Even the Pilgrims Owned Glass Bottles

Question: After checking with other collectors, it’s my impression that a few of the bottles in my extensive collection may be 100 years old. I’ve tended to specialize in items produced by the American glass industry and have very few imports. How deep are the historical roots of American bottle makers?--E.C.

Answer: Glass making in America goes back to the first settlers. The early work was done under the direction of the British, who used European glass blowers.

This early production, however, did not satisfy demand, and many of the early examples of bottle art were fashioned abroad.

Also contributing to the heavy foreign influence in early American glass making was the fact that the British government was not enthusiastic about the Colonies developing independent industrial muscle.

It took the War of 1812 to propel American bottle production. With the British blocked from the American marketplace, the glass industry began to flourish along the East Coast. Consumer demand for bottles containing spirits, ink and spices, for example, attracted many producers, whose bottles are coveted by collectors.

By the middle of the 19th Century, bottle factories had spread to the Midwest and were carrying a wide variety of products, including the colorful patent-medicine potions hawked by traveling salesmen and “medicine men” who roamed the West.

Toward the turn of the century, automatic production techniques put many mom-and-pop glass operations out of business, as more bottles were produced on assembly lines rather than being shaped by hand.

Instead of using a shotgun approach toward the thousands of different bottle shapes, designs and colors, most collectors tend to specialize either in a particular category, such as medicine bottles, or in a particular era or design.

As you probably have discovered, this area is one of the most popular fields among American collectors. As a result, there is no shortage of reference works on the subject that will help sort out the great variety of bottles sought by the collecting public.

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Joe LeBeau of Los Angeles reports that he has, and may part with, a 20-post card collection commemorating the May 20, 1927, epic flight of Charles Lindbergh. For information on price and contents of the collection, telephone: (213) 398-0708.

Soble cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about collectibles. Do not telephone. Write to Your Collectibles, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.