Old Bottle Collection...

[FooserPaul]

Hello all!

Let me start off by saying that my knowledge about olf bottles would be classified as noob sauce at best...

My wife's father collected these bottles 30-55 years ago... and passed away just about 30 years ago... Many of them were cleaned and on display... but many many many hundreds sit in baskets just as they were when he gathered them... I am guess there is between one and two thousand bottles total...

My mother in law would like to bring these to market and I agreed to assist with the process... cleaning - cataloging... pictures and assisting in finding a buyer or selling them off in groups or individually...

I'm sure there are varities here... I took some initial photos and have indluded them below...

How should I proceed? Anyone in the CT/RI/MA area avalable to assist helping to determine value (for a fee)? What else would you recommend that we do?

Paul...

 

[7centsworth]

Mna that is alot of really cool bottles tahnks for sharing.

 

[dixiedigger57]

Nice! you have anything from poisons to tiger beers, inks, ginger beers, hutchinson sodas, good pharmacies. pepper sauces, strap sided flasks are hot, bitters all in a class of their own. i hung with bottle diggers and have some low end things left, sold good stuff. i know southern diggers in ga., and recognized a lot of your stuff. the poisons, pull them out, the skull jobs are always great, jacobs are high end especially. good books library, book stores. local/ state bottle show would be worth going to. anything with names easy to reference by book or net. may have nice nest egg!

 

[wheath22]

You have some nice bottles there, like Dixiedigger said research the embossed bottles on the net and there are some good web sites you can go to just type in ( antique bottles) or something to that effect and that will give you a list of sights or you could look on Ebay and see what some of these bottles are selling for. I would say you are in for a pleasant surprise.........Good Luck, Bill in NC

 

[Larry (IL)]

With the great pictures that you have, I would put them on Ebay and let the buyers tell you what they are worth, they love combined shipping for multiple purchases.

 

[DukeOBass]

Hi Paul,

There are so nice bottles there! I live in Pennsylvania. I wish I lived closer!

I had good experience selling bottles on E-Bay, especially when I put 3 or 4 strikingly different colors together in the same lot.

If I lived near you, I'd help you post them in exchange for a few bottle I'd like to have for my collection.

Don

 

[Deno]

I have never been that into bottles but that may change.

Some of those are works of art.

Thanks for showing them.

 

[ronaldj2]

Hi Paul, Been collecting and digging for over 30 yrs. I also live in Ma. You have what appears to be a nice collection. I recognize a lot of those as I have found some of the same names through the years. From what I saw the bottles range in dates from 1860-1890's. I'll send you a pm. Ron

 

[OL' Mountain man]

Very nice bottle collection, indeed!
HH, OMM

 

[fongu]

You have what appears to be a valuable collection. I hope you have it in a secure place. Lots of bottle collections get stolen. If you type in antique bottles, you may find a place that does bottle auctions and that might be your best bet. www.antiquebottles.com is a good place to start. If you type in antique bottles, you will find lots of sites and ebay has a collectibles section for bottles. Do not be in any haste to sell this collection. It's sat around this long, it can wait a little bit longer. Some bitters bottles go for high prices, based on what I've read.
American Digger magazine probably has some good links. I wish you luck selling these for your mother in law and if you don't have a lot of time, get one of the bottle collectors to auction it . They will be glad to inspect your collection. Just do your homework and don't let a valuable bottle go for nothing.
I would like to see this collection on Antiques Roadshow.