Age of Bottle Collectors

[photolitherland]

I was just wondering what the age of most people that use this site are. Im 22, been collecting for a little over a year now, but I see that a lot of you guys have been collecting since the 70s. So, I was wondering if there was anyone my age thats into this hobby. I have many hobbies and this seems to be the one that people are least interested in. They are like, why would you want to have a bunch of old bottles hanging around and why would you be crazy enough to risk bodily harm to get these bottles? They just dont understand and are too busy being obsessed with facebook and which pointless sports team is winning

 

[Oldtimer]

I got into bottles @ age 22....older girlfriend got me into it.

 

[cordilleran]

1968 was the year I grew interested in bottles. Visited many ghost towns collecting geological samples and the bottles were strewn about on the surface and simply could be picked up. No questions asked. Virgin dumps from the 1860s-1880s were the norm if you wanted to turn some earth and no one thought at the time of going to the effort to excavate outhouse sites. Fact is, folks were more than happy to give you antiques of every description simply for the asking. Next stop: flea markets of the early 1970s.

 

[TJSJHART]

I GOT BITTEN BY THE BUG IN "77" IT WAS AN OLD HIRES ROOT BEER . I WAS 22.

 

[photolitherland]

I lived in China a few years ago, you could literally go around to all of the villages they were and still are destroying today and just pick up ancient relics from 100s to even thousands of years ago without anyone even caring. Today however, people are starting to realize the value in Chinese antiques and no longer are they so readily available. This mind set has changed just in a couple of years. Its because China has lost so much of its history in such a short time, Im guessing this is why it was so easy in the 60s to find antiques because people didnt value them yet. Today, we have lost so much of our history here in America that there is now great interest in antiques and historic sites. I came back from China with a dozen or so antique snuff bottles, now I see some of these same types of bottles going for hundreds and all I did was ask some Hutong residents in Beijing if I could have some of their old crap they no longer wanted, since their historic homes were being torn down to make way for the Olympics, what a shame. Sorry, went off on a tangent there...

 

[cordilleran]

You'd been in fat city here in the states during the 1960s. Unfortunately, I recognize very little around me regardless of where I go of those far-flung days. It's a gawd-awful freak show out there.

 

[Plumbata]

photolitherland, don't worry about the people too wrapped up in that silly facebook, obsessed with sports they have no influence or actual stake in, or glued to mind-numbingly vapid and horribly biased television programming. You can lead a horse to water as they say, but if they won't drink then you should take all the good stuff for yourself! [8D] Do what makes you happy and don't fault (too much, anyway) others for doing what makes them happy. Some people don't start collecting until way later in life, so just expose people to the stuff and if it takes root then good for them! I've got 4 non-digger friends who have started little collections of their own after being shown what it is all about, and 3 of them really want to go out digging, but it has taken 3 years of me talking about bottles and showing my finds of the day to hammer in the idea that old bottles are interesting, accessible (with some effort), and potentially valuable assets (sadly a key point for many not familiar with antiques). You can tell them that the old bottle is from the 1890s, that Mckinley was president at the time, that the pope drank the stuff, that few were made, and that a horse-drawn wagon trotted the bottle to the dump where ya dug it many decades later, but for most, little of that qualitative information will stick unless quantified with a market value. Give them a few neat bottles or insulators to put on a shelf (as daily visual reinforcement), tell them about your good money and otherwise significant finds, and perhaps over time their imagination will get to work and the appeal of old bottles might begin to sink in. Takes time though, unless they are already programmed to think like a collector/digger/hunter.


I am 22 as well, and my love of bottles started when I explored the chemicals under the sink as a toddler, learning the properties of the substances and contemplating the immense value of the almost magical device which keeps the contents segregated and pure. I bought my first 2 antique bottles at the age of 5, dug my first when I was 6 while metal detecting in my yard for coins (which i was extremely interested in collecting at the time), found my first dump when I was 8 or just barely 9 (didn't dig there for a decade though), dug my first dump with a WW2 hand mattock and shovels when I was 10 or so, found my first unlisted bottle when I was 11 (BIM pharmacy on the surface of the ground under the eaves of an abandoned house) which really helped get me more interested, bought bottles as well as books and other antiques en masse starting when I was 8 and continuing until about 17, took a break from glass to learn how to socialize with normal people and focus on collecting other things and accumulating chemicals and lab equipment, and seriously got back into bottles when i found a big undug TOC dump this time 3 years ago.

Ultimately, it is not bottles in and of themselves that I love, it is the thrill of the hunt and the vivid memories and thoughts unlocked by handling objects retrieved from the chase. Any of you feel this way? I hunted for minerals, fossils, indian artifacts, herbs and coins outdoors, and antiques and coins at sales I was taken to starting when I was 6. The search for artifacts, coins, plants, Miocene shark teeth and other fossils of Maryland, garnets, and antique items (especially books and ephemera) blossomed into a fervent quest for anything that possesses qualities which in some way satisfies my subjective definition of intrinsic value. Moving to Illinois in 1995 only expanded these interests, and increasing age and experience taught me numerous ways to satisfy the urge to hunt for nifty things. There is much more out there to learn and discover about this world, so it is good that we are still relatively young and have a decent start!

In (hopefully) many years I'll probably be sending out a snipe bid on eBay v.18.0 while exhaling my last earthly breath, if this collecting business continues the way it has and if i don't perish in a catastrophic cave-in. []

I've been bit pretty bad and there certainly isn't a cure for this bottle bug, though I wouldn't mind digging one claiming such.

 

[Jody35150]

Plumbata:

Such eloquence from a 22 year old! It's enough to restore my faith in the youth of today. Best wishes for the future, sir.

 

[Poison_Us]

We got into it only 3 years go.. We are 38 and 46, but I ain't sayin' who is what []

 

[Road Dog]

I'm 22 in my heart.[]