From EM66 : "I have over 400 soda cans from the mid-70's to the late 80's. I also have the complete 1976 Phillies on Canada Dry cans. Most came from East Coast, some from Midwest. E-mail with needs or interests. Thank you." 

From Kevin Stephenson : "I have a bottle of cream soda with the embossed Quaker and "Richmond, Indiana" on the shoulder and "Property of Coca-Cola Bottling Company" on the bottom. Anyone interested, E-mail me." 
NOTE: An example of this bottle can be found <HERE>.

Just exactly what is the going price for one small elephant?
 <Click here to see>

And can you put a price on time?
 Someone did...<Click here>

Corporate-School Partnerships Good For Profits, Not Kids
One more opinion from the CSPI Newsroom, read the full story....

"Pop Quiz" Virtual Game Show to be Unveiled October 8th on CokeMusic.com 
The first American Idol competition is over, and the stars of the show are making their preparations for a whirlwind national tour. A special under-the-cap promotion from Coca-Cola classic and CokeMusic.com gives people a chance to win the American Idol Red Couches from the show's Coca-Cola Red Room, which are just a few of the prizes that will be offered on CokeMusic.com. Beginning on Sept. 30 and running through the end of the year or while supplies last, consumers can collect codes located under the caps of specially-marked 20-ounce and 1-liter bottles of Coca-Cola in participating retailers, and, by visiting CokeMusic.com and following instructions, turn each into 1,000 "decibels" good for entering for chances to win specific prizes. Three levels of prizes will be awarded, ranging from music CDs to the American Idol Coca-Cola Red Couches to experiential trips to events such as Jazz Fest in New Orleans and the American Music Awards in L.A. to see the winner of the Coca-Cola New Music Award perform live on stage.

The Walt Disney Company and The Coca-Cola Company have expanded their multi-year agreement by which Dasani Water will be the featured bottled water at Disney's US Parks and Resorts. The water also will be served on the Disney Cruise Line. As part of the relationship, visitors to Disney's U.S. theme parks and resorts will be among the first to try the new Dasani 24-ounce sports bottle packaging. The new Dasani 24-ounce features a slim, easy to carry bottle and a proprietary, twist-open top.

Universal Studios has switched the brand of juices served at its Hollywood and Orlando theme parks. Coca-Cola's Minute Maid juices have replaced Pepsico's Tropicana products. The switch began in mid August this year. The new Minute Maid contract however will end in 18 months.

Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke AG is planning to close one of its bottling plants due to a decrease in the demand for returnable bottles in Stralsund, north-east Germany, by the end of March 2003. A total of 52 employees work in the Stralsund plant, which CCE plans to offer jobs at a plant in Halle, eastern Germany.

Our NEW SITE! 
All archived newsletters are now located at the new site: thesodafizz.com. All of the previous Fizz, up to September 2002, will remain at the old site, but can still be accessed from links in the new site, so all the information is still available. Enjoy!

New bottles or cans, or anything soda, in your area ?
Please send the info so all of us can know @ WhatsNew@thesodafizz.com

Old Dominion Chapter of the Coca-Cola Collectors Club will be holding its annual convention October 3 through 5, 2002 at the Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Beach Party '02 events will include welcome party, silent and regular auctions, swap meet, banquet and room hopping. For more information, please contact Tim Watkins, 11 Terrace Circle, Newport News, VA 23605, 757-599-9821, or e-mail timandcoke@aol.com. For additional information on the hotel, please visit its website: www.sandcastle-vabeach.com.

October 5 (Saturday) Richmond, Virginia
Richmond Area Bottle Collectors Association's 31st Annual Show & Sale
(Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM, early admission 7:30 AM) at the Showplace Annex
3002 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond, Virginia
Info: Judy Foles, 12275 Cedar Lane, Ashland, VA 23005
Ph: 804-798-7502, E-mail: judyfoles@mail.com

October 5 - 6 (Saturday - Sunday) Point Pleasant, West Virginia
The West Virginia Bottle Show in conjunction with the West Virginia State Farm Museum Fall Festival
(Sat.& Sun. 9 AM - 5 PM) at the West Virginia State Farm Museum
Fairgrounds Rd. (off Route 62, 4 miles north of), Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Info: Charlie Perry, 39304 Bradbury Rd., Middleport, OH 45760
Ph: 740-992-5088, E-mail: perrycola@eurekanet.com

October 6 (Sunday) Elsecar, England
The Annual Autumn Extravaganza Show & Sale
(Sun. 10 AM - 3 PM) at the Elsecar Heritage Center
Nr. Barnsley, South Yorks, England
Info: Alan Blakeman, c/o BBR, Elsecar Heritage Center
Nr. Barnsley, South Yorks, England S74 8HJ
Ph: 011 44 1226 745156, E-mail: sales@bbrauctions.co.uk

October 6 (Sunday) Dryden, New York
Finger Lakes Bottle Collectors Association's 33rd Annual Show & Sale
(Sun. 9 AM - 3 PM, early admission 8 AM) at the Dryden Fire Hall
Route 13 (easy access from NYS Thruway 90 or Route 81), Dryden, New York
Info: Joe Hall, 148 Maple St., Hornell, NY 14843
Ph: 607-324-5316, E-mail: chall83@infoblvd.net

The Hoosier Chapter of the Coca-Cola Collector's Club will hold their 7th Annual Swap Meet Sunday, October 6th, from 8am - 5pm at the Tippecanoe County Fairground's Home-Ec Building, 1401 Teal Rd (SR 25), Lafayette, Indiana. Tables are available for $15, Admission is $1 for adults, children under 12 are free. Information: The Hoosier Chapter, c/o Brenda Cummins, PO Box 387, Clear Creek, IN 47426, or contact: Ted Oswalt, Ph: 765-538-3593, E-mail: toswalt@tctc.com. 

Any new events  in your area? Mail so all of us can know, to: Events@thesodafizz.com

From Mike Elling, Sharon, TN : "A surprising newspaper advertisement for Chero-Cola as an introductory beverage into the Evansville, Indiana, territory reveals the beverage available prior to the 1915 bottle/logo design change. The "script-letter" logo embossed on all the bottles of the 1913-1914 era was reported as "hard to read" when retail storekeepers tried to divide the bottles for return. The simplified "angled block" lettered bottle helped to eliminate that confusion in 1915. What is noteworthy here is that this evidence puts Evansville as the first bottler north of the Ohio River within the system. The Evansville RC Cola Bottling Company (run by Mr. Leo King) continues today as one of the strongest bottlers in the system. I have never seen an angled-script Chero from Evansville. This bottle would be in the 7-ounce size, and probably made by Chattanooga Glass. However, Evansville had a glass plant locally, the Graham Glass Works, so it will be interesting to see where this bottle was made, if and when one is reported."

Reviewed by Dr. Cecil Munsey

About the book: Generally, only once in a generation does a really fine bottle book get published. In the past decade several such books have seen the publishing-light-of-day. This review is about one of the best of them – Antique Glass Bottles – by Willy Van den Bossche. Since the author of the book is not well known in the United States, some of this valuable space will be devoted to a biography of the man himself.

This book was written for all collectors, archaeologists, museums, libraries, historians, writers, researchers, institutions, bottle makers, pharmacists and anyone interested in antique bottles and the social history they reflect.

This is the first major, comprehensive book on the history and evolution of glass bottles between 1500 and 1850. In other words, the work deals with the undiscovered part of utility-bottles and -jars collecting never published before in English or any other language.

The work is 440 pages, lavishly illustrated with 370 specially commissioned color photographs illustrating 770 bottles and bottle seals. Bottles photographed have been verified as examples of the rarest and most important bottles available. Just the photography alone took one year of work.

The book also includes the most comprehensive worldwide bibliography on glass bottles ever produced, listing 1,150 titles. Bottle related items such as seal dies and corkscrews are also illustrated at the end of the book to ensure completeness of coverage. There is a six-page (double column) glossary of bottle-making terms. The work has an index at the end that facilitates finding of the book’s extensive contents.

According to the book’s author, the collecting of utility bottles (1500 through 1850 AD) has “… been very much neglected on the Continent in spite of their wide variety of artistic shapes and colours [sic]. The reason for this may be explained by the facts that early, blown bottles made before the Industrial Revolution (starting in the 1850s) are very difficult to find and are more complicated to understand…. The utility bottle has been missing the ‘prestige’ and ‘status’ that it merits. Many Roman bottles were found in tombs and are thus much more common than their successors which were ‘reinvented’ after the dark ages.

“Collecting antique bottles and jars became popular from the 1950s onwards in the English-speaking countries, especially America, England, and Australia ….”

The book is systematically built to illustrate the evolution and history of bottles in separated chapters: Great Britain; Holland and Belgium; Belgium (supplement); Germany, Alpine Countries and Scandinavia; France, Italy and Spain; Miscellaneous: Europe and America. This system of organization serves to facilitate comparison of and learning about differences between various European and American bottles and flasks.

Often comprehensive works such as this are hard to read. Mr. Van den Bossche’s work was developed with a specific concept in mind – a book that is user friendly. It begins with a general chapter on the history of bottles with 48 Figures and condensed descriptions so that the reader does not become tired or bored with long textual treatments. Each of the histories is written as a compilation of dates and facts instead of tediously long pages of text.

Plates 1-28 in the chapter on Great Britain display a full evolution of the English “wine” bottles with an exceptional range of sealed and date-sealed examples for each decade from the 1660s to the 1880s. These bottles are the heart of the story of the development of the modern bottle. This chapter alone solves many of the mysteries American collectors have puzzled over for years. This treatment goes far beyond what we Americans generically call “black glass” and “wine” bottles.

Antique Glass Bottles comes with a separate 16-page price guide booklet. The author wisely offers price guidance in this manner. In the author’s own words: “I have done this to make the book independent of fluctuating prices. A new update price guide will be printed every two years.”

About the author: As a result of a number of international telephone calls to the Netherlands to interview Mr. Van den Bossche, I learned about a most remarkable man and what it took to develop the fine book reviewed above. I don’t think I exaggerate when I promise you that if you read this biography you will be pleased that you did.

Willy Van den Bossche was born in Flanders, Belgium in 1943 as the oldest son of six children. His father was a butcher. His mother tongue is Flemish. He also is fluent in French, German, and English (as those of us who met him at the 2000 EXPO in Denver can attest).

Much like my hero and friend the late author, Dr. Julian Toulouse, who was a glass-engineer for 32 years with Owens Illinois Glass Company, Mr. Van den Bossche is an industrial engineer who has specialized in glass technology since 1967. He worked two years as a plant engineer in the Belgian bottle-making industry where he fell in love with modern and antique bottles. Since that experience he has worked for 30 years as a patent examiner in the field of glass technology in The Hague, Netherlands where he lives.

Specifically, his job is that of Chief Patent Examiner for Glass Technology in the European Patent Office that is situated in The Hague, Holland and in Munich, Germany. He works with 4,000 graduate engineers and other academics. Every engineer has his/her own part of a technological field to search and grant patents. He and his group research all new inventions world-wide in the field of glass making for companies all over the planet that apply for a European Patent (valid in all of Europe) or a World Patent (valid all over the world).

His work is focused on examining all glass making patents for machines that make bottles, jars, window glass, lenses, fibers, optical fibers, everything in glass, the melting furnaces, cutting machines, and so forth.

Besides having written several serious articles on European bottles, Mr. Van den Bossche is the author of the international patent classification system of inventions in the field of glass technology now in use worldwide.

During the past 34 years, his work has facilitated visits by him to all of the most important bottle factories in the world (USA, England, Europe, Russia, China, and others). During most of those same years he also managed to visit and study most of what he considers the serious bottle collections and glass museums, again, all over the world. 

Mr. Van den Bossche started collecting bottles in 1967. He says, “I was one of the first serious bottles collectors on the continent. Bottles were cheap and nobody wanted them. Now they have become very expensive and hard to find.” Bottles shown in Antique Glass Bottles are 95% from his own collection – shades of Charlie Gardner, I’d say.

As any of the serious authors will tell you, their library is their most important tool. Willy Van den Bossche told me, “I have systematically been collecting literature on the history and evolution of all bottles American and European (and English) and all literature on glassmaking, the art of glass, and on glass containers such as bottles, flasks, jars, etc.” 

He took my breath away when he casually stated, “My private library contains 1,700 books on bottles and glass (30 meters long on the shelves) and not included are hundreds of early American and European patents on bottles and many articles from magazines, etc. I feel my library includes most the rare books and manuscripts that exist in this field. That is the result of traveling and searching and contacts made worldwide.” Of the 1700 books in his library, 1,150 of them are referenced in the book’s bibliography.

How much effort does it take to produce such a work as Antique Glass Bottles? From my own experience in producing The Illustrated Guide to Collecting Bottles – 31 years ago, I had a pretty good idea but I just had to ask the question of Mr. Van den Bossche. Here are some of the things he told me. “I averaged about 30 hours a week during ten years, in supplement to my daily job at the European Patent Office, to search and make the book as it is now.” He went on to indicate, “In order to make the book as comprehensive as possible I have written in total at least 1,000 handwritten letters for getting information. The total price of postage stamps was more than $3,000.”

In conclusion: I would say that few books on a specific, established field of antiques break new ground to the extent this one does. This book is undoubtedly a major, wholly comprehensive, illustrated landmark guide and reference that in the coming decades everybody - interested in antique bottles everywhere - will want to have.

An interesting afterword to this review and biography comes from the author himself: “I have most recently done nearly one year of iconographic research of paintings and engravings - to find any bottles portrayed. This helps me to know where they were used and in which circumstances. 

This information helps to date bottles, to verify bottle shapes that have never been seen until recently, to find the origins of bottles or the bottle makers themselves, and to discover where various kinds of bottles were exported. And in addition to that, I have checked these results with many archaeological excavation finds all over the world to double check and to be sure that what I wrote is correct.” 

If you have a soda-related subject that you would like to see here as an "FYI" article, or have information you yourself would like to contribute, don't be shy, send it to: FYI@thesodafizz.com

Until next week, Happy Collecting! CokeGirl