ARTICLES WITH INFORMATION FOR WISCONSIN ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTORS:::.
Articles with great information of interest for Wisconsin antique bottle collectors. Please, do not republish without expressed written permission from the original publisher or author.
- “Must have” information for Wisconsin bottle collectors Wisconsin bottle collectors have three people to thank for a blueprint of what exists and of relative rarity/value when it comes to Wisconsin soda and beer bottles. Virtually every complex Wisconsin bottle collection is influenced by these books. A big part of fair market value is the rarity established by Roger Peters, Wayne Kroll and Dan Gross. I use Roger Peters’ book as a reference in virtually every soda bottle purchase or sale I’m involved in. I use Kroll’s book every time I find a beer bottle or consider buying one for trade or ... Read Full Article
- ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas - "by" Steven Libbey 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;The pontils were displayed by the chimney with care,In hopes that Alonzo Blossom soon would join them there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds,While strawberry puce visions of Hopkins danced in dad's head;And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my dive gear,Had just set about for a cold winter bottle dive at a river near, When out on the river bank there arose such a clatter,I sprang from the river bed to see what the matter.Away to the bank I s... Read Full Article
- Point In Time by: Steven R. Libbey Bob Markiewicz was a great part of our community and a well of information capped with so much of the resource seemingly untapped. A crazy thing happened in writing this. After two weeks of putting ideas together it was finally done in a way I thought appropriate. I sent Dan an email saying I just need to revise it in the morning and will get it to you for the newsletter. Draga, my wife, got on the computer for a couple of minutes as I played with the kids before bedtime when suddenly the computer that has been on for months, maybe a year, crashed. All but the minimal framework of the p... Read Full Article
- In the 1890s, Bay View’s Munzinger Brewery may have been small potatoes in the world of beer greats such as Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz. But Munzinger Brewery succeeded in carving out a niche in the brewing industry, producing a German specialty beer called weissbier. Christian H. Munzinger, Jr. was born Dec. 27, 1856, and grew up on a farm in Oak Creek Township (on the site of the former AC Delco) with his 11 siblings. His father, Christian, Sr., a farmer in Bavaria, Germany, immigrated to America in 1847 at the age of 31. In 1885 Christian Jr. purchased property for his brewery at present-day 2428-32 S. B... Read Full Article
- The Legend - Don Mericle by Steven Libbey Where does anything start? For one of the most incredible South Eastern Wisconsin antique bottle and stoneware collections the starting point is a pinpoint in time. The beginning was in 1830 when a New Yorker decided to join so many Americans heading west into the Frontier seeking a new and better life... Maybe. Or it might be 1839... Yes... 1839 for sure. In 1839 a home was built in downtown Milwaukee on Commerce Street. (Now Canal) Really though, how could THAT be the beginning of a modern collection? It has to have been 1848 when Levi Blossom, became the owner of Milwaukee's Ea... Read Full Article
- BOTTLES HEEYA... GET YOUR BOTTLES HEEYA... BEAUTIFUL, RARE COLORED BOTTLES HEEYA... by Steven Libbey That cry will resonate the walls of Paul Auction Co of Kewaskum, Wisconsin January 15th and 16th 2011. 9am until??? In search of the enlightenment I believed only the most experienced bottle collectors could bestow, I have asked a few curators of very advanced Wisconsin antique bottle collections who I am or was close enough at the time to ask such a question, "What are you amassing all this stuff for,,, I mean, what happens to it all when you are done collecting?" No one has ever given me a substantive answer I can dig m... Read Full Article
- Wisconsin Pontiled Bottles by: Steven Libbey Virtually all Wisconsin pontiled bottles are among the rarest antique bottles from the state. There were only an approximate 300,000 people in Wisconsin at the time American pontiled bottle manufacturing came to an end. With Wisconsin being frontier wilderness in the 1820's and only being ratified as a state in 1848, the beginning of real commerce for Wisconsin arrived at the end of an established 100 year American glass blowing tradition. For Wisconsin druggists, brewers and bottlers precious few years existed in which the population and the infrastructure to support commerce ... Read Full Article
- Early glass derived its color from impurities present when the glass was formed. For example, 'black bottle glass' was a dark brown or green glass, first produced in 17th Century England. Black bottle glass was dark due to the effects of the iron impurities in the sand used to make the glass and the sulfur from the smoke of the burning coal used to melt the glass. While there are a number of Black glass Wisconsin antique bottles one perfect example of a black glass Wisconsin bottle is the legendary Blossoms Badger Ale. In addition to natural impurities, glass is colored by purposely introducing minerals or purified metal ... Read Full Article
- FRAUD on Craigslist Bottle Collectors Beware by Steven Libbey Watch out for fakes, frauds and felons when buying unique items on line. One seller using Craigslist is listing photo shop edited images of antique bottles, then using them to convince unsuspecting antique bottle collectors to send money. While feedback systems and accountability of a credit card on file keep fraud at many web sales venues somewhat subdued, more ‘open format', slight or no oversight venues like Craigslist are coming on line every day. Social networking and forum sites where people can create whatever persona they choose are becoming more ... Read Full Article
- The Chippewa Spring Water Company by Tim Wolter The story of the Chippewa Springs, and the company that bottled its water, is long and untidy. Long, in that it in a sense stretches from 1700 to the current day; and untidy, in that the financial fortunes of the companies involved in it have been rather mixed. It was way back in September of 1700 that Pierre Le Sueur first reached the falls of the Chippewa River, site of present day Chippewa Falls. He recorded large numbers of game animals, and mentions that: "It was at the point of the falls and spring, located up river about 20 leagues that I heard the legend of the grea... Read Full Article
