Mansfield Bottle Show 2010 Report

Bruce Schank -- Mason Bright -- Paul Shoecraft

Our roving bottle show reporter, Bruce Schank, has written a great show report about the recent May Mansfield Bottle Show -- chock full of colorful pix and colorful prose! Relive the show, if you were there -- or see what you missed!

After you've read the report here, head over to Bruce's LEGENDS OF THE JAR website, and read his latest interviews -- fruit jar collectors Paul Shoecraft and Mason Bright -- as always, the pix will blow you away! And the chatty tone of the interviews make it seem as if you are there hanging out with fellow collectors and admiring those wonderful collections.

Bruce Schank's Mansfield Report:

Well, I finally made it to my 1st Mansfield, OH Show. My good friend Jeff Klingler has been prodding me for the last two years to go and my other good buddy Joe Coulson was already going so I finally broke down and took the long drive and showed my face there. I also had an alternate reason why I was going too since I had presold a few jars and was delivering them to a couple of collectors who also were attending. Of course after getting there I soon realized rather quickly what a mistake it’s been all of these years that I haven’t gone to this show before because it is a Show well worth the trip and aggravation in my opinion. And yes, it was a long trip indeed for me, a whopping 8 ½ hour’s drive to the Hotel just outside the Fair Grounds. Yet as a jar collector I can say with absolute certainty that this was probably the Best Show for fruit jars outside of the Muncie Show that I’ve seen in a long while.


Some of the outstanding Glass for Sale at Mansfield.

Jon Arntz at his Sales Table with an excellent assemblage of fruit jars.

There are three large buildings on the grounds and all of them were filled with Dealers, glass, antiques and go-withes of all kinds and descriptions. To my sheer amazement there was a massive abundance of Fruit Jars beyond my wildest expectations and Ball jars were plentiful even for this advanced collector. Of course there were fruit jars of every known type and variety and so many good ones even the big boys seemed to be pleased.

Jeff K. was warning me about taking too many pictures on Friday and to just get my butt around and look for jars and worry more about photos on Saturday instead. I took his advice to a point and I went my merry way exploring the vast multitudes of tables laden with goodies and hopefully some jars were there for little ole me. I just happened to innocently walk up to Bill Burgess’s table and low and behold I spied an improved closured Christmas Mason sitting on his table with a milk glass SMS lid. I know for sure I wasn’t the 1st person to have seen it but I was the one who bought it. That was only the 2nd such lid I have ever had the chance of buying and I was happy to say the least in getting it.

Angela Spurgeon left and Kay Rittenhouse right.

It was also a real pleasure seeing many of my good friends again and hanging with them on Friday. Last time I had been partying with everyone was Winter Muncie. We had a blast shooting the BS outside Jeff and Marianne’s hotel room while a major thunder storm was taking place. Michael Rutledge, Rick Lease, Russ Crupe, Joe Coulson, Jeff Klingler, Marianne Dow and yours truly partied until midnight and it was all about jar talk.

Joe and I were sharing a room and we were up bright and early on Saturday morning. We both enjoyed the nice continental breakfast feast the hotel offered and then off to the Fairgrounds again for another round of exploration and buying. Joe managed to pick up some nice boxes and Michael brought with him a load of boxes too from a huge trade deal that they had engaged in prior to the Show. It was good seeing one of my favorite ladies, Kay Rittenhouse there with her hubby Dave. Kay is a gem of a person in my book and a lot of fun to be around. Saturday brought out many more dealers and people were everywhere. It didn’t seem like a bad economy with the amount of dealers and the buying that was going on from my perspective.

Tina Chavez.

There were a few big name collectors there including Joe Merkel and his incredible energetic better half Tina. Joe was transfixed standing at Jim and John O’Connor’s table and wouldn’t move while jars were being put on the table. And I must say the jars they had for sale were incredible to say the least. Not sure if I’ve ever seen a table with that many amber jars on it before.

John O’Connor’s incredible table of jars with Michael Rutledge and Joe Coulson far right.

Yours Truly (BallJarz) holding a gift from my good buddy Jeff Klingler.

All in all I had a really good time at this Mansfield Show. Simply put, there was something for everyone from the novice to the most extreme collector.

The Big Boys...Phil Smith, Dick Bere, Dave Rittenhouse, Dan Corker and Greg Spurgeon brainstorming.

Some great looking bottles at one sales table.

Tom & Deena Caniff at their sales table.

My good buddy Joe Coulson laughing it up with (jboybubbles) Jon Raver.

Marianne Dow at her Sales Table.

Bob Sheffield with some nice bottles.

Greg Spurgeon with John Oconnor.

Marty Troxell.

A shot of the 2nd bldg.

A shot of the 3rd bldg.

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