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To clearly determine where the bottle market is at this point in time, I've thought about comparing bottles to other areas of collecting and see how their doing. While it's hard to compare a coin or piece of furniture with a bottle, you would have to think that somewhere in the mix, the collecting world would have some common correlation, not unlike wormholes spread across the universe. It would make sense that if other areas of collecting are doing well, maybe the bottle market is following suit.

Not many things compare to bottles in the collecting world, which is why the market is a little hard to predict. Probably the closest things to bottles are insulators and, even more of a distant cousin, other glassware like Sandwich Glass or even vases made by Galle and Tiffany. There's cut glass, wineglasses, bone china, porcelain; Bohemian and early French glass. There is also Venetian and early Roman vessels, cameo glass, paperweights, marbles, cup plates and, of course, pottery. And that's just in the fragile and very collectible world of handmade breakable pieces.

Outside of glass and different types of fragile glassware and pottery, we can move on to stamps, coins, sports memorabilia, political items, toys, signs, silver, jewelry, old baskets, Indian artifacts, rock and roll memorabilia, decoys, guns, lamps, old quilts, textiles, Black Americana, American painted tinware, banks, even sport shoes! And the list goes on.

Eventually you end up with the biggies which generally include furniture and art. Some areas overlap, such as toys and banks or guns and other hunting collectibles. Let's face it, if it was made in any quantity and it has some age to it, someone is collecting it. Oh, by the way, if you're interested in any of the items previously mentioned, you might want to go check out the revamped De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park sometime. We were there a couple weeks ago and it is something else.

But what about the current market on other collectibles? We thought we would check out what some other items are doing and see if there was any correlation with bottles.

I was checking out some of the antique journals and magazines I receive on a regular basis. One latest issue had results of modernism or modern design auction. It included results from Bonhams, Christie's, Phillips de Purty and Sotheby's. The different sales, which consisted of furniture, vases, mirrors; essentially household items made from the mid 20^th century and on, showed a strong market. Included were tables by Nakashima, tables by Carlo Mollino and a lot of other items made by people I had never heard of (aside from Nakashima). What caught my attention were the amazing prices being realized for pieces that we would hardly call antiques. A Gingko shaped chair made by Claude Lalanne in1996 realized $30,000. A Nakashima table $51,000. A Ron Arad Italian Fish sculpture, number 9 from a series of 20 sold for $60,000 (it didn't even look like a fish). A Paul Dupre-Lafon table of limed oak and leather sold for $419,200. The caption said he was known as the decorator to the millionaires. He's certainly not the decorator to the poor. A regular looking floor lamp from the Richard H. Mandel house made from 1925-31 sold for $72,000. I hope when I die that people say, "Hey, this is extra valuable because it came from the Jeff Wichmann house". I don't think that will happen.

So, let's face it, modernism is in, way in. The list went on and on and, before I knew it, I was strolling around the house checking out my 1950's furniture only to realize I didn't have any. Who would? Most of it has gone way of the dump. But, this desire for modern pieces isn't some crazy fad. Very talented and well-known artists made many of these pieces for rich, and sometimes famous people, and they are often one of only a few known. Having said that, give me a nice comfortable Stickley reproduction I can count on until I'm gone.

And what about Stickley and Arts & Crafts era furniture and go withs? Well, I must say I wish I had bought the real thing years ago. A Gustav Stickley table, only 24" in diameter, sold for $57,000, a new record. A Greene & Greene gate-leg table from the garden room of Cordelia A. Culbertson house (there we go again) circa 1912 brought $144,000. How about a Dirk Van Erp table lamp, circa 1911? The De Young Museum had one and I pointed out to my wife that it was probably worth twenty grand. This one sold for $144,000, I was way off. A Tiffany Studios Hanging Head Dragonfly table lamp, you know, the kind Barbara Streisand used to collect, sold for $228,000. Not bad for a lamp. Speaking of lamps, a patinated bronze floor lamp by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) made in 1934 sold for $273,000. A bargain no doubt.

The list of valuable furniture goes on. Whether it's old or more modern, prices are at an all time high. I remember not more than 20 years ago, that you could buy that same Dirk Van Erp lamp for $20,000. Most college students don't have 20 big ones for a lamp, but when you look at the beautiful craftsmanship on anything Van Erp made, you can understand the interest. For those of you who follow Tiffany, anything with that name is going through the roof.

Coins are another area that seems to be enjoying a major increase in value. The cache of gold and coins, found on both the SS Central America and the SS Republic especially, have helped propel gold coins to a whole new level. A sale in November of last year shattered a number of records in the numismatic world. Included in the sale was the fabled King of Siam proof set which sold for $8.5 million (it had sold a few years earlier for $4 million). Additionally, there were a number of "record" prices for some of the world's true gems in coin collecting. They included a 1927-D $20 St. Gaudens which realized $1,897,500. In all, three coins exceeded $1 million dollars and another five were close or over a half-million dollars. Coins have certainly gone through the roof. For example, in 1989, a Dexter example of the 1804 Draped Bust dollar sold for $990,000. At that point, no coin had surpassed the million-dollar mark. By 1996, just seven years later, there were numerous coins that beat the old mark and entered the coveted million-dollar neighborhood. In 2005, over 25 coins in one year sold for more than a million-dollars. An obvious clambering for rare coins has elevated the market to unprecedented heights.

Southern Folk Pottery keeps increasing in value. South Carolina pots are at an all time high. An unsigned jug from the Martintown Road Pottery Company with rust black "broken stem" slip decoration sold for $15,400. An unusual African American face jug with a 1916 date possible Ohio provenance sold for $18,150. A Crawford County, Georgia jug made in 1880 with one-handle skep-form and streaked light alkaline glaze marked "CJB" brought a strong $2200. How about a rarely seen cast redware fish flask from North Carolina for $39,600. A Face mug attributed to the Thomas Davies Potter, Edgefeld, South Carolina deaccessioned from the Indian Sate University collection sold for a $24,750. A signed Collin Rhodes one-handle jug with brush-applied kaolin fernlike foliage and loops, with slight rim chips and small stress cracks, made around 1850 made $38,500. Pottery is hot, no doubt about it.

What about the Toy market? Old toys have gained much popularity in the last ten plus years since the Mint and Boxed fiasco. A Bertoia Auction recently brought in $2.2 million for 2500 lots, not bad for a bunch of toys that, for one reason or another, escaped the ravages of time. Most valuable toys aren't even 100 years old, the amount of time many consider needed to be considered a true antique. However, with toys it just doesn't matter, as plenty of great toys were made during the early part of the 20^th century. A Mickey Mouse and Felix sparkler by Rogelio Sanchez of Spain sold for $12,100. A Minnie Mouse pushing baby Felix in pram, tin clockwork by the same toy maker sold for $20,900. A Vindex small-size P&H Steam shovel toy, of cast iron, made in the 1920's realized $12,100. These names may sound vaguely familiar to you if not the toy maker. Make no mistake about it; toys are selling at an all-time high.

The art market... my goodness. When we talk about art, we are talking about paintings, photography and a myriad of other artistic endeavors. An Andy Warhol, Jackie Frieze, 1964 sold recently for $9,200,000. It was a 13-part silk-screened black and purple muti-image of the former first lady, taken from a photograph of her at her husbands' 1963 funeral. A William de Kooning, Untitled, 1977 abstract in flowing black, white and blues, with touches of red and yellow, sold for $10,656,000. How about a Roy Lichtenstein cartoon Pop art painting, In the Car done in 1963? It sold for $16,256,000. That's millions, not thousands. If you didn't notice, not one of the artworks is more than 50 years old. Hardly the work of a master. Are people out of their minds paying that much for artwork? Not if that same piece of art sales for 30% more, three years later.

I could go on for another ten pages talking about increasing values, but looking at the collecting market in general, I think we could say that, in a lot of areas of collecting, items are selling for more than they ever have. What is the reason and how does that relate to bottles and early glass? New books on the various subjects help immensely. I remember when collecting old lunch boxes was for losers. Suddenly a guy with a garage full of old lunch boxes writes a book and he literally named his own prices! Hey, why not? What happened? Well, that Beatles lunch box that was selling for $80 suddenly would cost you $800. It's now valued at $1600. And, a Superman lunch box from 1954 can fetch $13,500! The book made all the difference in the world, and it changed that area of collecting forever.

So how does this all relate to bottle collecting? Where do bottles fit in with toys, baseball cards and furniture? Well, one would assume that if virtually every area of collecting were up in value, bottles would follow suit. But bottles are different than other areas of collecting. There are so many bottles that it's a tough area to understand. Besides the different categories, there are thousands of different variants in each category. Also, bottles come in many different ages, colors and varying degrees of crudity. How does a potential collector begin to understand the incredible number of different bottles, let alone the tons of glass made other than bottles? It's a real undertaking, and one that a lot of people shy away from.

Like other collectibles, getting into bottles and glass is a learning process that takes time. When you collect art, you just don't go out and buy a Monet. You start with a Lea & Perrins, then a soda you found, and on and on. You go to bottle shows, check out Ebay and get the fever. You join a bottle club, subscribe to the bottle magazines and check out the bottle auctions. Eventually you find an area, or particular type of bottle you like best, and start collecting them. All the while, you're checking other types of bottles out and developing interest in those. I've been collecting, or involved in bottles, for over 35 years and I still see bottles all the time that I've never seen before.

So, bottom line. The relation of bottles to toys, furniture, coins et al is not real close. It's a complex thing to collect bottles, albeit most areas of collecting are pretty complex. Just because most areas of collecting are hitting all-time highs doesn't mean bottles are. Does it? Well, take a look at some of the prices currently realized in the bottle world. Historical flasks are at an all-time high. Bring out colored, pontiled medicines and you might have to mortgage your house to buy it. Sodas have recently become a coveted collectible and really it's hard to think of any area in the bottle or glass collecting world that isn't rising in value. What's most surprising is the lack of great bottles to buy. I've beaten that subject into the ground but it's a little odd that, with so many bottles out there, so few really great bottles are offered.

Yes, bottles and early glass are rising with the rest of the collectible crowd. It's a natural phenomenon. When you have more collectors coming into the hobby, any hobby, with a sustained and certain number of pieces available, prices are going to go up. Think of any area of collecting and you'll find more collectors than pieces to collect. They just aren't making any more original Stickley chairs or Wonser's Bitters or $20 gold pieces. What's left is us infected individuals searching, hunting, begging for new specimens, new life to add to our already precious hoard. It's inevitable; things have to go up sooner or later. A hundred years ago they made a lot of stuff, but now a lot of it's gone and we are constantly searching for what's left. Oh, prices will fall and then go up again, but one thing you can count on, there'll always be someone out there that says, "I'll take it".

Jeff Wichmann

One good thing is that you can dig a good bottle, but not a Stickley chair.

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All photographs and editorial copy appearing on this website are the exclusive property of American Bottle Auctions and may not be reprinted, quoted or re-published without the permission of Jeff Wichmann, the owner of American Bottle Auctions.