The book of Bottle Collecting

Doreen Beck

Hamlyn, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated.

Before you throwaway your next empty, pause for a moment: it may be a collector's item in a few years. Who would have thought that an empty wine bottle would ever fetch 140 guineas at Christies, or that an empty Coca-Cola bottle would ever be worth $15.00.
Bottle collecting has recently become a popular hobby on both sides of the Atlantic, and a potentially lucrative one too. From London to Los Angeles, bottle fanciers descend on long-forgotten rubbish dumps, river beds, beaches and ghost towns in search of discarded treasure.
The pleasure in old bottles is not just their shape and colour, but their place in our social history. For bottles tell us about the way ordinary people lived, and the closure of a lemonade bottle, the embossment on a milk bottle and the shape of a poison bottle reveal the intimate details of everyday life which never reach the history books.
In The Book of Bottle Collecting the author discusses scores of types, concentrating on and illustrating those rare or especially interesting examples which are most sought after by collectors. Not only are the stories behind the bottles fascinating to read about, but the bottles themselves are often surprisingly beautiful. Bottle collecting is a new idea, and it is one which offers the excitement of the unexpected (and the lure of future profits!) to the adventurous. This book will undoubtedly encourage even more enthusiasts to pick up their spades and take to the hills.