles and stories for Did I mention Hall ofthe Fame voting? surenewsletter did. We hadand three outstanding Bottles and Extras, web site, Ithe help on the candidates that were presented to the Board Members. One candidate Virtual Museum. If you would like to volunteer, in any area, it achieved the 2/3 Board voting majority and will be inducted into the would be very much welcomed and appreciated. prestigious FOHBC Hall of Fame at the 2015 Chattanooga National banquet. Congratulation Ralph Finch. was ablein to the givefront Ralphof a call after the You will alsotonotice a newI section Bottles andvote confirmation, I musttosay, could not have been more grateful Extras called and Letters theheEditor. I am not sure why this and was pleased with the honor. He is on the road to recovery from serious health not there in some form or another before but we really want to issues and plans on being in Chattanooga to pick up the award. More on hear your and ideas and how we can do things better. Ralph and stories this honor down the road. You can send an e-mail, write a letter or call any board A quick including week later, Elizabeth I found at theinformation wonderful San member, myself atand any time.ourselves Our contact Obispo Bottle Show in Morro Bay,site. California. Talk about a drastic isLuis in this magazine and on the web change in weather from the Baltimore show! Lucky we changed suitcases. thegorgeous. January/February 2013 issue Tartaglia of Bottles we ItIn was Congratulations to Webb andand the Extras, club for an will be starting a two-page Regional Overview section where outstanding event crowned off with the traditional steak, sausage and wine providedincoming by Webb. What a man! Bill Hamthe showed with a wedinner. will All highlight information from fourup regions couple hundred bitters from a collection so I was a happy camper. that make up the Federation (northeast, southern, midwestYou andcan see a post from the show on the FOHBC web site. Elizabeth and I also saw western). If you have material please forward to your Regional bottles in Big Sur and did tourist things in Carmel and Monterey with our Director. If you visit web site So ormuch received bottle friends, Jerry and the Helen Forbes. fun! our newsletter, you will see that Regional News is now appearing in a different At more the Morro Bay show, I ran into Eric McGuire, and refreshing format in these venues FOHBC too. West Coast Region Director. Hestrong was able provide me with microfiche documents We are only as astoour weakest link. I use this expresrepresenting his epic work on “Bottled Products and the U.S. Patent Office sion often in business and in my general conversations with 19th Century Trade Mark and Label Registrations.” Eric was hoping that we people. Keep an open mind, be positive, and try to help, give could figure out a way to put his voluminous effort on the Member’s Portal of the FOHBC web site. and Whatmove a greatforward. idea! Another reason become and constructive criticism Smile andtosomeone stay a member of the FOHBC. This member’s portal is really growing will smile back to you. Listen and you will hear a story. Stepwith archival material. forward and tell a story. Look at your collection and find that missing bottle or link. Shows This isand what it is all about. bestyour asset Regarding our National Conventions, pleaseOur finalize plans isfor allthe of 2015 our great members. Chattanooga National led by John Joiner and Jack Hewitt. We have taken onlooking another block of hotel rooms. The49er July August of in Bottles I am also forward to the great Bottle issue Show andTown Extras Auburn, will have extensive pre-show coverage. This is going togo beto a great Old California in December. We usually one! The buzz for the 2016 Sacramento National Convention & Expo, led the of Lights each year the show. byFestival Richard Siri and teamparade is off the chart. Weafter also have an effortWe ledlove by Jim it Bender because goats, and trucks allBottle are andthe Bobhorses, Strickhartdogs, heading up thepeople 2017 Northeast Antique Convention andlights Louis Fifer and Matt Lacy heading up the adorned with for Christmas. Remember, a 2018 showMidwest is so Antique Bottle pots on the stove! much better if Convention. you make Lots it anofexperience. While you are at a show, visit a collection, go to a museum, have dinner with a I could go on and on for another page or two but I only get one page. My bottle friend, go on a dig etc. There are so many things you can blank page is now full of copy. This message now goes to Bill Baab in doAugusta, to stayGeorgia connected with great it a multito proof. Heour usually addshobby. a bunchMake of commas. Got you there, Bill! Then it goes to Martin Zant, our and Extras Editor up dimensional experience. HappyVan autumn andBottles winter. in Danville, Indiana. He is putting the magazine together. Actually, I saw the first draft yesterday. Boy, is this going to be a STELLAR issue. Plant some seeds, plant a new bottle on your shelf, spring is finally here.
4
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras Balsam of Honey, open pontil, two, $20; Cat Gut, green, open pontil, 1-1/4 inches high, $10. Mint clear glass, open pontil, 2-1/2 inches high, $3. *Many Savannah sodas, having been buried for more than a century, became opalescent with a rainbow-like finish. Tommy placed these on a shelf high over the doorway to his bottle room.
After the digs, with Tommy Mitchiner by Bill Baab
Digging with a backhoe (Hi-Hoe) isn’t cheap. Tommy’s records indicating paying totals of $680, $700, $595, $630, $665 and $630 several times. However, the Ryan Excavators at that time were composed of a six-man team, so each paid only 1/16th of the cost. A 1/16th share of $665 totaled $111.
Tommy Mitchiner, of Gordon, Georgia, dug thousands of Savannah, Georgia privies and countless trash pits from 1966 until about 2012. What did he dig?
Costs of clearing, grading and digging totaled $17,033 over a two-year period, but each of the diggers had to pay “only” $2,842, according to his records. And each of the diggers may have sold enough bottles to pay all of their expenses.
He kept records, but unfortunately didn’t date each dig, but the year may have been either 1990 or 1991. Still, the following will give you a better idea of the quality of glass that emerged from the ground: He also placed dollar figures on each artifact. Dump 1 and Dump 2 plus West Broad Lot (Bottles to keep):
Cox’s Hive Sirrup, a Patent Medicine That Really Worked
Ryan Ginger Ale, amber with citron streaks, $150; Ryan Mineral Water, IP (iron pontil), large top, super glass, $65. Ryan Mineral Water, IP, very fine glass, $60. Ryan Mineral Water, 1859, light color, $60; Ryan Mineral Water, light color, $60; Ryan Mineral Water, IP, huge blob (top), opalescent shelf*; Ryan Porter & Ale, 1866, 1-inch lettering, cobalt, opalescent shelf*. Henry Lubs, 1885, green, opalescent shelf*; M.T. Quinan, 1884, cobalt, ghost embossing, $50; Meincke & Ebberwein, 1882, cobalt, light stain, $50; G. Ebberwein, strong ice-blue, opalescent, dull, $10; G. Ebberwein, light ice blue, very clean glass, $8; Gemenden Lager Beer, aqua, excellent glass, $5; James Ray, aquamarine, excellent glass, $5; H&D, tall variety, excellent glass, $5; H&D, squat variety, excellent glass, collar peck, $5. Glen & Co., pot lid, $150. Cobalt umbrella ink, $150. Dark teal Saratoga High Rock Spring, $100; Drake’s Plantation Bitters, $30. Tin cans, brass labels, sardine tins (3 different), $40. Mexican Mustang Liniment, 7 inches high and iron pontiled, rare variant, $30; Dr. Wistar’s, whittled, mint, open pontil, $30; B.A. Fahnstock’s, open pontil, strong aquamarine, bold embossing, $10; Christie’s Magnetic Fluid, open pontil, $20; Dalby’s, open pontil, $10.
by Bill Baab
Most patent medicines in existence in the United States during most of the 19th century were worthless simply because they didn’t do what their advertisements claimed. It was downright risky to take them, no matter what the doctor said. An example is Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, which was fed to squalling babies to calm them down. The syrup contained opium and that was guaranteed to make the kids quiet. An overdose and they would be quiet forever. Back then, human life expectancy was short, but not sweet. There were exceptions and one was Cox’s (sometimes spelled Coxe’s) Hive Sirrup invented by Dr. John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia, Pa., in 1814. It had nothing to do with bees or bee hives. It treated a “disease called rattles, hives or croop which first appeared in the colonies (the U.S.) in 1659,” according to Noah Webster’s “Elements of Useful Knowledge,” Volume 1. Who was Dr. John Redman Coxe? The answer to that question and others can be found between the covers of the book, The Resurrection of Dr. John Redman Coxe, researched and written by Pennsylvania historian and bottle collector Philo Gideon. Gideon discovered one of Coxe’s embossed and pontiled bottles in an early 19th century privy and decided to devote some of his time
Bottle extraordinaire Matthew Levanti will assist the Editor with Shards of Wisdom, so send in your news or bottle updates to: Matthew T. Levanti, 5930 Juarez Road. Placerville, California, 95667 m.tigue-levanti@hotmail.com
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
5
to research the doctor and his Hive Sirrup. Turns out that it’s the earliest known embossed U.S. medicine bottle, he said. In addition the author learned the medicine “was one of the most significant reasons for a decrease in infant mortality rates starting in 1798 and continuing through 1950.” Gideon says “millions owe their lives today to Cox’s Hive Sirrup.” The book is Volume II of a series of books planned by Gideon. Volume I was Cullen’s Egg Bottle published seven years ago. Other books are in the making. The current book’s information isn’t limited to Dr. Coxe. It touches the early history of Dr. Thomas W. Dyott, the prominent Philadelphia physician and patent medicine maker whose early start wasn’t in the North, but down South in Dixieland. The 256-page, hardbound book with dust jacket measures 8-1/2
by 11 inches and weighs 3 pounds. There are 157 pages of full color illustrations. The author said copies of Cullen’s Egg Bottle are still available. Each book costs $80 including shipping and is available from Philo Gideon, P.O. Box 8082, Wilmington, Delaware 19803.
‘Secrets’ of keeping a club together
published author Harvey Teal, of Columbia, S.C., who also is a club member. Here is a summary of his presentation:
How do you keep an antique bottle club together and keep it from disappearing?
The South Carolina Interstate and West Indies Exposition was held in Charleston in 1901-02. Billed as sort of a world’s fair, attendance at the event proved disappointing.
by Bill Baab
The way it’s done at the Horse Creek Bottle & Pottery Club in Aiken, South Carolina is to provide speakers whose subjects don’t always include bottles. Diversity works for this FOHBC affiliate. Last year, club members heard talks about advertising envelopes (covers) used during the Civil War and an overview of local (Edgefield District) pottery from homegrown authorities and club members. Scheduled for later in the year were master potter Justin Guy, who operates the Old Edgefield Pottery, and a local historian and collector of Native American artifacts. Previous programs included slide shows featuring the Charles Gardner collections, as well as a visit to a private museum loaded with Civil War artifacts and big game mounts. Oddly enough, when pottery programs are scheduled, more members show up than when bottle programs are set. The formula appears to be working because the club celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. The May program was presented by historian, collector and
However, organizers provided many souvenirs, most of which are rarely seen today, and Teal provided many examples from his personal collection. Among the items are stationery in different colors, advertising covers (envelopes), including those showing an outline of the eastern U.S., with Charleston’s location pin pointed, picture post cards, ash trays, aluminum trays, coin holders, note cases, paper weights and silk book marks, all marked with the Expo name. The book marks contained the words to the old favorite song, “Home, Sweet Home.” The U.S. Post Office Department (now called U.S. Postal Service) set up a branch at the exposition and used a special postmark on souvenir covers. Teal’s collection also included covers advertising fairs and carnivals in other parts of South Carolina as well as in Georgia, and included press passes and general admission tickets. The South Carolina Dispensary also set up and sold booze during the Expo. Some enterprising individual also had Exposition bottles made. The tiny bottles have the state tree (a palmetto) embossed on one side and the Expo name ebossed on the other. The bottle is rare.
6
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
FOHBC News From & For Our Members Dick Watson & Histories Corner
the good work.
Ferdinand - First of all, let me compliment you in the fine job and great direction you have given to the Federation. I cherish each issue of Bottles and Extras when it arrives and like everyone else I was saddened to know Dick Watson is no longer with us. I would like to believe he is reunited with the heavyweights of the hobby.
Jim Wagner
I am very pleased to see the Histories Corner memory of the 1976 Expo, which is where I first met Dick and virtually everyone that was anyone in the hobby at that time. It was totally overwhelming. Hal and Jerry received the fame and glory and my mother; Verna Wagner, was the person behind the scene. There were no computers, only the phone, post office and typewriters. She handled all correspondence as well as programs, souvenirs, contracts, etc., with a little help from her friends.
My name is Kim Logan and I am the prop buyer for a British television production for ITV called Beowulf.
Hal was not idle by any means; not only did he promote it, he and I managed to find time to build three giant mahogany, back-lighted with sliding glass door, cabinets for Alex Kerr. I was in charge of set-up and security. Again, this was absolutely overwhelming.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Hal Wagner featured in the 1972 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, “GlassyEyed Over Antique Bottles”.
Salves and Potions needed for Beowulf Production Hello Ferdinand,
I am looking to find some old bottles for a healer character to hold salves and potions. Our production is medieval, but with some creative license! Is there a supplier you know if that I can purchase some unusual bottles from? Something similar to your mini glob display on your website?
Kim Logan Production Buyer ITV BEOWULF LTD Consett, County Durham, DH8 6BP FOHBC: We connected Ms. Logan with Federation member Alan Blakeman in the UK.
Anointing Bottle Update I received a letter from Adrianne Rubin PhD at Museum in NYC. She is one of leading art authorities in religious antique art in the world. She said the same thing that Dr. Ruggiero wrote from Corning Glass Museum and also from The Museum of Historical Bottles. “It is beautiful and it is old but we don’t know what it is and we have never seen anything like it.” The curators at MOBIA on Park Avenue suggested I send pictures to Christie’s Antique Art Auction and ask their experts to look at the photos.
A lot of folks pulled together and let me say, hard work maybe was never so much fun. I am attaching copies of the local paper from 1972 featuring Hal, for your enjoyment. He, like so many from those years, had a tireless commitment to life and their hobby. Also, Verna was secretary for the Federation for a good number of years and I have boxes of paper I would like to see in a new secure location. You maybe spoke too soon about no snow in Houston. Keep up
Hal Wagner proDon’s filed in aAnointing 1972 St. Bottle Louis Post-Dispatch article “Glass-Eyed Over Antique Bottles”.
Bottles and Extras
7
May - June 2015
Here is the problem, Ferdinand. None of these world art experts are graphic art designers like you. (Chattanooga engine with bottles was a good one) Listen, if an explorer went into the deep interior of the Amazon River and put up a big sign with the McDonald’s golden arches, the tribes would not know what it was and run away. However, when my little grandkids see the golden arches, they start clamoring for a happy meal and a toy. There is the problem. The monks chanted the Apostles Creed 5 times a day. The graphics on the bottle are in solid glass. The monks knew what it said. The three panels with their black glass dots and patch symbols depict the life of Christ taken right from the words of the Creed.…the Sinless Lamb of God / the Propitiation / and the Crucifixion. Just like the Amazon tribe people, the art experts cannot see it in the graphics. Anyway, I was going to stop at the top of the mountain flea market and find you a nice bottle but the I-24 passes over Monteagle were shut down from ice and truck wrecks. We had to spend the night at Kimball with about a thousand other people and trucks. The pass opened up next morning but the market was closed. Instead, there still is a bunch of junk consignment stores in Columbia and I will go down there this week and poke around and find something good to send you to sell for the club. I looked up bitters bottles on the Internet so maybe I can find one. It is OK you postponed the monk bottle article. No one in the Historical Society has ever seen one of these coded bottles either. And when you describe secret codes, you will be met with disbelief. All the members have heard of a message in a bottle, but never heard of a secret code on a bottle. I guess the monk and bottle will just have to speak for themselves. I can’t prove anything. But thank you Ferdinand, so much, for being such a good guy. I hope to get to meet you at the Chattanooga National Show. Sincerely, Don FOHBC: Read, “This Anointing Bottle Fascinates Me” by Dr. Don Alkema in this issue.
Antique Bottle Collection in Houston? Mr. Meyer, I am writing you in regards to an antique glass bottlecollection that I have. I was hoping you would be able to advise me of their value and some options. Since I am not antique bottle collector, I not sure what is valuable and what is not. My wife inherited it from one of her family members some thirty years ago. After my wife passed away four years ago, I had forgot about it. The collection has been in my attic after down sizing following her death. I have been in the process of finally going through and eliminating a lot of her things. I was hoping you could give me some guidance. I have attached the original newspaper article that was written in the Houston Chronicle in 1970 about wife’s relative, Mrs. Bruce Gollan and her collection. I also have some of Mrs. Gollans hand written itemized notes of the bottles. Please let me know if you have any interest or if you know of someone else that might. Regards, Monte
Where is my Bottle Angel? Hello Sir; My name Jao Francisco Caldas. I am Brazilian origin, born on August 21, 1958 on an island called “Rio Acari”. Indeed, the purpose of my letter is that I found on the island, in 2001, a bottle named JT Gayen / ALTONA, dating from ancient times at the bottom of the Amazon River. It was my birthday and when I slept, a woman came to me and ordered me to go to this place to find my birthday present. When I hurried on my way there, there was some spirit that made me set foot next to the object. So, I put my foot down and I felt there something and I picked up the bottle, which is gorgeous and reflects an object that has value. JT GAYEN ALTONA figural cannon bottle found at the bottom of the Amazon River.
Also, I kept this art to check and get more information on the scope of this bottle so splendid. In addition, I visited on the Internet and saw other bottles of the same size and shape equal to mine. After when I learned that there are people who collect these bottles to sell to people interested in this ancient work that give them the beauty of art in their homes or office just for decorative souvenirs and beautification. It is in this movement that I am writing to share with you this bottle so grand that could serve as helpful to you and vice versa. If you are interested here is my contact information, which you may contact me. Floriano Peixoto Hoping that my condition will hold your attention, I am at your disposal to send you this bottle if you want to buy. Thank you for your understanding. Best Regards. Jao Francisco Caldas. NOTA: I am a friend of Francisco Caldas. Je Jao Jao said that cannot speak English. He only speaks Portuguese. [Ferdinand] Good grief, why doesn’t some bottle angel, in one of my dreams, lead me to a General Scott’s Artillery Bitters hidden in the banks of the Buffalo Bayou. Yes, I realize this could be a scam.
8
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
A Canning Jar Question
A Call from Ken Hamilton
Hello Ferdinand,
Hi Elizabeth, I wanted to share this with you. Every week I get a few calls from FOHBC members or people who want to be members. I normally tell them how they can sign up easiest online. Once in a while someone comes along who does not like that idea or can’t do it. Last night I got a call from Ken Hamilton in Harrison, Arkansas. Ken wants to be a member and wanted to send me a check which I normally have people send the checks and application directly to you. I talked with Ken for about half an hour and this is what I learned. Ken is 64 years old, a veteran, a cancer survivor and is on dialysis. He has never collected bottles but wants to start and hopes to find a bottle with George Washington on it. I liked this guy right off. He is so up lifting in his drive and will to go on. He chose our hobby because he heard we have great people. I sent Ken this morning the newest magazine as a gift and told him he would still get 6 more issues. I will cover postage which I normally do when I send out issues to people. Watch for Ken to send you a check. He wanted to use his credit card so maybe he will call you once he gets his application. I hope his does - it will make your day.
I was looking at your website and didn’t know who was the right person to contact about my jar. If it’s not you, would you mind passing this on to someone in your group who could shed some light on this mystery? In most of the research I’ve done on canning jars, I’ve read about pint jars, quart and 2-quart capacities but I have a jar that I filled almost all the way to the top with 6 cups (or 1 1/2 quarts) of water. Is this rare? The jar has been described to me as “slope-shouldered”, is blue or green (at this point, it’s a little hard for me to tell), it is 9” tall and is 2 1/2” across at the mouth. The top is threaded to accept the zinc lid it has on it now. The word Ball is written in script on the front and MASON is under it in block letters. If photos will help, I’d be glad to send them. Please respond, and I’ll thank you in advance. Roger Racine Hudson, NC [Jerry McCann] Odd size Ball fruit jars were often sold to be used as packer jars (a company would put their product in these jars and apply a paper label identifying their product and their name). The marketing advantage for the commercial packer was that their jars were easily identifiably reusable for home canning. The odd sizes met the needs of the commercial canner who often used them for dry products (baking powder, tobacco products, etc.) that were sold in the usual dry units of that product (weight instead of volume). In addition, fruit jars are generally identified as pint, quart, etc. but the volume does not affect the amount of seasoning ingredients, etc. since the food is mostly processed in a large kettle and then packed into the jars. In Canada, jars were traditionally sold as small, medium and large (pint, quart and half gallon) to avoid confusion over American and Imperial measures (25% larger... quarts 40 ounces instead of 32). The only consideration is that the home canner needed to leave larger jars in the boiling water longer). Thus American fruit jars did not have their size embossed on the jars...close was good enough. Finally, the Ball company had a limited license to use the Owens patented glass blowing machines for fruit jars, not packer jars (a separate license). To get around this limitation Ball sold packer jars embossed as fruit jars, even though they were to be used as packer jars. Cute dodge! Jerry P.S. Odd size Ball jars are scarcer than “regular” size jars but not rare. They have some collector value over regular Ball jar which have no collector value (hundreds of millions were produced, many have survived).
Take care Jim (Bender, FOHBC Historian)
Former Bottles and Extras Editor Kathy Hopson Sathe passes away
Kathy Hopson Sathe, former Bottles and Extras Editor
[A Communication to the FOHBC Facebook Page] I am not sure if anyone remembers my sister-in-law Kathy Hopson. She was the Bottles and Extras editor from 2004 thru 2008 though that might not be exactly right. Kathy and my brother both have been collecting bottles for years so I am writing this for my brother. He wanted to know if you could possibly post something about my sister-in-law as so many knew her in the bottle club! It is with a heavy heart that I say that she passed away on Saturday of a heart attack. She had been sick for some time. My brother wanted to let everyone know if you could please let me know one way or the other I would really appreciate it very much. Thank you, Sherry Richard [FOHBC] Bill Baab and June Lowry picked up the ball and a recognition piece is posted on the FOHBC web site.
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
9
Canada H2X 1G6
The 1st white woman to cross over into Indian Territory Dear Ms. Meyer, I am sending my renewal check for $45.00 changing to first class for my magazine. For the most part they have been arriving in pretty good shape, however my January and February issue was mangled badly. I was wondering if I could possibly get another copy of the Jan-Feb for 2015? I can’t even read the date. I want to keep them nice so I hope the upgrade mailer will help in the mailing process. Thank you. Hartwig Kantorwicz Posen bottle in milk glass.
A rare bitters I bought at auction last week in Australia G’day Ferdinand, thought you might like to see a couple photos of a rare bitters I bought at auction last week in Australia. Apparently it was dug at a bottle depot site near the docks in Melbourne here and would date from the late 1880s to early 1890s. It’s a strange looking thing and stands very tall!! I think they also come in green but I’ve never seen another white one before. Cheers =) Simon Cronk Australia
Empress of Ireland Beer Bottle The RMS Empress of Ireland in 1908
Ida May Nicholl P.S. Two of my great grandfathers fought in the Civil War and my great-great grandmother, Sarah Richardson Fuller, came across the Des Moines River in a covered wagon. There is a book written about her. She was the 1st white woman to cross over into Indian Territory (1843). At that time she made friends with the Indians and fed them. She taught them how to raise crops for food and made bread for them. There was not a town there at the time. She was born in 1822. A great story is told.
FOHBC Virtual Museum Dear Elizabeth Meyer: A couple months ago, at our monthly meeting, it was brought up that the FOHBC Virtual Museum had put out a fundraising effort. Our members decided to hold an auction to help support the museum. The auction we held on February 26, 2015 was successful and I am enclosing $328. Best Regards. Tom Tyshko, Treasurer Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club
The best Outhouse cake I have ever seen Hi Martin,
Hello Ferdinand, I received a bottle of beer as a gift. This bottle was a part of the débris left from the wreck of The Empress of Ireland. This boat sank in the St. Lawrence River in 1912 and had 1,012 victims. I took some pictures of the bottle and the inscription on the bottom of the bottle. I was wondering if you could help me to find the origin of this bottle and the name of the brewery? There are some photos: The inscription seems to be F & S, LTP and S T H, Have a great day. Francine Saint-Laurent Montréal (Québec)
I wanted to send this in for some time. A local cake-maker friend of our daughters, Michelle Smith, does cakes on the side and made me the best Outhouse cake I have ever seen. Not that there are many outhouse cakes. This cake has amazing detail. Even toilet paper! And the whole thing was edible. And delicious! Actually the digging tools, and mini milk bottles were not to be eaten. Really appreciate other people’s talents to do things I know I never could. Maybe you want to show this in the FOHBC magazine. Thanks, James (Campiglia) Bozeman, Montana
10
May - June 2015
[FOHBC] To see color pictures of this wonderful cake visit the FOHBC web site home page at FOHBC.org and look at “Editors Picks”.
A smiling James Campiglia with his “Outhouse” birthday cake
More Hotel Rooms added in Chattanooga! Hi John (Joiner), We were able to add rooms to the block for Thursday through Saturday. If anyone else has problems booking please let me know. Thank you, Natalie Welesko Sales Manager Chattanooga Marriott Downtown
Reproduction Stoddard Utilitity Bottles Mr Meyer: Like the title here suggests, I would like to bring the reproduction of Stoddard utilitity bottles to your attention. I am a moderator on Antique-bottles.net and these bottles have been in question for a number of years. I think that if you mentioned these on the Peachridge Glass site it may help. The site I am involved with is community supported and often the titles and threads are poorly worded. There have been quite a few reproductions in the last ten years but are difficult to search for. Here is a link to the latest post with and example. The thread obviously starts earlier. http://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Reproduction-Alert-m673141-p2.aspx#673911 I will search for others but these have been on sale for some time (at least 10 years) and one sold recently for over $350. I could be wrong but the evidence strongly suggests, at minimum, not near Stoddard age. Thank you for you time, Eric Kloss
Bottles and Extras
Samuel S. Morris Block Insulator My name is Easton Powell and I am in the possession of a very rare old block insulator. My family and I are collectors and I am looking for more information on this particular insulator. With my searches, I have been told it is dated around 1848. It has been said that it is a Samuel S. Morris insulator. It is light blue in color as you will see in the attached files.
I am wanting to verify the year and value of the insulator or perhaps a refural of someone who can help. Thank you for your time.
Cool Walkers Tonic Bitters Advertisement Hello Ferd; Please find attached an earlier [1867] and somewhat different newspaper advertisement for Walkers Tonic Bitters. Best Regards; Corey Stock
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
EARLY ADMISSION $25.00 DURING DEALER SET-UP FRIDAY MAY 8, 2015 3PM TO 6PM
11
12
ay - June une 2015 May
THE BOTTLERS OF DUBUQUE THE EARLY YEARS 1854 - 1883 Part 2 by Mark Wiseman
ottles and and Extras xtras Bottles
These
three articles in July of 1856 are followed by two more on July 20th, 1856, and on July 30th, 1856 both in the Dubuque Express & Herald newspaper. The editors of this newspaper had obviously fallen in love with Belcher & Co.’s bottled product and were fervently promoting its use to the family trade.
The 1856 Iowa Census lists Charles Belcher living as a single tenant located in a big household, likely a boarding house situation with the head of the household running a saloon. Charles Belcher is listed as a 29 year old single druggist, born in New York, and having been in the state for three years. In the same household William Chapman, age 30, another druggist is listed, having been in the state less than one year. The Dubuque 18561857 City Directory lists in the “Names too late for regular insertion” “C.S. Belcher, of Belcher & Co., cor 7 and Main”, “Belcher & Co. Mineral Water manufacturing, cor 7 and Main.”, and has a large advertisement for the firm, and which first uses the phrase “Excelsior Mineral Water Manufactory”. The Dubuque Daily Tribune’s earliest available newspaper on microfilm for 1857 that contains an item, concerning Belcher & Company, is the May 28, 1857, Dubuque Daily Tribune which contains an advertisement for the firm. This advertisement is dated to have started in the newspaper on February 27, 1857, and besides listing “C.S. Belcher” at the top, it lists an “E.F. Chapman”, and a “J.W. Ware” as the constituents of the firm of “Belcher & Co., Excelsior Mineral Waters”, with the office address of the firm at 132 Main Street, and the “Manufactory Tenth , Cor Jackson Street”, another address change.
ottles and and Extras xtras Bottles
ay - June une 2015 May
The Dubuque Daily Republican, July 3, 1856
The Dubuque Express & Herald, July 12th, 1856
The Dubuque Express & Herald, July 20th, 1856.
The Dubuque Express & Herald, July 30th ,1856
The collection of Iowa Antique Bottleer, Tom Southard, of Des Moines, includes a cobalt blue Belcher & Co., soda.
13
14 14
The Dubuque 1856-1857 City Directory.
une2015 2015 MMayay- -JJune
ottlesand andEE xtras BBottles xtras
Another from the collection of Tom Southard, of Des Moines, includes a cobalt blue Belcher & Co., soda. from Debuque
The Dubuque Daily Tribune, May 28, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 1, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 1, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 1, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 21, 1857 The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 1, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 1, 1857
ottlesand andEE xtras BBottles xtras
une2015 2015 MMayay- -JJune
15 15
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, August 30, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, May 21, 1857
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald’s earliest newspaper on microfilm for 1857 starts on May 1st, 1857 and contains a large advertisement for the “John Mathews, Self-Acting Generator Bottling Machine” with the “Belcher & Co., Soda Water and Syrup Manufacturers, General Agents for the West and North West” and the advertisement dated to have started on January 30, 1857. This ad is paired with the same ad that is in the Dubuque Daily Tribune without the illustration of the soda fountain equipment and dated to have started on March 1, 1857. The May 1st, 1857 Dubuque daily Express and Herald also contains an advertisement for the “C. Hornung & Co., Wholesale Dealers in Ales, Porters, &c, in Barrels and Bottles” dated to have started on April 3, 1857. Note the address is the SE corner of 7th and Main streets. This advertisement runs to July 29th, 1857. The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald newspaper dated May 21, 1857 contains an article in the Local items column describing a recent visit to Belcher & Co.’s business establishment, which indicates a high demand for their products.
The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, July 18, 1857
The Dubuque Daily North-West newspaper is available in microfilm beginning July 1st, 1857 and contains a similar version of the ad as seen in the Dubuque Daily Tribune without the soda fountain hardware but almost the same identical wording. This advertisement is dated to have started in the Daily Northwest Newspaper on April 28, 1857. The Dubuque Daily Express and Herald has a short article in the July 18th, 1857 newspaper concerning a delivery of C.S. Belcher’s soda pop to their offices. The Dubuque Daily Tribune newspaper also has an article in the July 18th, 1857 issue concerning another hot week in Dubuque.
The Dubuque Daily Tribune July 18th, 1857
The “Excelsior Mineral Water, Belcher & Co.” advertisement runs in the Dubuque Daily Tribune, and the Dubuque Daily Express and Herald to August 31st, 1857, and the similar advertisement in the Dubuque Daily North-West runs to September 6th, 1857. The August 30th, 1857 Dubuque Daily Express and Herald, runs an advertisement on its front page for the first time in the Notices of Dissolution & Co-Partnership column, which indicates that the partnership of C. Hornung & Co. composed of C.L. Hornung and Henry Wilder was dissolved on August 21,1857, and that Henry Wilder was continuing the business on his own.
The Dubuque Daily Tribune July 18th, 1857
16
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Is There Really a Burton’s Bitters?
by Ferdinand Meyer V special from PeachridgeGlass.com
I quite innocently posted the adjacent picture on Peachridge Glass and Facebook and said, “Anybody ever heard of a Burton’s Compound Vegetable Bitters? New to me. Can anyone guess who this legendary bitters collector is? This picture is from a 1966 Mardi Gras masquerade party. I am adding 1960s issues of the ABCA “The Pontil” newsletters to the FOHBC web site Members Portal. It is so fun looking at these great stories and pictures from the past. The ABCA was the forerunner of the FOHBC.
Top: Burton’s Vegetable Compound Bitters Mardi Gras costume. Right: Antique Bottle Collectors Association (ABCA) “The Pontil” Cover - April 1966
Bottles and Extras
17
May - June 2015
Dr. Burton Spiller posing with his bottle collection. Photo courtesy Dana Charlton-Zarro
OK, I know some of you have already guessed who the masqueraded bottle man is! Dr. Burton Spiller! Obviously Dr. Spiller was playing off his first name. I suppose he could have used Spiller’s Bitters. Well is there really a Burton’s Bitters? Thanks to Marianne Dow of the Findlay Bottle Club for the inspiration for this post. Here below is what we have.
Captain Burton’s Tonic Bitters Here is a reference to an unlisted Captain Burton’s Tonic Bitters in 1875. The bitters was apparently compounded by a Swedish physician in 1565. Hah, that would certainly be an old one!
Richard took it in his head to make his fortune by producing a Bitter, the secret of which he had learnt in the East; it was to be put in a pretty bottle, and to have his picture on it.
Reference to a Captain Burton’s Tonic Bitters – The Life of Captain Sir Richard. F. Burton, Volume 2, Lady Isabel Burton, D. Appleton, 1893
Continued...
18
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Burton’s Bitters Here is a reference to a Burton’s Bitters being sold at Wilson & Burwell’s drug store in Charlotte, North Carolina in July 1879. Marianne Dow adds this second clipping below from the Federal Reporter, Volume 37. Marianne adds, More likely from South Carolina - The defendant, a merchant of Lancaster, is indicted for carrying on the business of a retail liquor dealer without having paid the special tax. He sold by the bottle a compound known as “Burton’s Bitters,” not having paid the special tax as a retail liquor dealer.
Vinegar Bitters, Hop Bitters, Burton’s Bitters, Hostetters Bitters at WILSON & BURWELL’S
Top: Burton’s Bitters being sold at Wilson & Burwell’s drug store Daily Charlotte Observer, Friday, July, 25 1879. Left: The defendant, a merchant of Lancaster, is indicted for carrying on the business of a retail liquor dealer without having paid the special tax. He sold by the bottle a compound known as “Burton’s Bitters,” not having paid the special tax as a retail liquor dealer. - Marianne Dow - Federal Reporter, Volume 37
Burton’s Ginger Wine Bitters Yet another reference to B 274 | Burton’s Ginger Wine Bitters. Only 4 1/8 inches tall. This aqua square has 3 columns on each side. An example was found in a dump in West Point, New York according to Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham in Bitters Bottles. What a GREAT bottle. I wonder where this example is residing?
Am I crazy or does that “Burton’s Ginger Wine Bitter’s” configuration resemble the very rare Dr. Goddin’s Compound Gentian Bitter’s that I just won from Glassworks Auctions?? 4-1/8 Inches tall?? CRAZY!! - Dave Kyle
Only 4 1/8 inches tall. This aqua square has 3 columns on each side. An example was found in a dump in West Point, New York according to Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham in Bitters Bottles. Image courtesy Bill Ham.
Bottles and Extras
19
May - June 2015
Burton’s Stomach Bitters A reference to B 275 | Burton’s Stomach Bitters in the Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham Bitters Bottles. This is a rare square. I have never seen an example. Maybe this is the Wilson & Burwell’s example mentioned previously?
This is a rare square. I have never seen an example. Maybe this is the Wilson & Burwell’s example mentioned previously?
Burton’s Blood Bitters Here is a reference to an unlisted Burton’s Blood Bitters from H. W. Zay in Des Moines, Iowa.
B 275 | Burton’s Stomach Bitters in the Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham Bitters Bottles. Image courtesy Bill Ham.
Reference to an unlisted Burton’s Blood Bitters from H. W. Zay in Des Moines, Iowa. - The National Tribune (Washington, DC), Thursday, November 12, 1903
Continued...
20
May - June 2015
Burton’s Vegetable Compound Bitters If you enlarge the picture you see a label and bottle in Burton Spiller’s left hand. I suspect there really may have been a Burton’s Vegetable Compound Bitters. Either way, Burt Spiller sure went to a great deal of trouble to make the costume. Did he mock up the label and bottle after an imaginary bottle or was it real? Maybe Dr. Spiller will enlighten us so we can report back next issue.
During the recent Mardi Gras season, I attended a local masquerade as (what else) a bottle a bitters bottle to be exact.
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
21
WANTED: Articles for upcoming issues of our stellar Bottles and Extras. Our editor, staff and designers eagerly await to help you in any possible way. Tell us about your collection or someone else’s. Tell us your digging and picking story. Write a fictional bottle story. Tell us about an area of antique bottle and glass collecting. Tell us the story behind one of the merchants who sold your bottles or about a glass factory. Write an auction or show report. Tell us about a club outing. Really, the sky is the limit. Don’t be shy. Young or old, new to the hobby or a veteran, please step forward. Thank You! To submit a Story, Send a Letter to the Editor, or have Comments and Concerns about Bottles and Extras, please contact the Editor, Martin Van Zant. mdvanzant@yahoo.com
22 22
M May ay--JJune une2015 2015
BBottles ottlesand andEExtras xtras
FOHBC 2015 CLUB CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT
CATAGORIES
A W A
R
D
S
Please don’t delay, as our deadline is June 1, 2015
- Newsletter Contest
Get more information by contacting Val Berry 518.568.5683 or vgberry10@yahoo.com
- Show Poster / Flyer Contest
Download the applications by visiting FOHBC.org, scroll across the top to “Members”, scroll down to “FOHBC Club Contests” and left click.
- Writer’s Contest - Club Website Contest
All winners and awards will be announced during the banquet at the FOHBC National Antique Bottle Show in Chattanooga, Tennessee this coming July 31st. Thanks and Good Luck!
Bottles and Extras
23
May - June 2015
Glass Works Auctions Established 1986
Meet Glass Works Auctions “J” Team
Josh
Janice
Jim
Jesse
When it comes to getting the most money for your valued flasks, bottles and glass. The “J” team is as tough as they look! Marshal Jim and his posse are constantly hunting down and rounding up quality material for their expanding auction services. Don’t want to auction and are looking for a quick sale? Marshal Jim has road agents around the country who have money and will travel! More Auctions ~ Lowest Consignor Rates of any of their Competitors ~ Record Prices ~ Quick and Highly Efficient Service for Both the Collector and Consignor ~ Fully Insured Through Collectibles Insurance Services (policy number on request) ~ Extensive Advertising in Major Antiques and Collectibles Publications ~ Full Color Printed Catalogs ~ World Wide Bidding through their Internet on-line Auction Service ~ That ‘Personal Touch’.
Thinking about consigning or making an outright sale? Talk with Marshal Jim about consigning to Glass Works Auctions.
Consignments are now being accepted for our 2015 auction schedule!
Glass Works Auctions
P.O. Box 38 ~ Lambertville, NJ 108530- PH: (609) 483-2683 E-mail: info@glswrk-auction.com - Website: http://www.glswrk-auction.com
24
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
THE BIG DRINK: BUFFALO SPRINGS LITHIA WATER by Jack Sullivan [Special to Bottles and Extras]
n his ruling 1914 ruling Federal the District In his 1914 Federal Judge Judge GouldGould of the of District of Columof Columbia debunked the of curative powers bia debunked the curative powers Virginia’s mostoffamous and Virginia’s most famous touted mineral water: highly touted mineral water: and “Forhighly a person to obtain a therapeutic a person to obtainBuffalo a therapeutic ofhe lithium dose “For of lithium by drinking Lithiadose Water wouldbyhave drinking Buffalo Lithia Water he would havetototwo drink to drink between one hundred and fifty thousand hundred between one hundredgallons and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five thousand perthousand day. It was further testified, andcontradiction, twenty-five thousand gallons per day. was further without that Potomac River waterItcarries five times testified, without contradiction, thatinPotomac River water as much lithium per gallon as the water controversy.” carries five times as much lithium per gallon as the water controversy.” Thusin began the eclipse of a Buffalo Springs Lithia Water, a drink that once could boast 20,000 outlets in drug stores throughout the Thus began the eclipse of a Buffalo Water, United States, Canada, and Europe. LongSprings gone asLithia a commercial a drink that onceembossed could boast 20,000 outletstoinshow drug up stores product, its unusual bottles continue at throughout the United States,and Canada, Europe. Long digging sites throughout America are onand display in apothegone as a commercial product, its unusual embossed cary museums. bottles continue to show up at digging sites throughout AmericaLithia and are on display in apothecary museums.of a The Buffalo Water saga began with the discovery series of mineral springs in southern Virginia as early as 1728. At TheaBuffalo Water saga began the discovery the time speciesLithia of American buffalo stillwith roamed the uplands of a series mineral in southern Virginia asquickly early of Virginia. Withofvery poorsprings eyesight, those animals were asinto 1728. At the time a species American buffalo still turned meat by hungry settlers of and exterminated. Nonethe-
I
roamed uplands very poor eyesight, less, some the seventy sitesofinVirginia. VirginiaWith contain “buffalo” in their those animals were quickly turned into meat by hungry name. settlers and exterminated. Nonetheless, some seventy sites in Virginia contain in their name. Buffalo Springs, located in “buffalo” Mecklenburg County on the North Carolina border, began commercial operation about 1811, selling Buffalo Springs, located in became Mecklenburg Countyason mineral water. When lithium recognized a possible the North Carolina border, operation remedy for kidney stones andbegan other commercial urinary ailments in the midaboutsome 1811,16selling mineral water. When lithium became 1800s, mineral springs in Virginia were quick to jump as a possible remedyelement. for kidney stones on recognized the bandwagon of the metallic The waterand pouring out other urinary ailments in the mid-1800s, some 16Buffalo mineral Lithia at Buffalo Springs was transformed overnight into springs in Virginia quick to jump on theand bandwagon Water. Eventually thewere springs featured a hotel health spa. Part of the metallicis element. Theinwater pouring out at(Fig. Buffalo of the complex shown here an early postcard 1). Springs was transformed overnight into Buffalo Lithia Water.to Eventually the springs a hotel anditshealth In 1900, answer demand, thefeatured company opened own bottling spa.adjacent Part of the complex shownSubsequently here in an early postcard plant to the water is source. Buffalo Lithia (Fig.containers 1). Water began to display the image of a seated woman with a long dress and a pitcher. The bottles could be amber or sev1900, of to answer demand, theAll company its own eralInshades green (Figs: 2,3,4). bottlesopened came with a paper bottling adjacent the lost water Subsequently label, most plant of which haveto been or source. damaged over the years Buffalo Lithia Water containers began to display therefined, (Fig. 5). The embossing varies widely, both crude and image ofon a seated woman with a long dressglasshouse. and a pitcher. depending the capabilities of the supplier One
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
25
26
May - June 2015
Fig. 1: Buffalo Lithia Springs postcard
The bottles could be amber or several shades of green (Figs, 2,3,4). All bottles came with a paper label, most of which have been lost or damaged over the years (Fig. 5). The embossing varies widely, both crude and refined, depending on the capabilities of the supplier glasshouse. One crude bottle is identified on the base as from the “OBCo” -- the Ohio Bottle Company. That outfit was a short-lived (1904-1905) merger of three Newark, Ohio, glass plants. Shown here in detail (Fig. 6), OBCo female figure bore a distinct Egyptian look and her skirt lacked the usual pleats. The Buffalo Springs shipped its water in wooden cases of 12 half-gallon bottles (Fig. 7), filled from the spring by hand and transported to a railhead by wagon. Priced at $5.00 a case, or more than 80 cents a gallon, Buffalo Lithia Water was an expensive beverage at a time when 25 cents would buy a good restaurant meal. Like other purveyors of quack cures, the company sponsored splashy and dubious ads, one claiming to cure everything from kidney stones and gout to nervous dyspepsia and “cerebral hyperemia,” apparently an overheated brain (Fig. 8). Another ad trumpeted that the product was a “boon to women,” particularly those addicted to alcohol or opium (Fig. 9). Buffalo Lithia’s owners also sought (bought?) testimonials from leading doctors. One surprisingly came from a former Vice President of the American Medical Association, the primary watchdog against quackery: “[Buffalo Lithia Water] is strikingly superior to emergency solutions of lithia tablets, even where the said solution is an exceedingly strong one.” A physician alleged to be ministering to the Pope of Rome hailed the product for its efficacy in cases of gout and various forms of rheumatism. Sales soared and by the late Fig. 2: Amber Buffalo Lithia bottle (Top) Fig. 3: Teal Green Lithia bottle (Bottom Left) Fig. 4: Light Blue Lithia bottle (Middle) Fig. 5: Labeled Buffalo Lithia bottle (Bottom Right)
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
1800s Buffalo Lithia Water could be bought in virtually any drugstore in America. Canada and Europe also provided customers. With the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the situation drastically changed for the Virginia mineral water. Misbranding became an offense subject to a Federal fine. Clearly attempting to avoid prosecution, the company changed its name to Buffalo Lithia Springs, apparently hoping that by renaming the product the water might be spared close Government scrutiny about its lithium content. In 1907 it registered the reconstituted name and logo with the Patent and Trademark office (Fig. 10). Under the altered name, Buffalo Lithia Springs continued to advertise widely the medicinal benefits of its water. Food and Drug authorities were not fooled. In 1910 they declared Buffalo Lithia Springs Water misbranded. The company then filed a motion to delay indefinitely imposition of a fine and to nullify a Government order to desist from its fraudulent advertising. A friendly Virginia court agreed and the company rolled along for some months. In 1912, however, the Feds tried again. This time Buffalo Springs executives foolishly decided to fight the ruling in the Federal Court of the District of Columbia. That trial led to Judge Gould’s decision that Buffalo Springs Lithia Water was misbranded and had less therapeutic value than Potomac River water. The company, stung by the decision, appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 1917 the Supremes refused to overturn Judge Gould’s decision. The Virginia
Fig. 7: Wooden case
The embossing varies widely, both crude and refined, depending on the capabilities of the supplier glasshouse.
Fig. 6: Detail of embossed figure
27
28
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
company reluctantly paid court costs and dropped “Lithia” from its name. Now merchandised as just plain Buffalo Mineral Water the beverage continued to be sold during the 1920s in embossed bottles and additionally in five gallon demijohns. Sometime in the 1930s, embossing was dropped in favor of clear glass bottles with paper labels and screw top caps. As the popularity of mineral waters waned in the 1940s, the Buffalo Springs resort hotel closed. By 1949 all commercial production from the Virginia spring had ceased. Today we remember the blatant quackery of Buffalo Springs Lithia Water through the hundreds of embossed bottles found nationwide — and the hundreds more still waiting underground. Fig. 8: Buffalo Lithia Water ad
The Buffalo Springs shipped its water in wooden cases of 12 half-gallon bottles filled from the spring by hand and transported to a railhead by wagon. Priced at $5.00 a case, or more than 80 cents a gallon, Buffalo Lithia Water was an expensive beverage at a time when 25 cents would buy a good restaurant meal. Fig. 9: “Boon to Women” ad
Notes: Material and images for this article
were obtained from a number of Internet and written sources. Chief among the latter was “Nostrums and Quackery,” a book published by the American Medical Association in 1921. Some of the material here earlier appeared in the Potomac Pontil, the newsletter of the Potomac Bottle Club.
Fig. 10: 1906 trademark registration
Bottles and Extras
29
May - June 2015
-Choo to Chattanoog o o h a” “C Southern Region
July 31 August 2, 2015
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors presents the 2015 National Antique Bottle Show 300 tables at the Chattanooga Convention Center Exhibit Hall Host Hotel: Marriott Chattanooga at the Convention Center, July 31: Banquet and the Battle of Chattanooga competition, August 1: Seminars, Dealer Setup/Early Admission, Live Auction, August 2: General Admission - $5
Contact: Jack Hewitt 770.963.0220 or John Joiner 404-538-6057
Information:
FOHBC.org F
O
H
B
C
2015
C H AT TA N O O GA NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE SHOW
30 30
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
THE TOMMY MITCHINER STORY
Part three of a four-part series on bottle collecting in Georgia By Bill Baab
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
Had the Journal-Constitution not pubad Atlanta the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
31
H
lished not “Bottle Hunters Dig Up Savannah” published “Bottle Hunters Dig Upin its Sunday magazine on Nov. 6, 1966, story Savannah” in its Sunday magazine onthis Nov. may not have been written. And Thomas William 6, 1966, this story may not have been written. Mitchiner might not have becomemight Georgia’s most And Thomas William Mitchiner not have famous collector of antique bottles. become Georgia’s most famous collector of antique bottles. The feature story by reporter Andrew Sparks and accompanying color caught the Sparks eyes ofand The feature story byphotos reporter Andrew Tommy Mitchiner and his mother, Willie, at their accompanying color photos caught the eyes of Gordon, Georgia home. Tommy Mitchiner and his mother, Willie, at their Gordon, Georgia home. More than a decade before, the hobby of finding, digging collecting bottles More than aand decade before,antique the hobby of had its birth in Sacramento, Calif. John and finding, digging and collecting antiqueEdith bottles Tibbitts started Antique Bottle Calihad its birth inthe Sacramento, Calif.Club Johnof and fornia their home and interestBottle it generated Edith in Tibbitts started thethe Antique Club of California in the theirorganization home and the interest it nationally led to of the Federgenerated nationally to theLater, organization of ation of Historic Bottleled Clubs. the name the changed Federation of Historic of Bottle Clubs. Later, was to Federation Historic Bottle the name was changed to Federation of Historic Collectors. Bottle Collectors. Willie Mitchiner, who was an accomplished Willieloved Mitchiner, who Her was son an accomplished artist, old things. several years artist, lovedtheold things. Her several years ago related story about hisson mother finding agoremains related of theanstory aboutstore his mother finding the old drug out in WilkintheCounty. remainsShe of an old drug store out Wilkinson son crawled beneath the in decrepit County.and Shefound crawled beneath the decrepit building some old bottles. Later, her building andtofound some bottles. Later, her son returned the site withold her, crawled beneath sonbuilding returnedand to the sitestill withmore her, old crawled beneath the found bottles, the building and found still more old bottles, including a Hood’s Sarsparilla. including a Hood’s Sarsparilla. “She got me interested in bottle collecting,” “She got mewhich interested in bottle Tommy said, is why the twocollecting,” got excited Tommy said, which is why the two got excited reading about the digging adventures of Nick reading about the digging adventures of Mastopoulos and others in Savannah. So, Nick the Mastopoulos and others in Savannah. So, the 20-year-old and his mother drove to Savannah to 20-year-old and his mother drove to Savannah to try their luck. try their luck. It was all good. It was all good. “She dug a John Ryan soda bottle before I did, “She dug a John Ryan soda bottle before I did, but we had a grand time. I decided to concentrate but we had a grand time. I decided to concentrate on collecting on collectingRyans Ryansbecause becausethe thebottles bottleswere werealways sought after by by other collectors. Their ages always sought after other collectors. Their and colors also appealed to me.” ages and colors also appealed to me.” After Afterall allwas wassaid saidand anddug, dug,Mitchiner’s Mitchiner’sJohn John Ryan collection once totaled Ryan collection once totaled130 130different differentifif height, height,color colorand andapplied appliedtops topswere werecounted. counted.No No wonder he was called “King of the John wonder he was called “King of the JohnRyan Ryan Collectors.” Collectors.”
Tommy Mitchiner seems pensive as he stares at his backyard overflowing with bottles purchased from the estate of Peyton Youmans. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
Mitchiner Mitchinerwas wasaaborn borncollector. collector.Prior Priortotohis hisbottle interest, he collected Indian relics, fossils bottle interest, he collected Indian relics, and fossils rocks and minerals. He added ephemera latand rocks and minerals. He added ephemera erlater – 19th andand early 20th20th century bill bill heads andand – 19th early century heads letterheads from Georgia firms. letterheads from Georgia firms. He was born Nov. 15, 1946 in Macon, Georgia
32
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Tommy’s mother, Willie, led him into Sherry Mitchiner spent her honeymoon “digging in Tommy Mitchiner flanked by son Ryan, wife Sherry and the bottle collecting hobby. (Courtesy the dirt” in Savannah. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner) sister Miriam during a surprise party organized by his of Sherry Mitchiner) family. (Photo courtesy of Bill Baab)
He was born Nov. 15, 1946 in Macon, Georgia and he and his family, including a sister, Miriam, later moved to Gordon where their father (William Clinton Mitchiner) was employed by Englehard Clay Corporation. Sherry Dent grew up in a home behind Tommy’s, “not even knowing what a bottle was!” she laughed. “Our back yards joined.”After the two wed on June 7, 1969, her bottle education began on their honeymoon to Savannah Beach “where we dug bottles from privies along Jones Street. “He had shovels and tools in the back of the car he didn’t tell me about. We were walking along Jones Street not in the best part of town when he stopped to talk to an old lady sitting in a chair on her front porch. He wound up giving her $20 to let us dig in her backyard. I said, ‘I thought we were going to the beach.’ He said, ‘we’ll just be here a little while,’ but we dug until dark. My only thought was to make him happy,” said Sherry, 17 at the time of their marriage. He was just 22. “But I never thought I’d be playing in the dirt on my honeymoon. “We started finding things and I said to myself, Hmmmm, this From left, Carroll Spell, Tommy and Sherry Mitchiner at a bottle show. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
is like treasure hunting.” No doubt about it, she had contracted bottle fever. “We wound up digging every day during that week. I thought, hmmmm, this is a serious hobby!” She said her husband and his family had a lot of nervous energy. “He could go on four hours sleep, but I needed nine.” But she dug with him for nearly 10 years until their only child, Thomas Ryan Mitchiner, was born in 1978. The boy’s middle name was in honor of John Ryan, the 19th century’s most prolific Georgia soda water bottler, whose glass containers were Tommy’s favorites. Adventures? The Mitchiners had lots of them. “We dug every weekend.” Did she recall some of the tales? “Which ones do you want to hear?” she asked. “During one dig, I buried him!
BBottles ottlesand andE Extras xtras
M May ay--JJune une2015 2015
33 33
“We started finding things and I said to myself, Hmmmm, this is like treasure hunting.” No doubt about it, she had contracted bottle fever.
Mitchiner poses with just a small portion of his John Ryan soda collection, circa 1970’s (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
He always showed me where he wanted me to dig and then he’d start a hole next to mine. I’d shovel as much dirt as I needed to reach the bottom, but the sides would collapse and I’d have to dig it out. “One time that happened and caused the sides of his hole to collapse, too, burying him up to his nose. There were two men digging in a corner of the lot and they came running when they heard my screams. I thought I’d killed him! But they were able to dig him out. He never got angry with me. It was just a part of it all.” Then Tommy learned of a 19th century dump in the rough of a nearby golf course.
“On one after dark trip, with several of Tommy’s friends including the legendary Carroll Spell along, the security guards had brought in some policemen and they had us surrounded. They turned on their cars’ spotlights. Some of the others had run off to hide, but Tommy stayed digging in his hole. Me, I was flat on my belly crawling toward him when a policeman with long strides jumped over me. He never saw me. “Later, I talked to another policeman, begging him to let us go. He said, ‘Ma’am, just get him out of that hole, cover it up and I’ll let you go!” Think Tommy learned his lesson? “He paid off the security guards to let him continue to dig and he dug there off and
“I was raised not to want to do anything illegal, but if bottles were on private property, Tommy didn’t rest until he had at least a try to get them. So we’d sneak onto the course after dark. We had to cross an old cemetery to get to a hole in the course fence and there was a hoot owl living on that property. “Toting shovels and buckets, I held on to his shirttail and every time that owl would hoot, I shivered with fear. After crawling through the fence hole, we had to go through a patch of woods and run across an open fairway to get to the dump in another section of the rough. And we had to be on the lookout for security guards. We knew they’d be after us.
Ryan Excavators business card. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
34 34
May ay -- JJune une 2015 2015 M
ottles and and E Extras xtras BBottles
Mitchiner had a marvelous collection of whiskey jugs from Crawford County, Georgia - his share from a Macon, Georgia dig. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
on for another five years,” Sherry said. Very few John Ryan sodas were found in the Civil War era dump which produced black glass, James Ray and Henry Kuck sodas from Savannah. She said their son, Ryan, once sat in his father’s lap on a dig “and just scratched around.” She rejoined her husband on the digs after the baby was born. Tommy attended junior college in Cochran, Georgia for two years and became employed at the Englehard Clay Corporation, the same business that had employed his father. He eventually became a technician in the company laboratory. That first trip to Savannah with his mother led to uncounted others. Tommy became adept at locating privies in back yards along alleys. Privies were used as garbage dumps during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with bottles, clay pipes, ceramics and hand-painted china marbles among things surviving after having been buried for more than a century. He showed friends a large jar containing 15,000 pipe stems (his count) and later estimated he and his friends had dug more than 2,000 privies.
Lots of shelves and glass-topped cases made of Georgia heart pine became the homes of John Ryan and other Savannah sodas, clay figural pipes, marbles, Crawford County, Georgia jugs, dozens of mini jugs and other collectibles. Later, he formed the foremost collection of Georgia Hutchinson bottles. Straight-sided and hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottles also were collected. Fellow collector Tom Hicks, of Eatonton, Georgia, once visited Tommy who opened a closet door to reveal hundreds of cobalt John Ryans of the common 1866 variety. “Those bottles are going to pay for my son’s education (at the University of Georgia),” Tommy explained. And, they did. His collection was not just about Ryans. Among his voluminous records was found a notebook containing the results of several digs. Included in his finds were Drake’s Plantation Bitters in
Among rarities he found were a ginger ale wooden case (the only one known) with John Ryan, Savannah, Ga., impressed in the wood at one end, a citron 1866 John Ryan Cider, a cobalt John Ryan in 2-inch-high letters, an emerald green John Ryan in 1-inch-high letters, four seltzers with Ryan’s name on the metal tops and an 1852 lime green John Ryan Ginger Ale. His luck was phenomenal. A photo exists of him in his back yard, staring pensively at literally hundreds of antique bottles he’d purchased from the estate of a late friend. Something had to be done to house his new hobby, so using Savannah Gray bricks, he had a special bottle room constructed and attached to his home. The bricks came from having lined the thousands of outhouse holes he and his digging friends had discovered. One-of-kind John Ryan case discovered by Tommy Mitchiner. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
35
several rare colors, Brown’s Iron Bitters, Solomon’s Strengthening and Invigorating Bitters (Savannah), Reed’s Bitters and Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters. “I really liked those bottles,” said his wife. “One day, I came home and they were all gone. He had decided to sell them.” Other bottle collectors were drawn to him as moths are drawn to bright lights and he formed close friendships with many. One group, including himself, formed the Ryan Excavators in 1976. They took out a high dollar liability insurance policy and sought owners of vacant Savannah lots to rent so they could use a backhoe to excavate privies, wells, cisterns and/or trash pits. In the contract, they promised to restore the land to the owners’ satisfaction. There were experienced backhoe operators within the sixperson (and sometimes seven-person) group.
Impressive results from one of the Ryan Excavators’ many privy digs: sodas, flasks, miscellaneous bottles. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
His notes included a listing of 1/6th shares of rare bottles sold (at that time there were six members of the Ryan Excavators), including a square, open- pontiled bottle with roped corners from 1840s Hamburg, S.C. That once-thriving town across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia is dead and gone. A story is told of Tommy exploring a dump along the Oconee River in nearby Milledgeville and spotting several piles of earth. Others had found them, too, but none had thought of digging into them until Tommy, curious about the piles, did so. Turned out the piles camouflaged literally dozens of early (1915, 1923) hobbleskirt Cokes dumped there by the soft drink company after its bottle styles changed. He discovered a dump in Macon that yielded more than 800 Crawford County, Georgia jugs shared by him and others who shared the expenses of a trackhoe used to dig them. (See Bottles and Extras, October 2002, for details). During his years of collecting, Tommy conducted research to add to his knowledge of what he was digging and soon became the No. 1 authority on John Ryan bottles in particular and Savannah bottles in general. He was glad to share his knowledge with others, including this writer. “After one of the Ryan Excavators’ last digs in 2013, Tommy was in the hospital and couldn’t be with them,” Sherry continued. “So Gene Autry made the post-dig picks and they brought Tommy what would have been his share of the bottles found.” Tommy was in ill health during the last decade of his life, which ended August 29, 2013 in his 66th year. After his death, the remaining Ryan Excavators named their annual bottle show at Keller’s Flea Market in Savannah after their longtime buddy.
The Ryan Excavators with some of their finds; Standing, Tommy Mitchiner, kneeling, from left: Mike Brewer, David Strickland, Mike Cowart, Gene Autry. (Courtesy of Sherry Mitchiner)
Mitchiner “shooting” a few of his collection of 1850s hand painted marbles. (Photo courtesy of Bill Baab)
36
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Auction 122 A Select Absentee Auction Of Early Glass, Bottles, Flasks, Whiskeys, Bitters, Sodas, Freeblown Items & More
Coming Spring 2015 For more photos and information about this auction please go to www.hecklerauction.com
Norman C. Heckler & Company Auctioneers of Antique Bottles and Glass, Period Decorative Arts, Singular Art Objects & Estates
(860) 974-1634 | www.hecklerauction.com | info@hecklerauction.com
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
Red Book #11
The Collectors Guide to Old Fruit Jars New Edition!
To order: Visit our website at redbookjars.com or order direct from the author: Douglas M. Leybourne, Jr. P.O. Box 5417, North Muskegon, MI 49445 (231) 744-2003
$40.00 postpaid U.S. orders Foreign orders inquire.
37
38 38
May ay -- JJune une 2015 2015 M
ottles and and E Extras xtras BBottles
This Anointing Bottle Fascinates Me by Dr. Don Alkema
Toour ourreaders: readers:This Thisnext nextarticle articleisisabout aboutone ones mansjourney journeytotopay To man’s pay homage to his brother and his discovery associated a homage to his brother and his discovery associated with awith bottle. bottle. Whether he is right or wrong may be another story. The Whether he is right or wrong may be another story. The FOHBC, FOHBC,Bottle Antique BottleCollector & Glass and Collector and Glass Works Antique & Glass Glass Works Auctions Auctions received the following communication late last received the following communication late last year by Dr.year Donby a Dr. Don Alkema. Alkema. Thankyou youfor forspeaking speakingwith withme meon onthe thephone phoneabout aboutthe theanointing anointing Thank bottle. It may be something or it may be so rare no one has seen bottle. It may be something or it may be so rare no one has seen anything like it. But here is an interesting story and some pictures anything like it. But here is an interesting story and some pictures probablyone oneofofthe themost mostbeautiful beautifulbottles bottlesI Ihave haveever everseen. seen.I I ofofprobably have the ancient Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai Holy Anointing have the ancient Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai Holy Anointing Bottlefrom fromthe theMonastery Monasterylocated locatedatatthe thefoot footofofMt. Mt.Sinai. Sinai. Bottle Enclosedare aresome somepictures picturesI Imade. made.I Ishowed showedthis thisbottle bottletotoDigger Digger Enclosed Odell (a famous expert and author on antique bottles) a few Odell (a famous expert and author on antique bottles) a few years years ago before died saidan it was an incredibly ago before he diedhe and he and saidhe it was incredibly valuablevaluable religious icon.said Youyou saidknew you knew him. Hethere said was therea was a religious icon. You him. He said secret secret in the painting but he couldn’t I am code in code the painting but he couldn’t figure itfigure out. I itamout. over 70 over 70 now health issues andwife my wife now and and havehave had had somesome health issues and my and Iand areI are downsizing.I Ineed needtotodo dosomething somethingwith withsome someofofthe thestuff stuffI Ihave have downsizing. collectedand andI Ireally reallywanted wantedthe thecountry’s country’santique antiquebottle bottlecollectors colleccollected totors seetothis bottle.bottle. seeamazing this amazing InIn1956, 1956,when whenI Iwas was12 12years yearsold, old,my myfolks folkswent wentonona aRex Rex HumHumbard in Youngstown, bard HolyHoly LandLand tour.tour. We We livedlived in Youngstown OhioOhio then.then. When When mycame dad came back the fromtour, the he tour, had collected a lot of my dad back from hadhecollected a lot of antique antique coins, Egyptian artifacts, RomanRoman coins, Egyptian artifacts, ancientancient Greek Greek potterypottery and and statues statuesand andthis thisold oldbottle. bottle.When Whentheir theirtour tourbus bushad hadvisited visitedthe theMt. Mt. Sinai SinaiMonastery, Monastery,everybody everybodygot gottotobebeanointed anointedwith withhealing healingholy holy oil oilififyou yougave gaveaasmall smalldonation. donation. My Mydad dadalways alwayscarried carriedaafew few11oz. oz.gold goldKrugerrand Krugerrandcoins coinswhen when he hetraveled traveledout outofofthe thecountry countryfor foremergency emergencymoney. money.As Asthey theywere leaving the monastery, he gaveheone of one the monastery workersworkin the were leaving the monastery, gave of the monastery chapel some gold some coins gold for the bottle it inand hisput flight ers in the chapel coins forand the put bottle it inbag. his The bottle home came with my dadwith on the and it sat flight bag.came The bottle home myplane dad on thethen plane andin his curio cabinet over thirtyfor years. byYears and after then it sat in his for curio cabinet overYears thirtywent years. wentthey by passed on,they the bottle to me. and after passedcame on, the bottle came to me. Digger 1850 DiggerOdell Odellhad hadestimated estimated the the bottle bottle was was made made in in about about 1850 ororearlier in Istanbul in the glass blowing quarter. Their glass earlier in Istanbul in the glass blowing quarter. Their glass blowers but blowerswere wereadept adeptatat making making these these kind kind of of barber barber bottles bottles but this hand-blown bottle was so unusually different. Digger said this hand blown bottle was so unusually different. Digger said the code for for thepainting paintingwas wasnot not aa decoration, decoration, but but aa secret secret symbolic symbolic code the Greek Orthodox Church. But he couldn’t decipher it. In about the Greek Orthodox Church. But he couldn’t decipher it. In about 2004, Arch2004,IIsent sentpictures pictures of of the the bottle bottle to to the the Greek Greek Orthodox Orthodox Arch-
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
39
diocese diocese of of America America in in Philadelphia. Philadelphia. They They said said itit was was an an ancient ancient Greek Orthodox Church anointing bottle and it would Greek Orthodox Church anointing bottle and it would be be kind kind gesture gesture to to send send itit back back to to the the Sinai Sinai Monastery’s Monastery’s museum. museum. They They did not know what the painting meant. I got two more request letters did not know what the painting meant. I got two more request from the Archdiocese but never did anything about them. I decided letters from the Archdiocese but never did anything about them. I to keep the bottle and just put it back in the cabinet. decided to keep the bottle and just put it back in the cabinet.
my Dad bought at the monastery was rare. I took it over to a local University Museum where they have hundreds of thousands of dollars in Icons in their collection. They had never seen anything like this. And out of curiosity, I sent some of this information to Sotheby’s research in NYC and they also said they had never ever seen anything like this, and there was no way to even put a value on it. They suggested I send pictures to the antique glass experts Several Several years years later, later, II showed showed the the bottle bottle to to aa Greek Greek Orthodox Orthodox priest in Amsterdam. They said Sotheby’s Amsterdam could appraise it here Greenville. He agreed it was itanwas anointing bottle and theand old with European collectors. But before I do anything, I wanted you priestinhere in Greenville. He agreed an anointing bottle oil inside was spikenard used for healing the sick. But he couldn’t the old oil inside was spikenard used for healing the sick. But he to see it and see what you think. Do you think the collectors will figure outfigure the secret code in the painting, which Digger told couldn’t out the secret code in the painting, whichhad Digunderstand and appreciate what this monk did? me years He told me ofHeantold old me retired in ger about had told mebefore. about years before. of anpriest old retired Charleston, who might be able to figure out. Thatitsummer, priest in Charleston, which might be ableit to figure out. ThatI took Sincerely and thank you so much, itsummer, down toI let him look at it and he was absolutely shocked that I took it down to let him look at it and he was absolutely had this old bottle. shocked that I had this old bottle. Dr. Don Alkema Digger Digger was was right! right! The The monk monk or or priest priest who who had had designed designed this this painting over 150 years ago was an art genius. Now, painting over 150 years ago was an art genius. Now, this this is is incredible. incredible. The The ancient ancient monk monk had had actually actually painted painted the the Nicene Nicene Apostles’ and Apostles’ Creed Creed in in symbolic symbolic language language on on this this custom-made custom made and colored bottle. With the clues from the elderly priest we began colored bottle. With the clues from the elderly priest we began to to study study the the bottle bottle and and its it’ssymbolic symbolicpaintings. paintings.The Themore morewe westudied studiedit, the more amazed I became at the unknown monastery monk artist it, the more amazed I became at the unknown monastery monk and what he was trying to say. The great Bible knowledge of the artist and what he was trying to say. The great Bible knowledge elderly Charleston Priest unlocked the code. of the elderly Charleston Priest unlocked the code. What What the the ancient ancient monk monk had had done done was was to to take take Bible Bible stories stories and and paint them in symbolic form to follow along with the paint them in symbolic form to follow along with the Apostles’ Apostles’ Creed Creed from from the the Council Council of of Nicene Nicene in in 380 380 AD. AD. The The primary primary context conof the Creed was the validity of the Trinity as the absolute form of text of the Creed was the validity of the Trinity as the absolute the One TrueOne God. “The Father, and Son Holyand Spirit were equal in form of the True God. “TheSon Father, Holy Spirit power and nature” This is seen in the three equal painting panels. were equal in power and nature” This is seen in the three equal painting panels. He used the Jordan Valley almond tree as his symbol. The story is 17:8. The deadtree treeasbranch was pushed into Hefound used in theNumbers Jordan Valley almond his symbol. The story the ground and the next day came back to life and flowered and is found in Numbers 17:8 the dead tree branch was pushed into produced There is your Christ. the groundblue andalmonds. the next day came backpicture to life of and flowered and produced blue almonds. There is your picture of Christ. The Virgin Mary was pictured as the 12 sheaves of wheat in Joseph’s dream, was theas House ofsheaves Israel, which produced The Virgin Marywhich was pictured the 12 of wheat in Christ’s earthly flesh. Genesis 37:7. At the pollination point of Joseph’s dream, which was the House of Israel, which produced the flower, the monk painted seven small white dots which were Christ’s earthly flesh. Genesis 37:7. At the pollination point of the of God. Revelation 4:5 which Jesus. the seven flower,spirits the monk painted seven small whitefathered dots which were One petal has a black glass spot, which is the crucifixion petal. the seven spirits of God Revelation 4:5 which fathered Jesus. Matthew, Luke the sky became black petal. when One petal Mark has a and black glassrecorded spot, which is the crucifixion Jesus died on the cross. Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded the sky became black when Jesus died on the cross. The resurrection is seen in the cloud of the ascension. The return of Christ is seen in the second cloud found in Revelation 1:7. return John, if The resurrection is seen in the cloud of the ascension. The you look in the pictures you can see a lot more and even the of Christ is seen in the second cloud found in Revelation 1:7.monk had a message with itself a whole. Christ John, if you look in the the bottle pictures youascan see a lot morehad andsaid in John 14:6, “No man comes to God but through me.” No one can even the monk had a message with the bottle itself as a whole. see the glass on the inside of the bottle except through the glass on Christ had said in John 14:6, “No man comes to God but through the outside. The black glass Judas dot is also fascinating, especially me. No one can see the glass on the inside of the bottle except when youthesee it three times, one on panel. comes through glass on the outside. Theeach black glassThis Judas dot isfrom also the Revelation picture of the incarnation of Satan into the fascinating, especially when you see it three times, one onAntieach Christ, the Beast False panel. This comesand from theProphet. Revelation picture of the incarnation of Satan into the Anti-Christ, the Beast and False Prophet. I don’t know much about antique bottles but I do know that what I don’t know much about antique bottles but I do know that what
This Anointing Bottle Fascinates Me
This is a photo of Saint Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai where my dad purchased the bottle in 1956. The orthodox Nicene Apostle’s Creed is written in a number of ways but it has 6 basic truths. 1. There is only one God, but he has three equal forms, The Trinity, Father-Son-Spirit. 2. One member of the Trinity, Jesus the Son, became human flesh through a Jewish girl, the Virgin Mary, and shed his blood and died for the sins of the world. 3. He came back to life and resurrected and has the power to save humans from sin. 4. Christ formed the Holy Apostolic Church and all who follow Christ will be saved. 5. Christ will return in the clouds and take those who love Him to Heaven. 6. Christ sits now on the right hand of God in Heaven and will judge the living and dead. Now here is how the monk used Bible stories to paint the secret
40 40
une2015 2015 MMayay- -JJune
Almond Tree Branch and Petals
code of this beautiful Apostles’ Creed The monk first used a Jordan Valley almond tree petal and its fruit. The almond seed fruit is blue in color. The imagery is that of Moses picking which Jewish Tribal family would be the priests of Israel. From the story account in Numbers, Moses had each leader of the 12 tribes stick a dead Jordan River almond tree staff in the ground. The next morning Aaron’s staff had come back to life and flowered and produced blue almonds. So the petals on the painting would be almond petals. Christ, the Great High Priest was dead on a tree then came back to life and produced fruit.
12 Tribes of Israel in Joseph’s dream
The seeds of the Jordan Almond tree are sky blue. Now see how he put it on the bottle and how The ring of wheat sheaves became the 12 Tribes of Israel out of whom came the Virgin Mary. Numbers 17:7-8 So Moses deposited the rods before the LORD in the tent of the testimony. 8 Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. 9Moses then brought out all the rods from the presence of the LORD to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took…..
Jordan Valley Blue Almonds
ottlesand andEE xtras BBottles xtras
ottlesand andEE xtras BBottles xtras
une2015 2015 MMayay- -JJune
5 Petal Blue almond branch and flowers with blue almonds ripening on the branch
The first 12 almonds produced by Christ were Pictured as 12 blue almonds inside the petals. These were the 12 Disciples. One almond had a black mark for Judas.
Revelation 22: 1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
Healing oil fragrance representing the Holy Spirit of God flows out past the blood of Christ and through the Throne of God. Revelation 4:2 “Before Him was the Crystal Sea and Throne of God, clear as fine crystal� Amazing use of Symbolism in the healing bottle.
41
42 42
May ay -- JJune une 2015 2015 M
ottles and and E Extras xtras BBottles
Twelve Tribes of Israel pictured as the sheaves of wheat in Joseph’s dream. Israel provided the humanity through the Virgin Mary to provide flesh for the incarnation. The seven white dots symbolize the Seven Spirits of God (Rev.4:5) who was the Father of Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is the core of the Creed which the Orthodox Church calls the Kenosis Hypostatic Union. Christ was fully man and fully God. It was only in this way He could shed His blood, (symbolized by the blood red neck of the bottle) and die for the sins of the world. Note the Judas black glass dot On each of the three panels Symbolizing the Satanic trinity mimicing Christ.
Glass Painted Panel Side Three Christ’s death and ressurection are symbolized by the five almond tree petals. The Nicene Apostles Creed states Christ was dead, buried in the ground and rose from the dead and gave birth to His Church. The best way the monk could do this in glass on the bottle was to use the imagery that Moses wrote in the Old Testament. Moses had the leaders of the Twelve Tribes each bury a Jordan Valley dead almond tree branch in the ground in front of the Tabernacle. The next morning, Aaron’s branch or staff had come back to life, flowered and produced clumps of blue almonds. This was an exact symbol of Christ. He was killed dead on a large piece of dead wood. He was buried in the ground and then came back to life. And on this fact, he founded His Church and produced thousands and millions of almonds over the centuries.
This monk artist was a genius to use this story. It is incredible that the Monk artist could put all this information in enameled glass on a bottle. The sweet perfume oil inside it the incense of the Holy Spirit recorded in the Old Testament. The oil is at least 65 years old inside but one drop still fills the entire room with fragrance in just a few seconds. This kind of spikenard oil is what Mary rubbed on Jesus’ feet. It is made from the roots of a small tree which grows only in the Himalayan Mountains of Northern India. The artist monk painted a clock timer on the bottle. The rows of swirling white dots around the bottle represent the millions of orthodox church believers dressed in white robes in Heaven. But there is something more interesting. The monk painted the dots in string-like segments. Each segment starts with
Bottles and Extras
Panel One
Christ dot almond petal Crucifixion Sky became black
43
May - June 2015 Eighteen swirls 18 Centuries of Orthodox Church growth
Judas dot
Clumps of Almonds Pastors and Monks and Priests called out thru the centuries
Panel Two Clouds of Heaven receiving Christ up and then bringing Him back
Each panel has a Judas dot showing the evil trinity Satan, anti-christ and false prophet of the Revelation
Heaven’s streets of Gold Millions of Christian Saints dressed in white robes
44 44
M May ay -- JJune une 2015 2015
Bottles and Extras
Beautiful Bottle with decorations
Close-up of neck and stopper
Close-up of base
Bottles and Extras
45
May - June 2015
Christ almond petal with the black glass spot symbolic of the crucifixion. Sky became black at His death
Two clouds linked to the Christ incarnation with thin glass lines First cloud is the ascension of Christ into the cloud and the second is the return of Christ to the Earth from the cloud. Acts Chapter 1
Judas Almond
Streets of gold
a tiny dot and slowly the glass spot is enlarged until the last dot of the segment is double the size of the first. This took an amazing delicate artistic hand to do this. This shows growth of the Church over the ages. There are eighteen segments which symbolize the growth of the Church over eighteen Centuries. Eighteen Centuries had passed since the beginning of the Church when the monk painted this masterpiece. Also note the gold streets weaving through the dots of the white robed Saints symbolizing their presence on the streets of gold in Heaven. Message on a bottle: Finally, the artist monk’s picture of God is portrayed in the entire annointing bottle. The human visible God, Christ the Son, is seen on the exterior of the bottle. Christ was visible and was human. People could touch God and God felt the touch of humans along with all our joys and sufferings and love. “God with us.”
The inside wall of the bottle was the powerful omnipresent unseen God. We could not see Him or touch Him. He was there but invisible. He was not like us in this form. He is unknowable and beyond our reach. He told Moses “if you see me you will surely die”. The oil on the inside of the bottle was the powerful Holy Spirit of God. It could fill people, change destiny, control history, flow and heal. It gave birth to the human Christ through Israel’s virgin Mary. The Three together became the Trinity, the single solitary one God and Creator of all. How this monk put this all in one little bottle is incredulous. I am totally amazed at this small piece of art glass and it’s message for the ages.
46
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
47
May - June 2015
Full Colour BBR Established 1979
The world’s first BBR Spring Extravaganza April 25 & 26 full color bottle magazine simply got Better and Bigger. Packed Full of the information you Britains BIGGEST Show Approx. 40,000 need on the UK & stalls inside out both days world wide bottle 4 & 5 alwourays scene. July BEST Well-researched au cti on spr ead articles & all the latest finds. Upcoming sales and full show calendar. Personal check, Mastercard/Visa, even cash. AUCTIONS est’d 1979
Tried • Tested • Trusted Elsecar Heritage Centre S Yorks, S74 8HJ brown ‘Elsecar Heritage’ signs off jct 36 M1
NEXT 4 full col’r cats £35 Single £10 Paypal or c.c.
full col’r cat pdf £3 www.onlinebbr.com
cat. online 2 weeks before:
Sat. 11am Unres’d Auc 500+ lots
Doors 9am, Auc 11am
Sunday the BIG Show + Cat’d Auc. 11am 120-150 stalls
E.E. 8.30am £5 Ord Adm’n 10am £2 Auc 11am
sq ft
of
&
MAIN HALL stalls from £40 for 2 days, inc. overnight security OUTSIDE PITCHES
from £45 for 2 days, on hard standing
COMPETITIONS
OVER £600 CASH prizes
SUNDAY CAR ‘REAR’ just £15 (admits 2 people) SATURDAY SOCIAL SUNDAY AUCTION CATERING
Wherever you live in the world this unique w/e long event is worth travelling to & the camping is back
BBR’s finest annual sale 11am
on site all w/e plus around village
Opening times & admission costs
Sat 9am-4pm Sun 9am-2pm
SAT w/e pass/ E.E. 9am £10 SUN 1 day ticket 9am £6
ENCORE HOTEL DEAL 2 people 1 or 2 nights @ £45. 3 nights - tel: 01226 729930 www.encorebarnsley.co.uk SUPERB buffet breakfast!
FREE Buffet + Bar
BBR, Elsecar Heritage Centre, Nr Barnsley, S. Yorks. S74 8HJ tel: 01226 745156 email: sales@onlinebbr.com www.onlinebbr.com
1 year Air Mail subscription $60
BBR, Elsecar Heritage Center, Barnsley 2, Yorkshire, S74 8HJ, England Ph: 011-44-1226-745156 Fax: 011-44-1226-321561
WANTED: PENNSYLVANIE HUTCHINSON SODAS JNO. J. BAHL, ALLENTOWN (green) • GOUDIE MOL, ALLEN TOWN (green) • J.C. BUFFUM & CO. CITY BOTTLING HOUSE, PITTSBURGH (cobalt) • ROYAL BOTTLING HOUSE, J. UNGLER PITTSBURGH, (amber) • RIDGEWAY BOTTLING WORKS, R. POWER (cobalt) • ASHLAND BOTTLING WORKS, ASHLAND (amber) • PHIL FISHER, PITTSBURGH (citron) • EAGLE BOTTLING WORKS, YORK (amber) • LAFFEY & HARRIGAN, JOHNSTOWN (cobalt) • TURCHI BROS, PHILADELPHIA (citron) • P.J. SERWAZI, MANAYUNK, PA (dark olive) • ROYAL B. HOUSE, J. UNGER, PITTSBURGH, PA (amber) • JOS. S. SMITH, ERIE AVE, RENOVO, PA (citron) • HARRY SLUTZ, PHILADA (green) • S. CUMMINGS, PHILADELPHIA, PA (cobalt) • WASHINGTON BOTTLING CO, PHILADA (light blue) • McKINLEY & SCHLAFER, FRANKFORD, PA • PHILADA, PENNA, BOTTLING & SUPPLY CO. (blue & citron)
Highest prices paid or if you have Pennsylvania duplicates to trade. Contact: R.J. Brown, 4114 W. Mullen Ave., Tampa, FL 33609 or call (813) 286-9686 cell (813) 727-6223 e-mail rbrown4134@aol.com
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Late Persian Bottles -
A woman having wine in solitude. A wall painting from Chehel Sotoun pavilion in Isfahan, Iran, 17th century
48
the “Black Glass” of the Middle East by Phil Culhane
Introduction
M ost of us have seen the ubiquitous “Persian saddle flask” at some point in our collecting careers. Flat sided and with two or three turns of glass stringing around the neck, they are quite the oddity, and many a collection has one sitting on the shelf. But really - what does anyone know about them?
Well, if you’re like me, the answer, despite almost 40 years in the hobby, would be “darn near nothing”. Some people date them from the 1700s - others from the 1800s or 1900s. Some people don’t even think they’re Persian - that they come from Mexico
or somewhere else that they make cheap knock-offs to sell to tourists. Three years ago, in the Spring of 2012, that was about everything I knew about “saddle flasks” - or any sort of “late Persian glass.” I didn’t even knew it existed, and my opinions on saddle
flasks was based on the word of mouth folklore that had made its way to me through the decades.
In the Spring of 2012, I was at an interesting point in my collecting career. Like many others, I had recently gone through a divorce, leaving my shelves empty and my pocketbook similarly
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
49
Persian saddle flask.flask Flat sided with IV, twoboth or three A wide-mouth saddle and and a Type dating from the 19th century. Persians exported pickled fruit in quantity from the 1650s onwards. The Type funnel-shaped lip typical of the period. Both bottles likely blown at Shiraz. turnsIV of has glassthe stringing around the neck informed.IIstill stillwanted wantedto tocollect, collect,and andmore morethan thananything, anything,II informed. wanted wanted to to research. research. II needed needed to to find find an an area area of of the the hobby hobby that that was was poorly poorly understood, understood, and and not not highly highly contested. contested. And And so, so, through through aa fluke fluke of of fate, fate, II traded traded emails emails with with aa fellow fellow collector collector who who was was looking looking to to sell sell off off her her entire entire collection collection of of late late Persians Persians -- lock, lock, stock stock and and barrel. barrel. Silly Silly me me -- “what’s “what’s aa late late Persian?” Persian?” II wrote wrote in in an an email email to to her. her. The The 250 250 images images she she sent sent in in return return confounded confounded me me -- with with colours, colours, shapes, shapes, sizes, sizes, and and more more than than anything anything else, else, lip lip finishes finishes that that simply simply made made no no sense. sense. After After 40 40 years, years, you you figure figure you’ve you’ve seen seen it it all...then all...then someone someone turns turns your your collecting collecting world world on on its its side. side. Needless Needless to to say, say, aa deal deal was was struck, struck, and and parcel parcel by by parcel, parcel, MarleMarlena’s 114 piece, 25collection year collection way a na’s 114 piece, 25 year slowlyslowly made made its wayitsacross across a very wide country. very wide country.
Starting the Starting theResearch Research Having published published aa couple couple of of bottle bottle books books and and aa six-year six-year run run Having publishing Canadian Canadian Bottle Bottle & & Stoneware Stoneware Collector Collector magazine, magazine, publishing it’s safe safe to to say say that that I’m I’m aa curious curious sort. sort. II like like finding finding -- and and sharing sharing it’s the story story that that lies lies behind behind aa bottle. bottle. The The manufacturer, manufacturer, the the city city -- the he lived lived in, in, and and what what it it was was like like at at that that time. time. A A little little bit bit of of social social he history, if if you you will. will. II love love giving giving the the bottle bottle aa voice, voice, helping helping it it tell tell history, its story story once once again again -- it it brings brings it it back back to to life life in in aa very very real real way. way. its
With late Persians, I had met my match. With absolutely no With late Persians, I had met my match. With no knowledge of Persian culture or history, I was absolutely starting from knowledge of Persian culture or history, I was starting scratch. None of the books I could find had more than afrom sentence scratch. None of theofbooks I couldIfind hademailing more than a sentence or two on the glass this period. started museum cuor two including on the glass this period. I startedthe emailing museum rators, theofCorning, the British, Victoria & Albert, curators, includingthe theMuseum Corning,ofthe British, & Albert, the Metropolitan, Islamic Artthe in Victoria Qatar...nothing. the Metropolitan, the Museum Islamic ArtCurators in Qatar...nothing. Well - tons of curiosity - but noofknowledge. at Corning Wellthat - tons of had curiosity but no Curators said they never-seen theknowledge. shapes or lip finishesatI Corning was said that they had This neverconsistency seen the shapes or lippublished, finishes I was emailing to them. - nothing nothing emailing to them. This consistency - nothing published, nothing known - both fascinated and frustrated me. I wanted to be able to known bothoffascinated I wanted to be able tell the -story this glass,and butfrustrated could findme. nothing published thatto tell thehelp. story of this glass, but could find nothing published that would would help. In this article, I’ll share as much as what I’ve managed to figure In this article, I’ll day, shareI as much as managed figure out so far. To this continue to what look, I’ve but still, I havetofound out so far. this day,I’m I continue butthat still, have found nothing of To substance. startingtotolook, accept if II want to read nothing of substance. starting accept thatI’ve if I want to read it, I’m going to have toI’m write it. Sotohere’s what learned so it, I’m going to writeguesswork it. So here’s what I’ve learned so far. Much of ittoishave intelligent - but without shards from far. Much of it is intelligent guesswork - butfor), without from archaeological sites (which I’m still hoping this shards is the best archaeological sites (which I’m still hoping for), this is the best I’ve been able to find. I’ve been able to find.
The Periods of Persian Glass Production
The Periods of Persian Glass Production Persian glass went through three “periods”, two of which are very well understood and well documented, and of onewhich of which Persian glass went through three “periods”, two are
50
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
very well understood and well documented, and one of which is passed over almost as a black glass collector passes over 1990s plastic pop bottles. There was the early period, from roughly the 7th to the 10th century, when the Persians learned glassblowing from the Romans and Syrians. There was the middle period, from the 10th to the 12th century, when the Persians made possibly the finest glass creations on the planet of that time. Then there was a quiet period. Well, not so quite Mongol hordes invaded, turned the country upside down, and things like glass manufacture really dwindled in importance. Then, in the late 16th century, the art of glassblowing was brought back to the city of Shiraz, and the late Persian glass period began.
The Industries Very little late Persian glass is marked. There are perhaps six sealed late Persians that I am aware of. There may be more, but let’s just say that there aren’t rafts of mould-blown bottles out there with manufacturers’ names on them. The Persians continued making free-blown bottles - and using them - right up until the 1960s at least. Additionally, I only two of two late Persians with labels on them. So collecting this sort of glass is all about collecting the form, and not the maker.
Three very rare, early Persians. On the left, a Type II saddle flask. In the middle, the only cylindrical late Persian bottle the author has ever seen. On the right, a “transitional” between Type I and Type II – a very long neck, and a very small base. All three bottles likely blown at Shiraz.
The two largest industries that used glass containers were the wine and rose water industries. The saddle flask that we all know well was used for the bottling of wine, much of it coming from the vineyards and the merchants of Shiraz. Indeed, Engelbert Kaempfer, a German naturalist, wrote that in the first years of the 18th century, more than 50,000 wine-filled saddle flasks a year were exported from Shiraz. The rose-water industry in Persia was quite extensive, and the glass used both to hold and to disperse it was exceptionally beautiful. Again, Kaempfer tells us that 10,000 bottles of rose water were already being exported annually from the Shirazi region of Persia by the early 1700s. In addition to these primary industries, the Persians also manufactured lemon juice in large quantities. They used glass containers for the same multitude of purposes that we see it used all over the planet: oils, unguents, vinegar, medicines, perfumes and any manner of liquids requiring transport. They also used wide-mouth jars for transporting fruits, both pickled and fresh. More on those later!
The Bottles: Saddle Flasks - Type I, II, III, IV, V With close to 100 saddle flasks sitting on my shelves, I think I’m starting to see a pattern in the glass; in the bottles and the timeframes in which they were used.
Type I - 1600 to 1675 It is tempting - very tempting indeed - to consider that Late
The classic “Type II”, on which the Type was named. This particular saddle flask was given to Queen Anne by a Persian embassy in 1708. Bottle likely blown at Shiraz.
Bottles and Extras
51
May - June 2015
Persian Saddle Flasks went through a series of transitions very similar to what happened to black glass both in the UK and on the European continent - and at around the same time frames. Remember, there was continuous trade between the English, Dutch, Persians and others on a continuing basis, 300+ years ago. The art and architecture of the early 1600s shows long-necked, round-bottomed bottles used for serving wine - bottles that look quite similar to what I have called “Type I” saddle flasks. They come in at least four colours. And most of mine are very near mint, with very little weathering. A word on that - the lack of weathering. In wetter climates, in North America and Europe, we expect our dug pieces to show signs of ageing - glass leached and weathered. Most of the late Persian glass you will see, on the other hand, doesn’t have so much weathering. Internal content stain for sure, but seldom that been-in-the-ground feel of much North American glass. And I think that’s part of why some people don’t trust it. But what I’ve learned from my reading is that, aside from the fact that the late Persians were pretty consistent about wrapping their glass in reeds or other protective
A very scarce light yellow flask, similar in conformation to a type IV saddle, but without the stringing around the neck. The author has a small selection of these bottles, and wonders whether they may have been used as serving bottles on a host’s table?
Quarter-size Type IV saddle flask, essentially the same size as a pocket flask. 19th century.
coating, the climate there just doesn’t eat away at glass in the first place. One of the early (17th century) traveller’s logs that I read made the point of saying that there’s no real way of knowing how old something is in Persia - it is so dry that items just don’t weather the way they do in England.
Type II - 1675 - 1725 By curious happenstance, a late Persian saddle flask was given to Queen Anne by a Persian Embassy in 1708. And amazingly, remarkably, that same flask is now sitting on my shelf - 307 years later! Among other things, what it does is tell us the state of the manufacturing art around 1708 - and provides a definite point for a very different saddle flask. There is a base and a pickup, there is a more worked, v-tooled lip, and a tall, elegant form. The stringing around the neck is still quite fine, and there are often 12-18 wraps around the neck.
Type III and IV - 1725 - 1920
Very odd Type III Saddle flask with extensive additional stringing applied to the body. The Type III saddle flasks are darker and heavier than the Type IV’s, and the lip is V-tooled, as shown in this example.
Here we go - the Saddle Flasks everyone knows. The commonest saddle flasks - and remember - in the 1700s, Shirazi wine was lauded as some of the best on the planet - are the Type III and Type IV Saddle Flasks. The differences between Type III and Type IV can be seen in the lip, in the body, and in the glass itself. The Type III flasks have a v-tooled, worked lip. They have a narrow body, and are very, very heavy. The Type IVs, in comparison, have a funnel-shaped lip, a thicker, more bulbous body, they come in lighter and more colours, and the glass is nowhere near as dense. There are probably sub-types to be found, and I’m certain that with more study, I will find more differences. I’ve about 80 saddle flasks thus far, but have yet to really study them for trends.
52
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
From Engelbert Kaempfer’s 1714 treatise on the manufacture of Persian wine, this diagram shows package and shipping methods, including, at bottom right, the shapes of three of the bottle types. On the left (c), a karaba, in the middle (d) a saddle flask and on the right (e) a rose water sprinkler.
Type V - 1920 to current day Yes, Virginia - they DO still make - and use - crudely-made blown glass bottles in present-day Iran. So there is a class of saddle flask - I call them Type V’s, that are of modern manufacture, made of remelted glass and quite poorly formed, that still qualify, in my opinion. They serve the same purpose - although of course they don’t hold Shirazi wine anymore, as alcohol is currently forbidden there. But they are real - they are not fakes (more about fakes later). Type V saddle flask in a jade colouring. One of the facts that confounds bottle collectors is that these bottles, pontilled and with stringing, are still used in rural Iran to this very day. Type V saddle flasks were both in the 20th century.
Note the rouletted lip on this tall (12”) flat-sided Karaba (notice the similarity to the word “carboy”). These larger bottles were used for transporting Shirazi wine to markets.
Karabas These are probably my favourite pieces of Late Persian glass. If you look at the word “karaba”, you will see the basis of a word that is probably familiar to you - the word “carboy”. The karabas are transport bottles, intended to move quantities of Shirazi wine to distant markets, as outlined in a book by Kaempfer, complete with line drawings of the bottles and how they were packed. The karabas were made from a rougher glass
A typical “karaba” or wine transport bottle, used for shipping shirazi wine to market. A set of five karabas, transport bottles used to ship Shirazi wine to market. Bottles blow at both Isfahan and Shiraz.
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
53
a small aqua flask, usually with ribbing and with one or more turn of glass around the neck. But there were others: smooth, darker green small ovoids, yellow amber crude smalls with high pointed pushups, stunning dark turquoise smalls with a single band of stringing, as well as many, many other forms that, in my experience, are still one-offs. I even have two saddle flask shapes, one clearly 100+ years older than the other, that are less than four inches tall!
Rose Water Sprinklers & Ewers
Two wide-mouth late Persian saddle flasks that would have been used for exporting pickled fruit.
than the saddle flasks, most of the time. Bubble and inclusionfilled, they were light bubbles of glass intended to help move thousands of litres of wine to India, Afghanistan, Japan and beyond. There are variants to the karabas - flat-sided karabas, oversized karabas, undersized Karabas…all of which fill me with delight.
Smalls In every country, at every time, there is the need for small containers to hold a variety of medicines, oils, essences, unguents, perfumes…and there were a number of consistent styles of smalls from the late Persian period. The commonest was
The height of late Persian glass - and pretty much the only thing any museum has in stock - were the ewers and the rose water sprinklers. There were two sources for both - a home-grown industry alongside an import industry, probably starting in the 19th century, bringing brighter colours and smoother forms from Bohemia. It has been a challenge to date these pieces, because museums will date the same form as 17th, 18th, or 19th century - proof the form is not well understood. In my opinion, it is fairly simple to look across two dozen ewers and see which ones are newer - but the research will have to follow. Some of the ewers were decorated with paint - two of mine and a matching vase were painted with gilt patterns. Just as with the ewers, there was a home-grown as well as an import industry for the rose water sprinklers. Although I still do not own one, I believe that some of the earliest sprinklers were Persian-made, and not Bohemian as is widely postulated, just based on the quality of the glass that I see in photos. Hopefully I will be able to acquire or at least gain access to a couple of the 17th and 18th century sprinklers in the next couple of years so that I can make my own determination.
Wide Mouth Storage Jars
A grouping of wine bottles from 5 glass-producing nations from c. 1700-1740. From left to right, Belgian, English, Persian, Dutch, northern German.
54
Two shipping bottles in a very rare doublegourd form. This shape was typical of Chinese porcelain for a number of centuries. The author has documented 16 examples of this shape. They are typically 24-27” tall and weight 9-10 pounds. They have a very crudely sheared lip and a very heavy laid-on string rim. Almost half the known examples are in northwestern India, but the author strongly believes they were a product of the Shirazi glasshouses. One example is in a museum in Teheran today, and the Indian glasshouses were never known to have produced this quality of glass container.
May - June 2015
A very rare (unique, to the author’s knowledge) cylindrical late Persian wine bottle. Likely dates from the period similar to its european counterparts, mid 18th-century. Note that there was ongoing commerce and communications between the Dutch, English, Belgians, Portuguese and Dutch on a continuing basis from the early 1600s onwards.
The only sealed late Persian in the author’s collection. The seal has been variously interpreted, but all interpreters agree that the seal is the maker’s mark.
I had wanted to bring one of these to compete at the last US National, but of course it’s called a “National” for a reason only jars made in the USA were allowed into the competition. But there’s a wide-mouth storage jar that was used for shipping pickled fruits in the late 1700s or early 1800s, it’s sitting on my shelf and I’m sure every fruit jar collector in the world would love to get her or his hands on it. Not only is the glass wonderfully crude (the storage jars were clearly wide-mouth karabas), but the lip finish is a wonderful rouletted shape, and the jar is pristine. I thought it was the only one on the planet until a second, slightly less stunning but still amazing, sample made its way to become a shelf-mate last year. In addition, I own two wide-mouth saddle flasks and know of a third. One looks like a Type III, the other a Type IV, pointing to perhaps a long-term pattern of using these bottles for storage in
Bottles and Extras
The largest and the smallest pieces of late Persian glass in the author’s collection. The tiny saddle flask on the left likely held medicine or unguents; the huge double-gourd transport flask on the right was used to ship and/or store liquids; likely shirazi wine.
A selection of “saddle flasks” from the author’s collection – demonstrating the breadth and duration of the style. Over 300 years of glassblowing is represented in this one photograph.
addition to wine.
Other Shapes There are round-bodied bottles from the Late Persian period - not all late Persians are flat. I’ve included photos of a selection of them here. These bottles include my sealed globular aqua bottle, a couple bottles that, if they were continental, would clearly be labelled “shaft and globe”, and the only onion-shaped Persian bottle I’ve seen, complete with a “patch” applied over a weakness while the glass was still warm.
Transport bottles One of my favourite forms - one that I’m very pleased to have acquired 3 examples of - is a form that people seem to love or hate. I call them Double-Gourd Transport Bottles. They are 24-
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
A very rare grouping of globular late Persian wines. The bottle on the left is sealed. All three date from the mid-17th century.
55
In travellers’ diaries, it is written that Shiraz and Isfahan were the two glass-production centres in Persia. The bottles from Shiraz were blown from a very pure, white sand that was found a couple days travel from the city, and were said to be very pure and clear. The bottles from Isfahan, on the other hand, were blown from cullet, and were unsightly and filled with bubbles and inclusion. Based on all that the author has read, he believes these three bottles to have been blown in Isfahan. Note the very pronounced shaft and globe styling on the two bottles on either side, and the glass “patch” that has been applied as a repair to the green, onion-shaped bottle in the centre.
A selection of late Persian glass, demonstrating the wide variety in colours, shapes and styles of bottle that were made, beyond the typical “saddle flask” form.
28” tall, they typically weigh about 9 pounds, and they have a wonderful form. There is one in a museum in Teheran, and it is labelled as a vinegar bottle - which makes sense in a culture that prohibits alcohol. And as a side note - the life of a late Persian glass bottle has been a very difficult one indeed. At at least three points in recorded history, the ruler of the country has decreed wine sinful and ordered all wine bottles destroyed. The most recent occasion was in 1979, when troubling events hit the region once again. Bottles, even in museums, were smashed out of existence, if reports are to be believed.
Fakes There is a style of bottle that looks vaguely like a late Persian – but is “fake”, to my mind, never having been intended for use in holding goods. These bottles come in a range of shapes and forms, and I would suggest there are well over 1000 of them that have come out of a warehouse in New Jersey (sad to say, I own almost 100 of these boat anchors, having been sold them by an unscrupulous dealer through a trusting middle-man). I’ve included a photo of many of the forms with this article; there are more images on the web site if you want to see what a “naval boarding grenade” or whatever might look like. They are quite beautiful as blown glass, but horrid things when looked at as bottles.
Buyer beware! None of these are late Persian, although they often appear on ebay as such, when they aren’t being sold as “naval deck sweeper grenades” or other such nonsense. All of these are of recent (1960-1980) manufacture, meant for tourists, not for holding contents. They come in at least these colour and shape variations, a couple of which actually look a little bit authentic.
Assembling the collection Luckily for me, the late Persians were very consistent traders - hundreds of thousands of glass containers left Persian from 1600-2000 - likely millions. They headed east, to India, where some are found today, and west to Europe. The collection I’m assembling has come from all over the world. Pieces typically show up in onesies and twosies in Sweden, then Australia, then the Czech Republic, then the States, then who knows where the next one might come from? It’s a collection that would have been very difficult to assemble in a pre-Internet era, one that still comes together in fits and spurts even today. If you’d like to read more about late Persian glass, please visit my web site - http://www.saddleflasks.com .
ril
2015
B and Extras Bottles ottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
The National Bottle Museum by Jim Bender
[FOHBC Historian]
A
s a bottle collector, I am sure many of you have often asked is there a museum just for old bottles? The answer to that question is most definitely there is.
57
Bottle Collectors. Both organizations have seen many changes. The current president of the FOHBC, Ferdinand Meyer, calls it the “next generation.” The museum lost its longtime director in 2010 when Jan Rutland suddenly passed away. Gary Moeller, who had worked with Jan for years, is overseeing the museum and collection today. The museum is filled with great displays of all kinds of bottles and related go-withs. It has a fantastic 50-state bottle collection with a great bottle representing each state. All bottles in the museum’s collection are donated by clubs or private collectors. Many of
The National Bottle Museum is located in the beautiful town of Ballston Spa, N.Y. Ballston Spa is one of those small towns that just has so much history to offer visitors. James Fennimore Cooper sat in what is now the Brookside Museum and wrote part of The Last of the Mohicans. It is said he was inspired by the area’s landscape and beauty.
Jan Rutland
the tools used to blow bottles are also on display. There is just so much to see.
Education is paramount to the “Next Generation” of bottle collectors
The National Bottle Museum was the idea of long time Ballston Spa resident Bernard Puckhaber who loved the history of the surrounding mineral springs, many of which were bottled and known today as Saratoga Waters. Bernard wrote the first price guide on Saratoga Mineral Waters in 1976. Bernie, as his friends knew him, approached the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs with the idea of having a National Bottle Museum. So along with Bernie’s help the National Bottle Museum opened its doors in 1978. The museum was originally located in what is known as the Verbeck House which is located just up the street from the current location of 76 Milton Street. As time passed, the federation board and the museum board had different plans for the future of the museum. So in 1992, the Federation and the Museum split up and went their separate ways. It was a sad day for the bottle community for sure. But like all things in life, time went on and so did the museum and the federation which today is known as The Federation of Historical
The museum has added things since its original beginnings. There is now an art glass studio located on Washington Street. You can sign up and take classes in the fine art of flameworking or sometimes called lampworking. On the second floor is the Jan Rutland Art Gallery. Dedicated to the longtime director, its walls are filled with art work from
Section of Glass Furnace Floor from the Congressville Factory, Saratoga Springs, New York
58
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
All 50 States bottle collection, a bottle from every state in the union.
A beautiful wall of bottles to look at and when you get to a point you can’t see anymore, just climb the ladder
Section of family bitters bottles, some with labels and contents
A high wall cabinet with many types of Saratoga and spring water bottles. Check out all the colors.
Beer display with many beautiful types of beers. Their are many different stoneware and blob beers on display.
As a bottle collector I am sure many of you have often asked is there a museum just for old bottles? The answer to that question is most definitely there is. many local artists. Jan always felt the second floor brick walls looked bare so the art gallery became part of the museum and helped promote local talent. The National Bottle Museum holds an annual show every year in June. Commonly known as the Saratoga Show, for many years it was one of the top shows in the northeast. It even held an auction on Saturday night. Sadly over time, the show started to only be a shadow of its former self. Organizers were forced to change locations and dates and ended up with a Saturday show.
Bottles and Extras
59
May - June 2015
A bottle and mold used to make the violin commemorative bottles. An example of how free blown bottles were blown
The many tools used in the making of early bottles
A display of what a glass blowing facility may have looked like in the early glass blowers timeline
Well, that’s all changing this year. Phil Bernard is heading up the show and is planning on bringing the show back to what it once was. Right off, he realized a bottle show does best on Sunday. Next, he decided to start back where it all started years ago. So the show is moving back to the fairgrounds. This year, outside vendor spaces are being added for other collectables to be sold. This is sure to boost attendance. Other shows around the country have been having good luck with this format. A bottle and mold to show how bottles are made
The Rochester club’s show is a bottle show with other tabletop collectables and it is a great success. I am sure in a very short time Phil will have the show back on top. But like any hobby, he needs our support. I ask everyone to join me at the Saratoga Show this year on June 7th. Come visit the museum, currently they are open 10am to 4pm, Tues through Sat. come to see old friends and make a weekend out of it. There are many antique shops in the area and attractions for the whole family. Our hobby is only as strong as its members. I support both the FOHBC and the museum and you can, too. For more information on the show, you can call Phil at 518-429-7641 or e-mail explomar@hotmail.com. For complete details on the show, check out the FOHBC show listings at fohbc.org
Just follow the signs and bottles will appear
Our hobby needs shows since they are the backbones of hobby. You can’t touch a bottle or share a smile online. I plan on seeing you all there.
60
May - June 2015
UE BOTTLE ANTIQ COLLECTORS OF RADO SHOW COLTO H NNIVERS 50
A
45TH OHIO BOTTLE CLUB ANTIQUE BOTTLE SHOW & SALE RICHFIELD, OHIO
ARY
Antiques
Bottles and Extras
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2015
Glassware
Old Bottles
9:00 am to 2:00 pm Days Inn and Suites 4742 Brecksville Road Richfield, Ohio (Ohio Turnpike Exit 173)
Collectibles
ABCC:
Stoneware
A Colorado Non-Profit Corporation
C AS
Admission $3.00
NEW LOCATION
TLE ROCK, COLORAD O
Early Admission $20.00 (7:30 am to 9:00 am)
At The Foot of Pikes Peak
JULY 25TH, 2015
9 AM TO 4PM: Dealer Set-up: 7am-9am Early Dealer Set-up - July 24, 2pm-5pm
Douglas County Fairgrounds at Kirk Hall 500 Fairgrounds Dr., Castle Rock, CO 80104 (1/2 Mile East of I-25 on Plum Creek Parkway)
CHAIR Louis Fifer (330) 635-1964 fiferlouis@yahoo.com
$3.00 Admission Contact: Jeff Johnson 303-681-3776 www.antiquebottlecollectorsofcolorado.com Member of Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
CO-CHAIR Matt Lacy (440) 228-1873 info@antiquebottlesales.com www.ohiobottleclub.org
The National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors the publisher of
will hold its
35th Annual Convention May 28-30, 2015 (Thursday thru Saturday) at the Holiday Inn in Grantville, PA (7 miles from Hershey) • Buy, sell and trade bottles • Educational seminars • Bottle displays
• Friday night banquet • Saturday night auction (200+ bottles) • $5 daily registration fee for non-members • For information and registration forms, visit www.milkbottlecollectors.com or call Tom Weller at (724) 449-2750.
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
61
62
May - June 2015
Where there’s a will there’s a way to leave Donations to the FOHBC Did you know the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a 501C(3) charitable organization? How does that affect you? It allows tax deductions for any and all donations to the FOHBC. You might also consider a bequest in your will to the FOHBC. This could be a certain amount of money or part or all of your bottle collection. The appraised value of your collection would be able to be deducted from your taxes. (This is not legal advice, please consult an attorney) I give and bequeath to the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, 1605 Clipper Cove, Painesville, OH 44077, the sum of $____________ to be used as its Board of Directors determines. The same type wording could be used for bequeathing your collection or part of it, however, before donating your collection (or part of it), you would need the collection appraised by a professional appraiser with knowledge of bottles and their market values. This is the amount that would be tax deductible. Thank you for considering us in your donation plans. Ferdinand Meyer V, President Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
Want to Advertise? See page 65 or visit: fohbc.org for advertising rates
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
63
May - June 2015
HISTORIES CORNER In Memory of Dick Watson FOHBC Historian
REPRODUCTION BOTTLES A CONCERN
Reproduction bottles were a concern to the FOHBC right from the start. In 1971, and again in 1975, with help from lobbyist Michael P. Daniels, Bill H.R.12284 was introduced to the 52nd Congress asking that all reproduction bottles be marked. The bill failed congress both times. They stated that there was no clear understanding of what an antique bottle was. Watch each issue for a new installment of Histories Corner.
64
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Rooms $92: 1-775-289-2000, code - RABS15, 1-800-501-2651 Deadline: 06/26/2015
Bottles and Extras
65
May - June 2015
Classified Ads FOR SALE Advertise for free: Free “For Sale” advertising in each Bottles and Extras. One free “Wanted” ad in Bottles and Extras per year. Send your advertisement to FOHBC Business Manager, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002 or better yet, email “ emeyer@ fmgdesign.com” DEALERS: Sell your bottles in the B & E classified for free. Change the bottles and your ad is free month after month. Include your website in your ad to increase traffic to your site. Send your advertisement to FOHBC Business Manager, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002 or better yet, email “ emeyer@fmgdesign.com” FOR SALE: New (Double) back printed and bound, “A History of the Edora Potteries”, 200 pages, “A History of the Moingona Potteries” on the back 100 pages, 300 pages total. Detailed research on the Stoneware, Terra Cotta, Brick and Tile Manufacturing Company’s in Hardin County Iowa and the potters. For photos of the stoneware, cost is $23 plus shipping. Media mail add $4.50, Priority add $6.00. Mark C. Wiseman, 3505 Sheridan Avenue, DesMoines, Iowa 50310-4557 or (515) 255-2620. FOR SALE: 30 cases, embossed and painted label sodas from 30’s to 60’s with cases. $20 each, send for list: John Humphrey, 187 Hunt Road, Afton, NY 13730 or call (607) 639-2470. FOR SALE: Several nice very old figurals. Call (520) 868-5704 or Write: Audrey Belter, 3825 N. Indiana, Florence, AZ 85132 FOR SALE: UNION SODA WORKS (Tombstone) Aqua blob top. $2200 OBO. APOTHECARY CABINET, pictured in Nov-Dec 2014 Bottles and Extras, had it appraised. Valued at $3,750, now $3,500 OBO. Bob Hirsch (562) 619-8338, Whitter, CA 90604.
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
Bottles and Extras Advertising Rates DISPLAY ADVERTISING RATES B&W Page 1/2 Page 1/4 Page 1/8 Page 1 Issue $175 $90 $50 $20 2 Issues* $300 $175 $90 $35 3 Issues* $450 $235 $130 $50 4 Issues* $600 $315 $170 $65 5 Issues* $725 $390 $210 $80 6 Issues* $850 $475 $250 $95 Color 1 Issue 2 Issues* 3 Issues* 4 Issues* 5 Issues* 6 Issues*
Page $200 $350 $525 $700 $825 $1,050
4” Col. $30 $55 $80 $105 $130 $150
Cover 1/2 Page 1/4 Page 1/8 Page $225 $125 $80 $45 $400 $200 $130 $75 $600 $300 $200 $110 $800 $400 $280 $150 $1,000 $500 $375 $190 $1,200 $600 $425 $230
3” Col. 2” Col. $25 $20 $45 $38 $65 $57 $85 $75 $105 $85 $125 $90
Classifieds: 10 cents per word 15 cents per bold word $2 minimum monthly charge ad should be typed or printed
*Consecutive issues with no changes Digital Copy and or camera ready copy preferred but not required for display ads
***** 50% Discount ***** For FOHBC member clubs All ads must be paid for in advance
Make checks payable to FOHBC (Federation of historical Bottle Collectors) Send Payment to: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; Send AD copy and/or questions to: Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org
Issue Date January/February March/April May/June July/August September/October November/December
AD Deadlines
Deadline November 20 January 20 March 20 May 20 July 20 September 20
66
May - June 2015
WANTED WANTED: Lancaster Ohio Beers, especially E. Becker Brewing. Also, any Washington Brewery, Washington D. C. I don’t have. Also does anyone have a “B E MANN’S ORIENTAL STOMACH BITTERS” for sale? Contact Gary Beatty (941) 276-1546 or “tropicalbreezes@ verizon.net” WANTED: I have all types of bottles. I make a list every 2 weeks. You can have a copy for 70 cents, self-addressed stamped envelope. Timothy Hart, 20 Maston Road, Victory, VT 05858. WANTED: Sacramento shot glasses: C&K/WHISKEY, Casey & Kavanaugh; California A Favorite; SILVER SHEAF/ Bourbon/H. WEINREICH & CO. (double shot); GOLDEN GRAIN/BOURBON/M. CRONAN & CO. (in black); bar bottle, JAMES WOODBURN (white enamel). WANTED: Milk Bottles from Rhode Island. Also, any Bitters, Peppersauces, demijohns and Indian artifacts. I have many
Bottles and Extras
from New England to trade or sell. Jan Boyer, PO Box 53, Wyoming, RI 02898. (401) 539-2051, boyerinri@yahoo.com.
today! For details see our website at poisonbottleclub.org or contact Joan Cabaniss at (540) 297-4498.
WANTED: Minnesota shot glasses, especially from Moorhead & Duluth. MN applied label beer glasses from Red Wing Brewery and WM Schellhas Brewery, Winona. Etched beer glasses from Jordon, Shakopee, Chaska, Perham, MN. Pat Stambaugh, (651) 564-0200, 702 S Meridian Road #566, Apache Junction, AZ 85120.
WANTED: Globe Compounding – Nature’s Liver Regulator and Nature’s Lung Elixir; Peruvian Diarrhea Remedy; Frost’s Expectorant & Cough Balsam; Cy-Do-Line; North Star Lung & Throat Balsam – Jas. Murison & Co.; Minnesota Oil of Life Co., Minneapolis; Pyro Dentin Eucalyptol Chem. Co.; Knowlton’s Liniment, Spink & Co.; Quaker Sarsaparilla; Sapphine – Andrus Building; Mederine. Call or email Boyd at (763) 314-0257 or email at boyd.beccue@ charter.net.
WANTED: Eureka, CA. Whiskey flasks from Delaney & Young and also J.P. Monroe. Either size is okay. Reward for leads that result in purchase. Bob Hansen (707) 840-9624 or email bobarhansen@ aol.com WANTED: Amber quart cylinder whiskey shoulder embossed Garrick & Cather Chicago, IL plus embossed image of a palm tree. Contact Carl Malik, PO Box 367, Monee, IL 60449 (708) 534-5161. WANTED MEMBERS: Join the ANTIQUE POISON BOTTLE COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION
WANTED: Old crock/jug with name MORTON (any size). My dad’s name was Morton. If have, want to sell, email picture. Contact Darlene Furda at (818) 889-5451 or email dfurda@roadrunner.com. WANTED: Damaged Washington Bar Flask Tonopah, Nevada. Must be priced right. Dave Deto, PO Box 118. Yosemite, CA 95389 (209)626-9846.
Bottles and Extras
67
May - June 2015
FOHBC Membership Directory 21 Members gained this period. The names below represent persons agreeing to be listed in the printed membership directory. Some of those listed agreed to be listed in the membership directory but not the online directory.
Aaron Hanshen 203 South Alleuhany Avenue Covington VA 24426 (540) 620-1024 Warners, flasks and meds
Bob Averill 1446 Periwinkle Way Sanibel FL 33957 (215) 275-2365
Timothy Hart 20 Maston Road Victory VT 05858 (802) 695-8813 All types of bottles, Vermont bottles
Charles Bates 1115 Perkinswood SE Warren OH 44484 Wolfgang Bauriedel 34 Everett Street Natick MA 01760 (508) 287-8787 Pitkins, Sunburst, Inks
Boyd A. Hitchner 23 Colonial Avenue Haddonfield NJ 08033 (856) 429-0863 Fruit Jars, Advertising
David Brown 2307 Mile Hill Road Sunbury PA 17801
Jeff Ingram 7661 Kindle Road Laurel MD 20723 (301) 604-0796 Stoneware, Bitters
B. Kenneth Cornett 1058 Martin Mill Pike Rockford TN 37853 (865) 982-3594
Jerry Jones 2664 Tabernacle Church Road Pleasant Garden NC 27313 (336) 676-0194
Kimberly Danielson 583 Salem Woods Drive SE Marietta GA 30067
Charles Livingston 3102 N. Avenida Republica DeCuba Tampa FL 33605 (813) 244-6898
Martin Everse 2722 Altadena Lake Drive Birmingham AL 35243
Ronnie McCormick 1503 NW 11th Road Gainesville FL 32605 (352) 262-8672 Bonnie Nelson 124 - 21st Street Paso Robles CA 93446 Linda Sheppard P.O. Box 162 Sprakers, NY 12166 (518) 673-8833 General Bottles Irv Sterling 6106 NW 54 Way Gainesville FL 32653 (352) 514-7222 Bill Thomas 3708 Mill Road Abingdon MD 21009 (443) 617-1760 Shaker Thomas J Waller Jr. 2673 Old Neck Road Exmore VA 23350 (757) 443-6099 Flasks Wyatt Yon 2931-36th Street Des Moines IA 50310-4055
Don’t forget - get your free AD in today Contact: FOHBC Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org
Notice to Members
Please check your mailing label for correctness and your membership expiration date. This will insure you continue to receive Bottles and Extras without interruption. If moving, please send in a change of address, Contact: FOHBC, Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org
68
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
FOHBC Sho-Biz
Calendar of shows and related events FOHBC Sho - Biz is published in the interest of the hobby. Federation affiliated clubs are connotated with FOHBC logo. Information on up-coming collecting events is welcome, but space is limited. Please send at least three months in advance, including telephone number to: FOHBC Sho-Biz, C/O Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org, Show schedules are subject to change. Please call before traveling long distances. All listings published here will also be published on the website: FOHBC.org
May 2 Gray, Tennessee 17th Annual “State of Franklin” Antique Bottle Show off I-26 on Exit 13, Saturday, Appalachian Fairgrounds, Gray, Tennessee, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, Set-up time: 7:00 am – 9:00 am, Free Admission & Door Prizes!, www.sfabca.com, Contact: Carl Bailey, 423.282.3119 May 3 Antioch, Illinois Antique Bottle Club Of Northern Illinois, 40th Annual Antiques, Bottles and Collectables, Show and Sale at the Antioch Senior Center, 817 Holbeck, Antioch, Illinois 60002, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, no early admission. Set starts at 7:oo am. Free admission. Contact John Puzzo Phone 815.338.7582 or e-mail at johnpuzzo@ sbcglobal.net May 3 Marcy, New York The Mohawk Valley Antique Bottle Club will host its 21st Annual Utica Bottle Show & Sale on Sunday at the Utica Maennerchor in Marcy, New York, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm, Admission $3, Information: Peter Bleiberg, 315.735.5430, pmbleiberg@aol.com or visit mohawkvalleybottleclub.com May 9 Mansfield, Ohio The Ohio Bottle Club’s 37th Mansfield Antique Bottle & Advertising Show & Sale at the Richland County Fairgrounds, Trimble Road exit off of U.S. Rt. 30, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Donation $3, Early Admission: $25 during dealer set-up Friday May 8, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Information: Matt Lacy, Chair, 440.228.1873, info@ antiquebottlesales.com or Louis Fifer, CoChair, 330.635.1964, fiferlouis@yahoo.com May 9 Coventry, Connecticut The Museum of Connecticut Glass 11th Annual Outdoor Bottle and Glass Show, Rt. 44 & North River Road, Coventry, Connecticut Rain or Shine, on the historic early 19th century glass factory grounds, including Exhibits and Tours. 9:00 am
to 1:00 pm, early buyers 8:00 am. www. glassmuseum.org Contact: Noel Tomas, 860.633.2944 Noel.Tomas@glassmuseum.org May 9 & 10 Adamstown, Pennsylvania 2nd Annual Shupps Grove Diggers of America Show. Saturday 7:00 am Dealer Setup, Sunday Dawn to Dusk. Bottle diggers, relic hunters, scuba divers, metal detectors/farm dump finds, privy diggers and much more!! The Famous “Shupp’s Grove”, 1686 Dry Tavern Road, Denver, Pennsylvania 17517, Contact: Steve Guion, 717.626.5557, affinityinsurance1@ windstream.net May 15 & 16th Kent, Washington Washington Bottle & Collectors Association 4th Annual Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show at Kent Commons 525 4th Avenue N., Kent, Washington 98032. Early Buyers $5 admission, May 15th (Friday) 1:00 – 5:00 pm, Free admission May 16th (Saturday) 9:00 – 3:00 pm. Dealer set-up 10:00 am – 12:30 pm Friday. Contact Show chairs Pete Hendricks 253.335.1732 or Niel Smith 206.783.0215, E-mail: wbcaweb@gmail.com May 16 Aiken, South Carolina The Horse Creek Bottle & Pottery Club will hold its 7th annual Antique Bottle and Pottery Sale 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center, 1700 Whiskey Road, Aiken, South Carolina. No early buyers. Small antiques and collectibles, free parking, free admission, free appraisals. More information: Geneva Greene, 803.593.2271. May 16 Lake City, Florida 2nd Annual Antique Bottle & Collectable Show & Sale at the Columbia County Fairgrounds, 438 SR 427, Lake City, Florida, Dealer set-up on Friday, May 15 from 12:00 – 7:00 pm. General admission: $3, Early Buyers Admission: $20 from 4:00 – 7:00 pm on Friday. For show and dealer contracts call Brian Hoblick 386.804.9635 or Ed LeTard 985.788.6163.
May 16 Richmond, Rhode Island The Little Rhody Bottle Club Tailgate Swap Meet at Jules Antiques and General Store, 320 Kingstown Road, Richmond, Rhode Island (3 miles East of Route #95 on Route #138). 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Free set up for members and potential new members. Free coffee, donuts and pizza for participants. Bring your own tables. Info: William Rose, 508.880.4929 May 17 Washington, Pennsylvania Washington County Antique Bottle Clubs 41st Annual Show & Sale at the Alpine Star Lodge, 735 Jefferson Avenue, Washington, Pennsylvania 15301, Exit 17 off I-70. Admission $3. Info: Ed Kuskie, 352 Pineview Drive, Elizabeth, Pennsylvania 15037, 412.405.9061, bottlewizard@ comcast.net May 28 – 31 Hershey, Pennsylvania National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors (NAMBC) will hold its 35th Annual Convention at the Holiday Inn in Grantville (Hershey), Pennsylvania. 604 Station Road, Grantville, PA 17028 Show Time: Thursday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, No Early Admission, $5 regular admission, Contact: Tom Weller, Convention Chair, Phone: 724.449.2750 See Press Release. Visit NAMBC Web Site May 30 & 31 Santa Rosa, California 49th Northwestern Bottle Collectors Antique Bottle & Collectible Show at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, 1351 Maple Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95404, Saturday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm & Sunday 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, Early Admission $10 Saturday 9:00 am – 10:00 am during dealer set-up. Set up: Saturday 9:00 am – 10:00 am, $3 General admission. $10 Early Admission, Northwestern Bottle Collectors Assn., www.oldwestbottles.com, Contact: Lou Lambert, Show Chairman, PO box 322, Graton, California 95444, 707.823.8845, nbca@comcast.net
Bottles and Extras
69
May - June 2015
(More) Sho-Biz June 5 & 6 Butte, Montana Montana Bottle Collectors Association, presents our annual 2015 Bottle, Antique and Collectibles Show, Butte Civic Center, 1340 Harrison Avenue, Butte, Montana, June 5th (Friday) 4:00 to 8:00 pm, early bird $5, June 6th (Saturday) 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. $3 or the $5 paid with ticket on Fri. gets you in free. Contact James Campiglia 805.689.0125 www. outhousepatrol.com June 7 Ballston Spa, New York Annual National Bottle Museum Show at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds, 162 Prospect Street, Ballston Spa, New York 12020, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm INSIDE AND OUTSIDE table top antiques and collectibles also. No early birds. Setup Saturday evening. Building will be locked as well as fairgrounds. Cost of admission: $3 at gate. National Bottle Museum, www.nationalbottlemuseum.org, Contact: Phil Bernnard, Show Chair, 76 Milton Avenue, Ballston Spa, New York 12020, Tele: 518.429.7641, E-mail: explomar@hotmail.com June 13 San Diego, California San Diego 2015 Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show & Sale at Al Bahr Shrine Temple, 5440 Kearny Mesa Road, San Diego, California 92111, Dealer setup: 7:00 am, Early Bird: 8:00 am – $10, General Admission: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm – $2, Free Admission: Noon to 3:00 pm., Kids under 12 free with adult, Mike Bryant, Show Chairman, Info: Jim Walker, 858.490.9019, jaw@internetter.com, www. sdbottleclub.org June 27 Tulsa, Oklahoma The Tulsa Antiques and Bottle Club’s 38th Annual Bottle and Antique Advertising Show from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Tulsa Flea Market in the River Spirit Center, Tulsa Fairgrounds, 21st Street and Pittsburgh Avenue, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Free admission, no early buyers. Dealer set-up Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday from 6:00 am to 8:00 am. 200 show tables plus a 500 table flea market. Info: Richard Carr 918.687.4150
or 918.478.6119 or Henry Tankersley 918.481.3820 or 918.663.3218 or henry@ americanbanktulsa.com. July 2-5 Sandwich, Illinois 46th Annual National Insulator Association Show and Convention. 135+ Dealer tables, 25 Displays. This year it will be held at the Timber Creek Inn & Suites and Convention Center, 3300 Drew Avenue, Sandwich, Illinois 60548. For hotel reservations call: 630.273.6000 and mention NIA for special rates. For more show information visit: www.2015niashow.com Hosts: Jason Townsend, call: 630.667.3357 or e-mail: jtins76@gmail.com or Bob Stahr 630.793.5345 or e-mail: bob@hemingray.com July 11 Houston-Texas Houston Antique Bottle, Advertising and Collectible Show at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 12801 Northwest Freeway, Houston, Texas 77040, July 10th (setup day) and July 11th (show time). Tell all your friends and fellow collectors (bottles, signs, insulators, etc. etc. etc.) the date of the show and if anyone is interested in a table; please contact me at bpuckett77009@yahoo.com, Barbara Puckett July 11 Richmond, Rhode Island The Little Rhody Bottle Club Tailgate Swap Meet at Jules Antiques and General Store, 320 Kingstown Road, Richmond, Rhode Island (3 miles East of Route #95 on Route #138). 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Free set up for members and potential new members. Free coffee, donuts and pizza for participants. Bring your own tables. Info: William Rose, 508.880.4929 July 17 & 18 Reno, Nevada Reno Antique Bottle & Collectibles Club 52nd Annual Show & Sale at the Grand Sierra Resort, 2500 East Second Street, Nevada Conference and Exhibition Center, Free Admission, Saturday: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Friday, Dealer set-up: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm, Friday, Early Bird: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm $10. Information Marty Hall, rosemuley@att.net
July 18 & 19 Adamstown, Pennsylvania The 15th Annual Shupp’s Grove Bottle Festival, Saturday & Sunday 6:00 am to dusk, early buyers Friday, 3:00 pm, The famous “Shupp’s Grove”, 1686 Dry Tavern Road, Denver, Pennsylvania 17517, Contact: Steve Guion, 717.626.5557, affinityinsurance1@windstream.net July 25 Birmingham, Alabama The Alabama Bottle Collectors’ 10th Anniversary Bottle, Folk Pottery and Collectible Show will be Saturday, 8:00 am thru 3:00 pm at the Bessemer Civic Center located at Exit 108 on I-20/59…FREE PUBLIC ADMISSION. Dealers and Early Buyers are welcome Friday afternoon, July 24th from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Selling starts at 4:00 pm. More information can be found at www.AlabamaBottleCollectors. com or email ALBottleCollectors@ Hotmail.com or call Tom Lines, Show Chairman at 205.410.2191. July 25 Castle Rock, Colorado 50th Annual Antique Bottle Collectors Of Colorado Show at the Douglas County Fairgrounds at Kirk Hall, 500 Fairgrounds Drive, Castle Rock, Colorado 80104, Saturday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, No Early Admission, Setup: July 24, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm, July 25, 7:00 am – 9:00 am, $3 Admission, Antique Bottle Collectors Of Colorado, antiquebottlecollectorsofcolorado.com, Contact: Jeff Johnson, Show Chairman, P.O. Box 26, Larkspur, Colorado 80118, 303.681.3776, jtjsmj@msn.com August 31 July – 2 Chattanooga, Tennessee FOHBC 2015 National Antique Bottle Show at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Sunday August 2, with dealer set-up and early buyers on Saturday. The Chattanooga Marriott Downtown will be the host hotel and is connected to the convention center. The banquet/ bottle competition, seminars, auction, and membership meetings will be held at the Marriott. Jack Hewitt and John Joiner are serving as show co-chairpersons. Contracts and Information FOHBC National Show
70
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
(More) Sho-Biz August 10 - 16 Bouckville, New York 44th Annual Madison-Bouckville Antique Show, Outdoor antiques, collectibles including two huge bottle tents. Over 2000 dealers and vendors located on scenic Route 20, Bouckville, New York. Contact: Larry Fox, 585.307.4608 or Jim Mitchell, 813.684.2834 September 13 Richfield, Ohio 45th Ohio Bottle Club Antique Bottle Show & Sale at the Days Inn and Suites, 4742 Brecksville Road, Richfield, Ohio (Ohio Turnpike Exit 173) 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Admission $3, Early Admission $20 (7:30 to 9:00 am) Chair, Louis Fifer 330.635.1964 fiferlouis@yahoo.com, Co-Chair, Matt Lacy 440.228.1873, info@antiquebottlesales.com, www. ohiobottleclub.org September 19 Santa Ana, California Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club’s 49th Annual Antique Bottle, Fruit Jar, Antiques & Collectibles Show & Sale, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Early Bird $10 at 8:00 am, FREE General Admission! Santa Ana Elks Lodge, 212 Elk Lane, Santa Ana, California 92701, Contact: Don Wippert 818.346.9833 or Dick Homme, 818.362.3368, Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club September 19 Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis Circle Citys Antique Bottle, Advertsiing and Collectibles show. Set up 7:30 to 9:00am, Show hours 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Boone County Fairgrounds, 1300 E. 100 S. Lebanon, IN 46052. FREE APPRAISALS. For Show Information Contact: Martin Van Zant 812.841.9495 or 208 Urban St. Danville IN, 46122. mdvanzant@yahoo.com September 26 Moriarty, New Mexico 28th EIC/NMHBS Annual Insulator, Bottle, Barbwire and Collectibles Show at the Moriarty Civic Center, 202 Broadway Avenue, Moriarty, New Mexico 87035, Show open to public, Free Admission, Early admission: Friday 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Early bird admission: $10. Set up: Friday 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm and Saturday 7:30 am – 8:30 am Enchantment Insulator
Club & New Mexico Historical Bottle Society Contact: Michael Gay, EIC President & Show Chair, 5516 Kachina NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87120 505.899.8755, cdn102@centurylink.net September 27 Depew, New York 17th Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association Annual Show and Sale at the Polish Falcons Hall, 445 Columbia Avenue, Depew, New York 14043, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Set-up: Sunday, September 27th 7:00 am to 9:00 am, Cost of admission: $2, children under 12 free, Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association, gbbca. org, Contact: Joe Guerra, Secretary, 29 Nina Terrace, West Seneca, New York 14224, Phone: 716.674.5750, jguerra3@ roadrunner.com October 3 Richmond, Virginia Richmond 44th Antique Bottle Show and Sale, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, $3 Admission, Early Admission – 7:30 am: $10, Chesterfield County Fairgrounds, 10300 Courthouse Road, Chesterfield, Virginia 23832 Info: RichBottleClub@comcast. net or Marvin Croker, 804.275.1101 or Ed Faulkner 804.739.2951 October 4 Chelsea, Michigan The Huron Valley Bottle and Insulator Club 40th Annual Show & Sale, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Admission $3 for adults, children 16 and under free. Comfort Inn Conference Center, Commerce Park Drive next to Comfort Inn, Chelsea (Exit 159 off I-94) Contact Info: Mike Bruner, 248.425.3223, abbott4girl@sbcglobal.net or Rod Krupka, 248.627.6351, rod.krupka@yahoo.com October 17 Richmond, Rhode Island The Little Rhody Bottle Club Tailgate Swap Meet at Jules Antiques and General Store, 320 Kingstown Road, Richmond, Rhode Island (3 miles East of Route #95 on Route #138). 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Free set up for members and potential new members. Free coffee, donuts and pizza for participants. Bring your own tables. Info: William Rose, 508.880.4929
October 18 York, Pennsylvania The York Bottle & Advertising Show at the York Fairgrounds in York, Pennsylvania, inside the Old Main Building, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, 175 tables, Admission on $3 for a day of fun, Info: Holiday Promotions 410.538.5558, holpromo@yahoo.com November 7 Jacksonville, Florida Antique Bottle Collectors of North Florida 48th Annual Show & Sale, Saturday, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm; early buyers Friday, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm $20. Free admission on Saturday. Fraternal Order of Police Building, 5530 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville, Florida, Contact: Mike Skie, 3047 Julington Creek Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32223, Tele: 904.710.0422 or Jackie McRae, 904.879.3696 2016 January 10 Taunton, Massachusetts The Little Rhody Bottle Club Annual Show & Sale, New location at the Holiday Inn off Exit #9 of Route #495, 700 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, Massachusetts, Info: Bill or Linda Rose, 508.880.4929; sierramadre@ comcast.net August 4 – 7 Sacramento, California FOHBC 2016 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo at the McClellan Conference Center, Host Hotel: Lions Gate Hotel. Room Reservations Information: Richard Siri, Show Chairman, rtsiri@ sbcglobal.net or Ferdinand Meyer V, FOHBC President, 713.222.7979 x 115 or e-mail: fmeyer@fohbc.org More info at FOHBC.org FOHBC National Convention
SEND IN YOUR SHOW INFORMATION AND/OR SHOW FLYER TO: fohbc.org/submityour-show/
Bottles and Extras
May - June 2015
71
Membership Benefits
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors cordially invites you to join a dedicated group of individuals and clubs who collect, study and display the treasured glass and ceramic gems of yesteryear. The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC) is a non-profit organization supporting collectors of historical bottles, flasks, jars, and related items. The goal of the FOHBC is to promote the collection, study, preservation and display of historical bottles and related artifacts and to share this information with other collectors and individuals. Federation membership is open to any individual or club interested in the enjoyment and study of antique bottles. The Federation publication, Bottles and Extras, is well known throughout the hobby world as the leading publication for those interested in bottles and “go-withs”. The magazine includes articles of historical interest, stories chronicling the hobby and the history of bottle collecting, digging stories, regional news, show reports, advertisements, show listings, and an auction directory. Bottles and Extras is truly the place to go when information is needed about this popular and growing hobby. In addition to providing strength to a national/international organization devoted to the welfare of the hobby, your FOHBC membership benefits include: • A full year subscription the Federation’s official bi-monthly publication, Bottles and Extras • One free ad per yearly membership of 100 words for use for “wanted” items, trade offers, etc. • Eligibility for a discount at FOHBC sponsored shows (National or EXPOs) towards “early admission” or dealer table rent • Access to a knowledge of the world of antique bottle collecting unavailable elsewhere • Contact information for clubs devoted to the study of historical bottles • A forum for your writings, articles, and editorials regarding the hobby • Participation in the nomination and selection of Federation members for the Honor Roll and Hall of Fame • Federation-sponsored writing, show poster, and newsletter-design contests • Free publication assistance for your book or manuscript • And more... We encourage Affiliated Bottle Club memberships by offering these additional benefits to your group: • Display advertising in Bottles and Extras at an increased discount of 50% • Insertion of your bottle club show ad on the Federation website to increase your show’s exposure • Links to your club website free of charge, as well as assistance with the creation of your website • Free Federation ribbon for Most Educational Display at your show • Slide programs for use at your club meetings • Participation in Federation sponsored insurance program for your club show and any other club sponsored activities Finally… We need your support! Our continued existence is dependent upon your participation as well as expanding our membership. The Federation is the only national organization devoted to the enjoyment, study, preservation, collection, and display of historical bottles. The FOHBC welcomes individuals who would like to contribute by running for Board positions or by sharing their expertise and volunteering their talents in other areas of interest such as contributions to our publications, assistance with the Federation’s National and EXPO shows, or through membership promotion. If you haven’t yet joined our organization, please do so and begin reaping the benefits. If you are already a member, please encourage your friends and fellow collectors to JOIN US!! For more information, questions, or to join the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, please contact:
Jim Bender, PO Box 162, Sprakers, NY 12166; phone: (518) 673-8833; e-mail: jim1@frontiernet.net or visit our home page on the web at FOHBC.org
72
May - June 2015
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras Individual and Affiliated Club Information
FOHBC Individual Membership Application For Membership, complete the following application or sign up at www.fohbc.org (Please Print)
Name ____________________________ Address ____________________________ City _____________ State___________ Zip _____________ Country________ Telephone____________________________ Email Address_________________________
Do you wish to be listed in the printed membership directory? (name, address, phone number, email address and what you collect) { } Yes { } No Do you wish to be listed in the
online membership directory? (name, address, phone number,
Bottles and Extras FREE ADS
Category: “WANTED” Maximum - 60 words Limit - One free ad per current membership year. Category: “FOR SALE” Maximum - 100 words Limit - 1 ad per issue. (Use extra paper if necessary.)
email address and what you collect)
Collecting Interests_____________________ { } Yes { } No ____________________________ ____________________________ Would you be interested in ____________________________ serving as an officer? { } Yes { } No
Addtional Comments___________________ Would you be interested ____________________________ in contributing your bottle
knowledge by writing articles for the Bottles and Extras? { } Yes { } No
Membership/Subscription rates for one year (6 issues) (Circle One)
United States - second class $30.00 - second class for three years $75.00 - first class $45.00
Canada - first class $50.00 Other countries - first class $65.00
(all first class sent in appropriate mailer) Add an Associate Membership* to any of the above at $5.00 for each associate for each year
Name(s) of Associate(s)__________________________
Signature __________________________ Date________
*Associate Membership is available to members of the immediate family of any adult holding an Individual Membership. Children of ages 21 or older must have their own individual membership. Associate(s) Members enjoy all of the right and privledges of an Individual Membership
Please make checks or money orders payable to FOHBC and mail to: FOHBC Membership, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002 Effective 9/2011
Affiliated Club Membership for only $75.00 with liability insurance for all club sponsored events, 50% discount on advertising in the Bottles and Extras, plus much more, Contact: Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 222-7979; e-mail: emeyer@fohbc.org
Clearly Print or Type Your Ad Send to: Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; ph: (713) 222-7979; or better yet, email Elizabeth at: emeyer@fohbc.org
Article Submission Requirements: All Bottles and Extras articles or material need to be submitted on CD (preferable) or an email using a compressed (zipped) file. The file must be created by Microsoft Word, Publisher or Adobe N-Design so the editor does not have to retype the work. High-resolution digital images are our preferred format. Please submit digital images on a CD according to the instructions below. We will accept e-mail submissions only if the image resolution is acceptable. The e-mail or CDs must have only ONE subject per transmission to minimize confusion. Each image must be accompanied by a caption list or other identifying information. Professionalgrade equipment is a must to achieve the size and quality image we require. The highest setting on the camera should be used for maximum resolution and file size. Only high quality images will be considered. Please do not send photographic prints or scans of images—the color and quality are generally not up to par compared with digital images or slides scanned by our imaging department. We will consider exceptions for photos that can’t be easily found, such as older historical images. We rarely use slides anymore and prefer not to receive submissions of slides due to the time and liability involved in handling them.
American Glass Gallery TM
We are currently seeking quality consignments for our 2015 auction schedule! As a consignor, please consider the following benefits to help ensure your items reach their highest potential: w Competitive consignor rates and low buyer premiums w Broad-based and extensive advertising w Experience, knowledge, honesty and integrity w Attention to detail and customer service
These fine bottles and many more will be included in our Spring, 2015 Auction.
For more information, please feel free to contact us at your convenience. American Glass Gallery • John R. Pastor • P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, Michigan 48165 phone: 248.486.0530 • www.americanglassgallery.com • email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com
FOHBC C/O Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002
Please Check your information and notify us of errors.
FOHBC.org
Heckler Proudly offering the Best Bottles & glass in the World
Pictured Right: Double Eagle Historical Flask, bright yellow green with an olive tone, early Pittsburgh district, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1820-1840. Extremely rare, unique color! Auction 120 - Spring 2015
Price Realized: $57,330
www.hecklerauction.com info@hecklerauction.com 860-974-1634 79 Bradford Corner Road, Woodstock Valley, CT 06282