Like the News American building and Haussner’s restaurant, old glass bottles are a physical link to Baltimore’s past. And unlike those two venerable old landmarks, they have the ability to turn up when we least expect them.
Sometimes, they’re unearthed in basements or attics of rowhomes that are finally being rehabbed after the longtime owner moves on. Sometimes, they’re found by an individual who stumbles upon an old dumping ground, or they’re located at flea markets or estate sales.
And sometimes, they’re amazingly valuable. Antique bottles may be sold for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. (A quick search on the term “antique bottle” at the auction site, eBay, reveals soda bottles, whiskey flasks and more with starting prices of nearly $5,000).
But, says Steve Charing, it’s not always the case.
“You can have a really nice bottle, but you shouldn’t necessarily quit your job and move to Hawaii,” he laughs. “It might be an old bottle and it might be rare, but that might mean it’s worth about $15.”
That’s hardly enough to buy a T-shirt in Hawaii, much less a house there.
Charing knows all about bottles and the people who love them. As a past president of the Baltimore Antique Bottle Club, he expects to see a lot of both when the club holds its 30th annual show and sale on Sunday, March 7 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Physical Education Center, Essex Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC-Essex), 7201 Rossville, Blvd. The show — one of the world’s largest and best attended — is open to the public, and admission is $3 a person.
Charing understands that people have different reasons for collecting old bottles — and that value is only one of them. Bottles have historical significance, particularly in Baltimore, where glassmaking ranked as the third largest industry in the 19th Century. The Baltimore Glass Works was located at the foot of Federal Hill on Hughes Street between Covington and Henry streets. Its bottles, which once held medicines, sodas, whiskeys and inks from around 1790 to 1890, are actively sought after.
In fact, SoBo is the happy hunting ground for bottle collectors, thanks to the number of companies that once flourished here. An area of Federal Hill was once nicknamed “Glass House Row” or “Glass Hill” because of the glass workers who lived there. The glass industry flourished since at the time, glass, ceramics and stoneware were the few materials that could be used for creating safe, watertight containers for liquids. The Buck Glass Company was located at Fort Avenue and Lawrence Street. The Baltimore Glass Works had one operation in Federal Hill and another, named Spring Gardens Glass Works, located on Eutaw Street, on or around the site where the football stadium currently stands.
Other companies in South Baltimore turned out window glass for houses and for mirrors, as well as stained glass for churches. The Maryland Window Glass Works was located at Leadenhall and Ostend streets, and Swindell Brothers was headquartered at Bayard and Russell streets.
Glassmaking was an active industry in Southeast Baltimore as well. The Maryland Glass Works was located in Fells Point at the northeast corner of Caroline and Lancaster streets. Another company in the same area was Baltimore Flint Glass Works, which was located on Lancaster Street.
While Baltimore no longer hosts a thriving glass industry, it is still home to a few of the old companies; as a result, it’s the ideal host city for the show and sale.
Because glass had (and continues to have) such a wide variety of uses, collectors of bottles tend to have specific interests and expertise. Many times, individuals’ interests in glass bottles will (warning: bad pun alert) reflect or even mirror their profession; for example, a doctor be interested in collecting old medicine or apothecary bottles.
“The really unique thing about those bottles” says Charing, “was that you can learn a lot from them about the way medicine used to work. Today, if you have pain, you can go take an aspirin or an ibuprofen or go to the doctor and get a prescription. But try to imagine yourself back then suffering from incredible pain. When you’re desperate, you’ll try anything. Even though a lot of those medicines were basically just alcohol, you’d buy them. It’s how snake oil salesmen really got started.”
Bottle collectors can determine the age and value of bottles. An older bottle may have a side seam up to the shoulder. (Note: The shoulder of a bottle is the area below the neck.) A machine-made bottle generally has a seam that runs up to the lip.
Pontil marks (marks made by the rod inserted into the bottle when it was hand-blown) are also a way of identifying an older bottle. Threads at the top of a bottle mean it was most likely made after 1910 (when screw-tops came into use). Many bottles are embossed, showing the maker, the year and/or the original contents.
Color can also be a determining factor in assessing the value of a bottle. Aqua was a common color (as seen in the old Coke bottles, for example). Puce, cobalt and amber glass are more difficult to find, and tend to be more valued by collectors. Bottles come in all shapes and sizes, from the traditional to the whimsical. The condition of the bottle (whether it is intact, unchipped, etc.), and the presence of a label and/or original contents can also drive up the value.
One of the most interesting facets of the bottle show is its ‘Antiques Roadshow’ type evaluators, who will examine bottles visitors bring in and give them a free five-minute education about those bottles. They can also provide an approximate value.
“The most expensive bottle we’ve ever seen someone bring in was something worth between $5,000 and $10,000,” says Charing. “It was probably a very accurate assessment, too.”
Bottles may be found anywhere, from the dealers to the dumps, to some rather unlikely depositories. In previous centuries, creeks and construction sites were convenient places to leave trash, since littering laws and recycling (and in many places, garbage collection) didn’t exist. Another popular spot to dump empty bottles was down the privy. Today, privy digs are big business, with all kinds of artifacts unearthed from the rich topsoil where outhouses once stood.
Of course, you could just do your digging on eBay. Or closer to home at the bottle show.
Note: The Baltimore Antique Bottle Club’s Show and Sale is held Sunday, March 7, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Physical Education Center, Essex Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC-Essex), 7201 Rossville, Blvd., $3/person. Free evaluation of bottles that attendees bring. Info: www.baltimorebottleclub.org.
—by Mary Helen Sprecher
(newsroom@baltimoreguide.com) newsroom (at) baltimoreguide (dot) com
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