Best guides on bottles??

[flasherr]

What is your best Bottle guide? Where did you find it? How much did it cost? What does it specialize in? Where can you find it? I know it is hard to find good books sometimes that actually give you any info. There seems to be several of you who have good books with lots of info. I would like to build my library up so I can be better prepared. I love soda bottles so id like to find a good book on them.

Gunsmoke you listed a book with detail on how to get it awhile back but I cant seem to find where I wrote it down. Do you still have that info and what the book was on?

I hope to get lots of feedback on this we all know how expensive books are and hate to not get our moneys worth sometime. Is there anywhere you can get reproductions of early catalogues? Everyone in a while I see original catalogs come up but can go pretty high (I can never seem to win ones on bottle caps).

Yall are a great group of people and hope to meet some of yall someday. I wish Texas had some bottle shows so I could bump into some of yall.
Brian

 

[scduckett]

Flasherr, this is a great topic!![]Especially for us novices who don't really know what we're looking at sometimes[8|]. I don't have the first clue which book would be best to buy to help me with identifying bottles. C'mon, all you "experts" out there, give it up and tell us which are the best books for our money's worth.

 

[Gunsmoke47]

Brian, the book you are refering to I believe is Betty Zumwalts "Ketchup Pickles Sauces" It is a very good book dealing mainly with the food related bottles. This book is $25.00 (including shipping) to: Mark West Publishers PO Box 1914 Sandpoint Idaho, 83864. This is a very good price.

Another great book if you can find it is Julian Tolouse "Bottle Makers and Their Marks" This book tells you who made the bottle, and in what time frame it was made. I recently stole this one off E-Bay for $42.00. (Amazon, when they can get it , sells them for about $250.00

I also like all of Digger Odells books. He has all the different catagorys of bottles and what they have sold for in the past.

Fellow forum member, Pontiled (Mike Russell) has a very informative book with prices on Civil War era bottles and he will give you a good deal just for being a forum member.

Willy Van den Bossche authored one titled "Antique Glass Bottles their history and evolution" 1500 to 1850. A very informative book. Hope this helps some. There are a lot more great ones out there but I'll let someone else throw in their two cents worth. Happy Diggin, Kelley

 

[BRIAN S.]

Hi , In my opinion McKearins American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry is a good book ! It is often refered to as the " Bible " of bottle collecting. Here's the link to one at auction on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2196&item=3734953794&rd=1

And the Best Bitters book out there is : Bitters Bottles Carlyn Ring & W.C. Ham This is still available to purchase from Bill Ham and he has an update for it due out this year I believe . Bill Ham
P.O. Box 427
Downieville, ca. 95936
goodlife@nccn.net

 

[BARQS19]

I'm not sure what everyone is into. There aren't any books out there on Barq's I guess that means the only 3 or 4 collectors determine the prices. As for other things I run across a lot of Dr. Pepper stuff so I bought a book by Ray H. Duncan. I know he's from Texas but that's it. If you are really interested I could try and find his info. somewhere. It lists prices for Dr. Pepper hutchinsons on up to the new stuff. I have seen one on Moutain Dew items, it's a new one that just came out.
Robert

 

[BARQS19]

That Mountain Dew book is called Mountain Dew Collectibles with values sells for $19.95 on ebay. item #3688178870, seller id jayhawkks.

 

[Tandy]

[] In reply to Flasher, the best bottle guide that I have is called "Brewers and Aerated Water Manufacturers in South Australia 1836 - 1936". Before giving any more details, I will point out that South Australia is the state within Australia that I live in, so it is really a very specific book,dealing with South Australian bottles only.

It lists every known brewer or aerated waters manufacturer who operated in South Australia between 1836 and 1936, giving as much information on each person's or company's history as is known for many of the less well known brewers/aerated waters manufacturers, and a great deal of relevant information taken from the much that is known for the obviously very well known brewers/aerated waters manufacturers. Photographs, charts, and advertising are liberally used, including many well printed bottle photographs.

Lets take two examples: Imperial Company - very little known - address and two very short sentences. George Hall & Sons - extremely well known - eight pages.

For us South Australians, in many ways this is the bottle "Bible". It is certainly my best Bottle guide.

Where did you find it? I purchased it from the author, at a cost of $A 50 some years ago.

Granted that it is primarily for bottle collecting in South Australia, I thought that others may be interested.

More details:

Privately published by Hallett Shueard and David Tuckwell, 1993.
A4 size book, 342 pages in length.

If anyone who reads this ever wants to know anything about South Australian bottles from brewers or aerated waters manufacturers, please feel free to contact me.

Tandy.[]

 

[bne74honda]

Wow...lot's of info for we novices! Thanks folks...however, as I live and dig in Canada, many of those books may not be much help. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding Canadian books on this topic?

Brian

 

[Pontiled]

Flasherr, I saw your post and the kind compliment about my book, The Collector's Guide to Civil War Period Bottles and Jars -- Third Edition. If you are interested in it, send me an e-mail.

What exactly are you searching for? A complete library? Specific books on a particuklar type of bottle? Price guides? Let me know and we'll see what we have or can direct you to.

 

[flasherr]

Well, Pontiled I would love to take credit for the compliment but it was Kelley who said it. My main interest in bottles is Soda pops. I love all bottles but soda are what I buy mostly. I want to learn about all kinds of bottles. I have several books like kovel et ... but they just don't give you much more than a name and a price that dosnt seem real accurate. I buy and sell lots of things so I know book price is never the real value lol but I like to have an idea of what I have. I am in Texas so a lot of our bottles are going to be 1880s+ unless brought in at a later time. I would like to find a good on each grouping of bottles such as med. bitters, Food containers ect. But I would like to know more about your book.

Thank you for everyone that is contributing It gives me an idea on what is a practical guide and what is just letters and numbers. keep the suggestions coming
Brian