How to make BIG money from early glass....ho ho!

Touchy subject these days, people trying to make money from their bottles, yet it seems everyone is trying to do it. The commonest question on forums and from people coming up to my stall is ultimately "what is it worth"? and "what will you offer"?.....rather than "where was this made"? and "why"? and how"?....depressing when it happens so continuously, but human nature I guess, and it's difficult for me to get on my soapbox and start shouting the odds against it when that is exactly what I do for a living, BUT....
There is I feel an inherent greed out there. Guys who are lucky enough to dig a major rare piece which costs them nothing but a little sweat, or with an extreme lucky break pick up an item for next to nothing in a boot fair or whatever, are then very quick to trawl the forums for opinions of the value, and then throw it at ebay at the very top of all those opinions. If the bottle is ultra rare then maybe it still goes, but so often the digger/finder is shall we say "over expectant" because the item really is unecessarily over priced and has been over hyped and the best time to sell has come and gone....and the really annoying bit is that the digger had no need to ask top whack in the first place and could have asked 3/4 of what he was trying for, and got that immediately, and everybody would have been happy, whilst commonly the bottle remains for sale for months, bores everyone silly appearing time after time and finally the digger gets offered half what he once asked and finally grudgingly accepts it...

There is an easier way. We can't all be lucky...or at least we are all lucky a few times in our life without trying, but you can't rely on that. We can however first make our own luck. A good friend of mine is often described rather enviously as "that lucky b**tard who gets all those really good items". Of course he is not "lucky". He spends many hours, many days, driving all over the country from auction to antique shop to collector, then on his phone, then the night hours trawling the internet and ebay and auction searches, and off it goes again....but even then that wouldn't help on it's own because you have to have a knowledge to take advantage of those things yo see on your travels, and knowledge takes a long time and is built up gradually. Add to those ingredients, a taste for risk, a little cunning, a willingness to trust ones own judgement, good timing, the ability to change with the times, a reputation that allows people trust you with their money, and a sense of honour and fairness that means sometimes you are prepared to lose money than go back on your word.
It's all obvious stuff, nothing magical, nothing easy though and perhaps in this modern society a little old fashioned. it's easiest if you know more about your subject than anyone else, so if you pick a special subject that isn't so difficult. Building up not only a reputation but also a core of regular buyers and sellers is something that makes it all gradually easier but only comes with time and experience. What IS a little magical though is the sixth sense that you develop for a bargain. I kid you not... you have a little faith and learn to rely on your sixth sense and you can even do without the specialist knowledge. But even this isn't that special. That magical sixth sense is nothing more spectacular than just a collection of highly tuned observations from experience of what people like, of how they think and what will sell at what price.
There is something called taste, good taste, and bad taste, and you can't rely on your own sense of taste as a guide, EXcept, that if you like something, so will someone else, but it doesn't always work the other way. I well remember walking past a horrid piece of china bricabrac at an antique fair and thinking "Jeez, who on earth could buy that and why on earth do they bother putting that on their stall", and at that very moment two old ladies in front of me actually looked at that same item and said to each other how nice it was.............!
Words failed me, they still do, but it tought me a lesson. Whatever sort of crap it is, someone will buy it and delight in it and pay way more than you ever thought feasable. 
I'm not going to give ALL my secrets away, but I will give a few hints and wrinkles soon...

For the moment, and just to remind you this is about early glass, here are some more pretty pics...just to show the variety of early glass.

A classic 1770+ case bottle
Dutch. many heights and sizes available. 

A super dark aqua octagonal utility,
freeblown but dip molded c1790+
Many, many forms are available to collect
and still relatively cheap though some suprisingly rare

A classic 1750 English mallet
one of the range of wine shapes popularly collected
in an evolutionary sequence.

A c1770 square phial with iridescence.
rare and delightful. many forms available
and still no real set prices for these.

Ok, a "biggy", or in this case a "small-y"
A rare half size English onion sealed and dated
Iconic in the hobby, but bread and butter to my trade
(ok honey as well in this case!), and I get more
of a buzz from the previous phial...!

Oooooh! now we really are showing off.
Half size, shaft and globe, 1660 English, 
and would make any collector wet their
pants if they came across it "lucky".
Both this and the previous bottle increasingly 
only available to guys with muchos pennies...
But we all can live in hope, and that is what is 
great about bottle digging.... 

Back to earth a bit, but typical of the more fascinating pharmacy
items. A LEECH bowl, c1800, this one with superb luminescence
many colours available and still all under £100, totall bargains!!!

Regrets? Bottle collecting versus living your life...

A recent forum post bought this thought to mind, What regrets have you had about selling a particular bottle. This was one of my posts at the time which I think is worth posting here with a few amends:


...I sold my seal collection about 20 years ago. It was my early life's work at the time, bought mostly from the proceeds of tiresome and boring weekend work when I was at art college, and could stand equally alongside many superpaid mature collectors collections and still draw glances of envy from them. I was bloody proud of it...
...But also it was a millstone because it was worth so much that it was frightening. It could have been shattered in an instant and become worthless. Then, sometimes I used to fondle my best sealed octagonal in my hand (Foote/Harwood/1731) and think about what it was "worth", and what it all really meant, and then I'd think of my kids and wife....and think that "this bit of glass will be around long after I've gone, and they've gone, and what's the point of it all, all of this collecting and hoarding and chasing singlemindedly after the next item to add to the collection shelves, while the kids will be growing up, and the wife and I will be struggling to make ends meet and getting older"........
...so I sold it all...got good money for the time.

Honestly?...yes of course I "regret it", especially now that it would be worth three or four times what I got at the time, but it was the right decision for then.  Sometimes I enviously glance at the images of it in it's new owners collection, and think of the unfairness of life, of silver spoons etc, but you can't fight against that, you just gotta move onward and upward.

But I'm lucky. I've got the best job in the world, dealing full time in bottles, also now I have an easier attitude to life that means I am free from all this bottle world squabbling and fighting over juicy bottle titbits from the carcass of the latest naive bottle seller, or the hunting of the next ego massaging bottle.

Now it's just business, just an interesting way of making money, which is ultimately a better standard of living for the family. there's still the thrill of the hunt, and the acquisition, and the profitable sale, and now I can own the top historical pieces...for a short while, before I have to pass them on.

Collecting wise, I personally get just as much thrill, more even out of getting a meagre little sheared lip lamp I haven't got, for the huge sum of £10 or less, than "yet another sealed onion" at £3-£4k. The latter are just my bread and butter, common to me, but no better essentially than the crude wonky bubbly little utility that costs under £100, which I also collect, or the tiny little early phials, full of history, plain but practical.

Soooo, whether you manage to keep it, or if you end up letting it go, it's all just the same, we will all be letting go of our collections sometime, it's just how much we think it's worth paying for the privilege of "looking after them" for a short while until then...

Big names, big prices...

There is often reference on bottle forums and in bottle nerd conversations to some of the "big names" coming in every so often and scooping off the cream of anything that become "available". There seems a gently sad and almost inevitable air of despondence that these feared horsemen of the apocabottlelips will always swoop down and carry away forever the spoils of their probably ill gotten and certainly very much envied gains.
Ok, so there are a few guys out there who have become known as big spenders in well publicised locations and situations and times. Certainly they can have an adverse affect on the hobby, initially putting up some prices of the areas they specialise, particularly if there are a couple other moderately financially endowed competitive guys also chasing after the same iconical bottles. Often, however this sort of occurrence can give a false blip in some bottle values, and consequently something of a crash afterwards when, as is often the case, these big spender collectors either lose interest, or, if their brains are as equally endowed as their bank balances, they come to the conclusion that they are travelling a little too fast on this highway to bottle heaven and put the brakes on their bottle collection building.
Dealing as I do with many collectors on the international scene, collectors who would not blink if  there was an additional "0" on the price of the bottle, you do begin to understand some of the psychological characters of some of  the wealthy, and it is a different world to us normal human beings. However it is not all sweetness and light to be able to spend in a week what most of us earn in a year, on some frivolous bits of glass...
It is a lonely world.
It is often unsatisfying.
It makes you suspicous of any you come into contact with.

Also as I think I noted in my first blog (or second?...whatever) even if you are a multi millionaire you cannot necessarily go out and buy, or have bought for you, a collection of sealed shaft and globes or one or two other godly areas of bottles....
They just aren't available in those numbers that there are many spare, and those people who do have collections of them are usually just as equally well endowed and have no need of mere money...! Those few lucky collectors who have individual examples and life sufficient bank balances can relish in the power of saying "NO" to offers from the almighty. So in actuality the millionaire has to wait his turn like the rest of us mortals, hope for a bit of luck, hope that non of his colleagues (somehow I can't see guys at this level referring to their "mates"!) don't also know about such and such sealed shaft and globe coming up in auction, etc etc. Even these guys don't leave a "but it whatever the price" instruction to me, because there is a fear of coming up against another such maniac and theoretically the bottle could go ballistic. So even those who think nothing of spending £50 on a cup of speciality coffee do not want to pay , or at least be seen to pay "over the odds" for their bottle, even though they can afford it. In the end these people are businessmen (they didn't get their money by being foolish) and that would be a weakness.

It is a lonely world, becuae very soon you realise that those surrounding you are often hanging on for scraps from your table, waiting to pounce on any opportunities you provide. Your genuine friends however are too embarassed to come near in case you THINK they are doing this. So your friends tend to be those people in the same worlds with the same problems and ye gods they are often so unsatisfactory as friends.....!

It is unsatisfying because though you know you get a kick out of receiving the latest acquisition...but then there is another to be got which immediately becomes available, which you must also buy...ad infinitum and you get the feeling of being milked.

You become suspicious as a result of the above two, because you do continually wonder if that guy giving you his friendship and his advice has a hidden agenda, and that that excellent offer is actually twice what the item is worth and you are simply being used....

So much though it grieves me me to have to say, I prefer to be a lowly mortal who has to save up to buy his next bottle fix, who can dream of acquiring an icon, rather than just buying it, and who can relish the buzz of achievement when such a bottle IS finally acquired...

Though it would be nice to try it for a while!!!................................................................

OK, on another note, and pertinent for the blog so far, here's the educational bit of the blog...

How to make BIG money from Bottles...


oh sorry!...run out of time.........................:)
egc  http://www.earlyglass.com/

Oh God, not again...

...Now I know why they're called "Blogs"....stands for that "Bl****dy log"....
oh well! "your own bed, you made, lie in it, now you can" are some words that spring to mind.

So where were we? oh yes complaining about the short sighted stick in the mud nature of the average British trained archeologist, not that I blame you the young ones, they just have to do what they're told or taught.

On a brighter note, there are some Museums who are beginning to live in this century. I've always enjoyed visiting the Museum of London, refreshing exhibits etc, so it was particularly pleasing to hear they have been asking for my regular series of articles in ABC (see recent blog for details) for their archives. Light at the end of the tunnel?....also it does unavoidably give yours truly a problem walking through doorways, though for once it's not the height (me being 6'4" ) but the width and getting my rapidly swelling noggin between the knotty pine....

I've got a problem.... I have all this lovely stuff  in stock, the sort of items that many only dream of, which is very nice, but of course it's not mine, not really. I can't afford to keep it and have got to sell it at some stage, preferably for a profit. That's how I make a living and that I have come to accept. At least I CAN enjoy it for a while, at least I can spend a large amount of money on it, which the guy in the street couldn't, because I know I will get that money back, and make something as well. So I actually get the chance to enjoy far more superb freeblowns than the average collector, temporarily of course, but then all of us only own these things temporarily and will have to give them up eventually, unless any of you plan to be buried with your favourite seal clasped lovingly in your hands?...

I had a good friend/client who had a very nice shaft and globe, who swore he would be buried with it. Interestingly it was originally found on an Indian grave site (as many American shaft and globes were, sometimes containing various medicinal or spiritual items of interest) so this is somewhat ironic. Anyway, there is this guy going to be buried with his shaft and globe, so I says "where are you going to be buried then?....and he hesitates and says.."I think I'd better not tell you"!....we had a good laugh.
I've often thought...would I? could I?...I guess even if I couldn't there'd be plenty who would! So perhaps not a good plan to "take it with you"....

But getting back to my problem, I need to sell these things, but some I don't want to, so sometimes I put the price up a bit, I mean, there has to be a price on almost everything that I'd be foolish not to sell for, however much I like it, but now I want to enter the BBR SummerNational show display competition, and I have an idea what I can enter, but some of the items I have in mind are likely to sell before then...dammit, so PLEASE people DON'T buy those things off me....until after the show.
So which things mustn't you guys buy?.....
That's my other problem.....because I can't let my competitors know what I'm doing...
I can't tell you!

Ok, as promised some token pretty pics of bottles you might like, well we all might like....oh to win the lottery, not that that would help in these cases as you can't just go out and buy these. I have millionaires queueing up to have me finding these sort of things for them....enjoy....



third earlyglass blog...jeez do people write these every day? Sad!!!

In case you guys have checked out my profile....(what you doin' that for eh? trying to work out what sort of mad freak could write all this eh, come on, put them up, I challenge you sah...)
...as I was saying before, before rudely interrupting myself,.....if you have checked out my profile you will see that I look remarkably like Lawrence of Arabia, who incredibly enough was a noted collector of sealed bottles, indeed he made some forays into the cellars of the oxford colleges in the early part of the century (now last century, gosh how time pours away?) and picked up (stole?) various bottles for himself, but what he had, and where they are now would be a fascinating tracking down experience, and it would be nice to own a bottle owned by him....perhaps Time Team ought to get sent in, then they can spend three days and mega money and find the incredibly fascinating foundations of one of his garden sheds, and lovingly excavate and preserve a fragment of one of his plantpots, and then recreate on computer what this marvellous piece of horticultural history would have looked like. Amazing that it looked so like the sort of plantpot that would have been around back in the beginning of the last century, and oh so superb that it was found in situe and recorded properly so that it's archeological significance was not lost.
The sealed shaft and globe they happened to find on a shelf in his home is of course out of context and therefore totally worthless historically, but still will be boxed away uncarefully and hidden in the bowels of the local museum so that  academics and researchers will be able to not find it and not research it, and ultimately it can be taken home by one of the museum security volounteer housewives who can put it to good use as a lamp, once hubby has carefully drilled a hole into it for the flex. I mean you've got to do these things properly haven't you, otherwise the lamp might fall over and get damaged....

...back soon

pretty pics of earlyglass to come soon.....promise! cross my heart and hope to





aggggghhhh..........


egc

Blokes and blogging...oh and some early glass stuff

Well ok, Day 2 and now got TWO followers. Guess I can start making millions now by linking to some advertisng...or not...!
Comments on the forums seem positive, so can you leave some comments here too.please guys....all helps to show the earlyglass newbies that this blog is the biz for bottles.

Ok, now some token informative info, .... first - "earlyglass".....my generic term for any glass (but we are always talking bottles - not fancy decorative plates, glasses, stands etc etc that you'll see cluttering up antique shops) that either is freeblown (blown without the use of molds) or dipmold (freeblown, sort of, but blowing partially into a basic mold of some form that gives the bottle a standardish size), or pontilled (has the mark, usually on the base where a pontil rod is attached, which enables the blowpipe to be broken away from the neck and that rough snapped off  lip to be reheated and smoothed or shaped or have a lip applied to it.) hope you newbies get the rough idea.....?  - if not, check out my articles in ABC ( a bottle magazine available on subscription or at bottle shows) Check them out at http://www.abc-ukmag.co.uk/ 

Be aware, be VERY aware (you soon will be!) that there is another longer established magazine: BBR.... http://www.onlinebbr.com/  and these two magazines and their enthusiastic proprietors have a lovely time banging their egos against each other, banning each other from their own organised shows, blah blah, and boring and embarassing most collectors silly with this behaviour which everyone knows is not necessary, does nothing for the hobby, and creates north/south splits etc (one mag being traditionally northern based eh by 'eck, and the other rather southern based ok yah?). At the moment there seems a creaky truce.....

However, I digress (I'll be doing digressing in bucketloads) Both mags are fine, both informative, but they perform to different masters with different backgrounds.


Now lets sink this "blackglass" term, at least as a generic term for our hobby, which has insidiously crept into use. Blackglass is a useful and descriptive reference to SOME earlyglass which through addition of iron oxides is a very dark olive green green colour. That's fine. Unfortunately much earlyglass is also aqua, clear, blue, amber, amethyst, emerald green etc etc. Now I know I wear glasses and I know I see things differently to other people, but last time I looked, very dark olive green blackglass, was a different colour to all the other colours I've mentioned....'nuff said? case closed. 
OK, "earlyglass" isn't perfect, but it's a darn site more perfect than "blackglass"....

Guess that'll do for Day 2.....but don't necessarily expect something EVERY day yes?

egc....which stands for "EarlyGlassCollector", one of my user names on the bottle forums.
p.s...no pretty pics today, hope it's not too boring....

early glass black glass seals and shaft and globes!!

Well, everyone else is doing it -"blogging", twittering, and all the rest of this modern day techno speak gibberish, and sitting there with their faces and fingers stuck to mobile phones and other little black beeping boxes, gradually losing their ability to actually SPEAK to living human beings....
....but even as a grumpy old man, I do acknowledge this is the sort of  trendy effort you have to do these days, and who knows I might even end up getting addicted like everyone else...

Now, if you don't know me or of me, you obviously haven't been collecting early glass bottles very long...or else you've been doing it on the very peripherals of the general bottle collecting community, the shows, the magazines, the forums etc etc. So unless you want to miss out on what's available in the early glass world and for what price you'd do well to start by looking at the website  http://www.earlyglass.com/   my website that has over a thousand assorted and various items of freeblown, pontilled, sealed and generally early glass bottles and related items. We'll cover the terminology later...

Of course all of this blog (today and forever after) will be a totally unambiguous plug for my website and for collecting earlyglass generally, but hopefully I will in any case be preaching to the converted, but if not I'll aim to convert the uninitiated in as totally a painless way as possible, so don't worry too much guys. Earlyglass addicts are fairly happy people and aren't so often made nerdy fun of, more usually they are envied by other bottle collectors.....(you'll appreciate I've already started the hype!) who for some reason think they can't "afford" to collect earlyglass where your average attractive freeblown onion full of history with an international market costs £400-£500, yet they'll all spend the same amount on some local "super rare" ginger beer that happens to be plain dull and boring and wouldn't be worth £5 outside the locality...

But then I'm biased.....

"Onion"? some of you'll be saying, "what sort of vegetables are worth that sort of money!!...I want some of this!"...
Ok, watch this blog to find out what other vegtables are worth phenomenal prices!!!........
(and some pics of these incredible alliums also.....)