Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour! I'm Desiree, aka A Pagan In Arizona. This is my first time hosting the Coffee Hour; indeed, my first time hosting anything like this. I'll do my best to not goof it up. 🙂
Today I want to share one of my (admittedly numerous) collections. Antique glass bottles.
A long time ago someone told me that the urge to collect things stems from the survival instinct of our distant past, to gather as much food and supplies as possible against the certain times of scarcity to come. I always thought it was about the human desire to surround oneself with beauty. Maybe we're both right?
Many bottle collectors specialize in a certain kind of bottle. Their collections can be like museum displays of gorgeous examples of whichever kind they collect. I admire such collections, and the people who make a point of learning everything there is to know about their preferred bottle style. Myself, I just collect what I find beautiful. So my collection is fairly diverse. I have learned some fascinating stuff about different bottles though. See the two poison bottles at left, in the picture above? They have rows of little points on the sides. Turns out those points are there to let a person know instantly that the contents are not to be swallowed. At a time when well-lit rooms weren't yet common, it was meant to prevent accidental poisoning.
Outside my house I have two bottle trees. They're heavy, sturdy things that my husband built using rebar. Old bottles tend to be heavy, and the few mail-order bottle trees I've seen are just too flimsy for my collection. The purple bottles often get even more purple by being exposed to the sun every day.
Bottle trees have a rich history, and cultural and spiritual significance for many people. One which goes well beyond mere garden decor.
This is a good article about bottle trees, from Smithsonian Gardens- smithsoniangardens.wordpress.com/…
I have a particular fondness for sun colored amethyst, or SCA bottles. These are bottles in which the glass manufacturers clarified the glass by adding manganese to the molten glass. Over time and with exposure to UV rays, the manganese turned purple. The use of manganese ended with WWI, when the importation of manganese from Germany was halted. In it's basic, natural state glass tends to be a greenish color.
This is a really great website that's just crammed with useful information all about old bottles. Their history, manufacturers, colors, you name it. From the Bureau of Land Management- sha.org/…
I so enjoy talking about these things that I could go on for days. My collection is fairly modest, maybe four or five dozen. The number fluctuates because I have a habit of giving away the ones that someone else especially admires. And I sometimes have a lucky find at a thrift store or yard sale. My kids give me the ones they find, too. It's a fun, interesting and generally affordable hobby.
This is an open thread. All topics are welcome. Thank you for reading my "maiden flight" as a Street Prophets Coffee Hour host.