New member hello/introduction: a bit about me and my collection

[Shades of History]

Hello, my name is Garret, and I'm new to the forum but not to collecting antique bottles and jars. I first started collecting as a kid here in California in the late 90's when I found some old '30s bottles across the street in the desert, and I also bought a few at antique stores, a couple of which were pre-1900. I put my collection away for the longest time, and sold all but the best few of the 30's bottles and the couple 1800's ones I had to antique stores when I started collecting again a few years ago with an emphasis on pre-1900 bottles and jars.

I have not found any good dig sites around my town, but maybe some day that will change. I have, however, found some great deals at local antique stores and online and have a nice little collection going. My collection is small and expands at a steady pace because I'm not constantly just buying bottles(as much fun as that would be). I don't have the space or necessarily the funds all the time. My emphasis is on what I feel are budget bottles(mostly in the 20-$40 range with the most expensive ones maxing out at about $100). I find it a thrill to hunt for the best "bang for the buck" and get truly unique pieces for good prices.

I'm pretty discerning about what bottles I buy online, I really tend to go for uncommon and unique bottles, especially odd and rare colors and features. I have a couple nice embossed bottles but my focus is more on unembossed ones, because I find as a rule of thumb there's less of a "known" rarity and established baseline price, and I can find unembossed bottles that are unique and outstanding for a lot less most of the time. I've got a little bit of everything, from some early pontils, whiskies, colored milk glass jars, medicines, colognes mostly from the late 1800's with some earlier stuff like a big 1700's utility bottle and a couple early machine made bottles with great color.

I haven't joined a forum for this particular hobby yet, and this seems like a cool and active community. There's a couple questions I have about some of my bottles I think I could get some help with, but also there's a lot I just want to share pictures of, and see pictures of other people's cool stuff too! I'll be jumping in soon with a couple bottles I have the questions about, and with some pics of my best bottles while checking out all the action here. Hope to chat soon, and happy New Year to everyone!

 

[yacorie]

Welcome and can’t wait to see some pics of your collection.

 

[Shades of History]

I'm going through a bit of expansion and need to clean these dusty shelves and dust off my bottles! Besides a few peripheral items on other shelves or in the garage like black glass beers and more common medicines, this is my whole collection in a nutshell(except that top shelf which is other nick-nacks and stuff obviously) I'll be introducing a few of them individually on "prized possessions" and there's a couple I actually have questions about, though most of them I know what's what so I can share and inform. If anyone has a question about an individual item I can show an individual pic and discuss it, so let me know!

 

[Shades of History]

Close up on those first three obscured by the light.