Revolutionary Ways to Promote Antique Bottles

Antique bottle dealers aren't limited to just official bottle shows. Recently our friends at the Ohio Bottle Club took a block of tables at a ''regular'' antique show, the Hartville Flea market, to help promote their club and our wonderful hobby.  Kudos to them for sharing their passion with the non-bottle antiquers - well done! See  more pix here.

Todd Knisely was set up there too, then hurried off to another event. He had been asked to share some of his historic bottles and his extensive knowledge of their use in the Revolutionary War at a reenactment at Fort Laurens in Bolivar Ohio. It made for a very long weekend, but he talked about antique bottles with so many people, and was filmed for 2 - count 'em 2! - tv shows. The shows are about history, but showing antique bottles, so yeah!

As Todd writes: " ... I took Revolution era bottles that spanned from the French & Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, to not only show what items of the reenactment period would have looked like, but to show the transition before and after the period. 

... “I was excited to be invited by Commander Robert Cairns to attend the Fort Laurens encampment. I was able to take bottles and glass that ranged from 1750-1820’s showing the diversity of bottles in those time periods. It was especially good timing to have a new OBC member banner to hang on the front of my table while there. Many people took photos of the banner, my table and me during the event which was open to the public and also attended by several out of state brigade units. Alan did a nice job on the banners that we used for the first time at the Hartville event just an hour before.” 

... “I spoke to well over one hundred people directly over the two days, and was overheard by hundreds more. I answered questions about specific bottles that were on my tables, and demonstrated common uses for the items I had brought. I was completely surprised when asked to sign a television release form for HGTV who was on the grounds Sunday to film a special about the event. "

After the excitement of the HGTV crew wanting to know what Todd was doing and speaking on for the weekend, he was then approached by a film crew from the Ohio Historical Society and asked to do an on-film interview and explanation of his tables of artifacts. Todd said “I was tired from setting up, tearing down at Hartville and then Fort Laurens, and then the same thing again on Sunday. I was losing my voice from talking to so many people and the OHS crew filmed me late in the event on Sunday and it was all I could do to be legible and make sense.” Todd went on to say “I gave away actual glass cullet and manufacturing shards from the Wistarburgh Glass Works which operated from 1739 to the 1780’s. I had two mid-17th century signal cannons, two 1750-1820 medical bleeding cups, an actual blow pipe along with some great early bottles. The people who attended were history buffs just for coming to the event, so I was a big hit due to having actual period relics on display. I was also invited by the museum director to give a presentation to the Zoar Historical Society at a future date. All-in-all it was a great weekend not only for myself, but the club and [bottle] hobby as well.”"

Congrats to Todd!
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Findlay Antique Bottle Club
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