This olive green iron pontil NEPTUNE GLASS WORKS bottle got my attention.  I checked with one longtime New Jersey collector and he had never heard of it.

The reverse panel is marked CROWLYVILLE N.J.

Medicine? Whiskey?  What do you think?

It recently brought $3,049.99 on ebay.

Bols Ballerina bottles were made in the Netherlands from 1957 through 1978. They are not exactly uncommon – they were made by the tens of thousands per year! This decanter features a dancing ballerina who dances to the tune of The Skater’s Waltz or Le Bleu Danube.

It seems like lots of people are looking for the value of these bottles since many were given as gifts and keepsakes. I recently ran a search of completed auctions on ebay.com and found the following:

• Empty bottles in good condition sell in the $5-10 range.
• Full bottles sell in the $50 to $100 range. The price varies depending on whether they are still sealed and whether you have the original box and it is in good condition
• Forget about damaged pieces. No one wants them

27 bids brought this lovely cobalt Louisville Eagle flask up to $3801.  It was clear from the seller’s description that they had NO idea what they had!  Guess they were surprised that this antique bottle brought that much.

In this case, the clear photos which appear to show the color with precision really helped buyers overcome any doubts about that the seller might not be accurately describing the item (not intentionally but because they are not a collector)

We suspect this bottle would have sold for more if offered via one of the auction houses such as Heckler’s or American Glass Gallery.  It is a simple fact that buyers want the confidence that comes from buying from an auctioneer who describes the condition and the color with accuracy.

Louisville Eagle flask auction on ebay

Recently, this ACL soda (that’s Applied Color Label for those new to bottle collecting) from the 1940s or 1950s brought a generous $305. When I say generous, my bias is showing: I have a hard time accepting bottles of this era as ANTIQUE. It’s not just that they do not fit the dictionary definition of antique, but perhaps just because they join most bottles of the 20th century as machine manufactured. Long live the Luddite, and praise the men who hand crafted glass in earlier days.

Back to 2010. While most ACL soda bottles will cross the $30 mark, occasionally they bring a good bit more. Of course, as always, condition is of utmost importance, and this one is all clean, sheen and pristine. But that is about it – otherwise it is fairly plain jane, so look twice before you recycle them.

Perhaps someone can fill me in on the record price for an ACL soda?

Look to the SODA FIZZ web site for more information on the ACL soda craze.

Piedmont Pale Dry Ginger Ale bottle auction

Search for ACL soda bottles on ebay

Piedmont Ginger Ale ACL soda

Piedmont Bottling Company, Pale Dry Ginger Ale

When was the last time you saw a photograph of a (now) antique bottle taken in the 1840s? I can’t imagine there are many such images in existence.

Right now on ebay is a “dag” of a man holding a bottle of WARE’S LOTION. The bottle appears to be an oval aqua bottle with flared lip and a wrap-around label. You cannot tell if it is embossed or not. Surely it would be pontiled if from this time period. I made a quick check in the Greer catalog of pontiled medicines and find another bottle (Lot 1720) which is embossed WARE’S LOTION OR PAIN EXTRACTOR. The bottle is rectangular and has a tapered lip and is 6-1/2″ tall. It’s listed in the catalog as extremely rare. It brought $170 in the auction in 1989.

It’s an incredibly cool historical piece for the antique bottle collector. I’m tempted to bid on it myself. We’ll see.

With 3 days to go in the auction, the bidding is currently at $320 and the auction has not yet made reserve.

View this Daguerreotype auction

Man with Ware's Lotion, circa 1840

Close up view of Ware's Lotion bottle

Full view of Ware daguerreotypes

Hard to imagine someone dug this great bottle up – talk about lucky. As the ebay listing says, it was found in 2009 in Champaign, Illinois

From the book, Ketchup, Pickles, Sauces by Betty Zumwalt (p. 411):
E.H.V.B. stands for Elias H. Van Benschoten. He operated a dry goods store in New York at 68 Spring Street about 1842. He changed his line and began the Pickle manufacture in 1849 at 252 Front Street. After 1854 there is no mention of him. The bottle comes in two sizes and is extremely rare.

Most are indeed aqua – this green color would be easily called a rare bird.

You can buy it now on ebay for $5199 $4149 $3549.

The Radium Radia company was a short lived patent medicine business founded in the early years of the 20th century. Little did they know that the Pure Food and Drug Act was coming in 1906, and it would mark the end of an era for most medicine merchants.

The bottle on its own is a plain jane clear bottle with a little embossing, and one that you would give little notice. However, the wise marketers at this company chose to add some super graphics. It is undoubtedly one of the most visually appealing labels that you will see.

Apparently, a collector in Texas recently sold a couple of these bottles and a friend alerted me to the second auction. Most collectors of antique bottles don’t think of labeled clear bottles as bringing high prices and they would be right. However, in this auction, the closing price was $901. It’s not a record price by a long margin but considering that this is a 20th century bottle, it ranks in overall auction results.

I have spoken with someone who confirms that the bottle did not actually contain radioactive matter. They have, like the ebay seller, tested it with a Geiger counter.

the colorful and valuable Radium Radia bottle

I was recently talking to a friend who has used ebay for over 10 years but had no idea how to look at completed auction results. This was a big surprise to me since I thought everyone used this feature. Perhaps some of you are unaware of it.

Yes, there are millions of active listings out there, but many close without a sale so they are not a good barometer of what your antique bottle is worth. Instead, look at completed auctions that have actually received a bid. This gives you an idea of what people are actually paying.

Remember that a single auction does not “make” the value of any item. Some auctions close high, others low. By piecing together the details of a group of auction results for similar old bottles, you can get a sense for your bottle’s market value. Remember also that condition and quality pay a big role in the value of bottles. If the process leaves doubts in your mind, get an appraisal from an experienced collector/dealer.

Here is how to research antique bottles values on ebay:

1. First, you need an ebay account. Ebay requires this to browse their completed auction results. There is no way around it, so sign up for an account now.

2. Perform your search as you normally would:

3. Now scroll down on the page looking at the left column. Tick off the checkbox option for “Completed listings”

The checkbox will stay selected as you continue to search.

Get started now.