How many pre-1900s bottle collectors are there?

MiamiMaritime · May 22, 2013

I'm new to the hobby and I'm curious to find out if anyone knows or has am estimate as to the number of antique/ pre 1900 bottle collectors. There are tons of sites, forums, pages etc. I am also amazed at the number of bottles on eBay.

Im also curios as to How many of these bottles are "found" or in collections?

andy volkerts · May 22, 2013

There are hundreds of us nutsos that go gaga over any old,crude, bubblelicious,warped,whittled,crooked,ancient,colorful antique,pre1900 bottle.........that is all I collect, any bottle made before 1895 or so that I like, the cruder the better, doesnt matter if its a bitters, med,soda,cure,utility,food pontiled is even better. I have all of these examples in my collection, along with the cures and S.F. bottles.........so many bottles......so little time........Andy

andy volkerts · May 22, 2013

Pretty much all the antique bottles were "found" sometime in the past wether bought at a yard sale, antique shop, or dug out of a dump or privy, or from an old time collection put up for auction. There have been many famous collectors before us that started way back before some of us were even a gleam in our daddies eye. Welcome to the blue pages where the best come to talk bottles of every stripe imaginable..........

UncleBruce · May 22, 2013

Not me. I was born in 1959. So I am not a pre 1900's collector. I am a pre 1960's collector. [8|]

RED Matthews · May 22, 2013

Well David, I have been doing this glass collecting for 76 years and guess that I still have at least 1500 of them. Between my daughter and I we will be selling some of them in the future. I just can't take them with me. It has been a great life of being into it, anyway. RED Matthews

Headhunter2 · May 22, 2013

I salute Mr. Red Matthews for 76 years of bottle collecting. Well Done.

Headhunter2

cowseatmaize · May 22, 2013

I'd still say the 1960's and 70's were the heyday of it but judging by the digging reports here that may be beaten. If not beaten, proof that the surface was barely scratched back then.

cowseatmaize · May 22, 2013

Second thought, mass media, the internet, email and not having a phone call tho the next town be a toll call all made a difference in new collectors, clubs, club membership etc..
Are there more collectors now? I don't know if it's that or we're just more aware of them now. [8|]

MiamiMaritime · May 22, 2013

Andy says that there are hundreds of "nutso" collectors. Are all those eBay auctions fueled by a couple hundred active collectors?
Are older bottles and collecting becoming more main stream? I've seen a number of bottles with crap glued to them and I recent saw a number of "designer repros" in high end furniture design stores. See the pic below. I'm just getting into this hobby, but it seems like there is a lot of interest and bottles out there.

jays emporium · May 22, 2013

I collected bottles during the 1970s and I'm still active now. Bottles were a hot collectible in the 70s but information was scarce. No really good bottle books and very difficult to research the glass companies that made them or the companies that used bottles for their products. With the internet now research is much easier and information on bottle prices and who collects them is much more available also.
How many collectors of antique bottles I don't know but I suspect more than there were 45 years ago when I started collecting. There is a FEDERATION OF HISTORICAL BOTTLE COLLECTORS, FOHBC, that has about 2000 members and that is just a drop in the bucket of the total number of collectors.
It is a great hobby.
Jay

How many pre-1900s bottle collectors are there?

Welcome to our Antique Bottle community

Be a part of something great, join today!

MiamiMaritime

Well-Known Member

andy volkerts

Well-Known Member

andy volkerts

Well-Known Member

UncleBruce

BEER DUDE

Attachments

RED Matthews

Well-Known Member

Headhunter2

Well-Known Member

cowseatmaize

Well-Known Member

cowseatmaize

Well-Known Member

MiamiMaritime

Well-Known Member

Attachments

jays emporium

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Latest posts

Members online

Latest threads

Forum statistics

Share this page

Online statistics

Forum statistics