VIOBOTS

Are violin shaped bottles for real?

ebay by Bob Linden nasa

Five years ago you would be lucky to find a half dozen violin shaped bottles at a bottle show. If you went just to find a glass fiddle, you probably came away thinking you had just visited the Dullsville show. Admittedly, a couple peddlers could have put one or two out as “also rans”. Viobots were strays and the only good news back then was that if you did spot one, you might walk off with it for twenty dollars. Less, if you cleared your throat twice.

Things change. This year at two shows, the Merrimack Valley Bottle Club Show in Chelmsford, Mass. and the Yankee Bottle Club Show in Keene, N.H., I counted ten dealers offering at least 50 colorful viobots. I'm not usually one of the first through the doors at bottle shows, so I have to rely on early bird reports that some good viobot stuff went fast... swoosh. I did notice that some of my friends were sporting a “gotcha” smile by the time I arrived. Okay with me, though.

The Christensen's signing their book "Violin Bottles."

And last June at the Saratoga show I was surprised to find so many choice viobots scattered throughout the exhibition hall. Two dealers each offered an uncommon LV6a in cobalt for $100. ( It was the color that mattered, but for the record an LV6a is approximately 9 1/2” tall, has a type 6 sound hole shape with no bar music on the back. The “a” stands for a variety with two cent hole dots both back and front toward the edge of the lower right quadrant... just in case you wondered.) Some viobot collectors who picked up such prizes a few years ago for little more than a sawbuck were now suddenly flushed with their latent investment wisdom. Frankly, I thought some dealers at these shows were asking a bit much for the more common material, but that's their business.

Have we discovered an emerging viobot market? Not surprising, but many violin bottle collectors report that they also collect other bottles, or vice versa. I'm one of them and have often wondered if several collectors from a bigger pack didn't simply decide to fire up a violin bottle specialty. Colored glass fiddles are, after all, quite fetching especially when displayed. Or is this just a fad where a zealous group of “viobot huggers”, and I'm one of them too, are leading a unique figural parade? (and doing a bit of hopeful hoarding at the same time.) I'm not sure, but peeking backwards, there are some identifiable signs leading to the possibility of a genuine market. For instance, some general and famous collectors who previously dared only talk about their bitters, flasks, calabashes and other traditional favorites have cautiously mustered the courage to admit that they also have a few violin bottles... say, just for color. Jimmy Carter owned up and posed for a photo holding one. There is even some viobot show-and-tell going on at bottle club meetings now. Amusingly, several collectors who wrote to me characterized their viobot collection as a “spouse fancy.” Nice spouse. Some fancy! But when I walked into Wink's Bottle Shop in Waldoboro, ME two summers ago and saw a third of their background display area full of violin bottles, I knew something was brewing. Were viobots marching out of the closet and perching on the shelf? They certainly have some visibility now and a passionate posse of collectors appears to be chasing them.

The National Bottle Museum helped the viobot cause with it's eye catching, two years-running violin bottle exhibit located just inside the Museum entrance at Ballston Spa, New York. It created a great deal of visitor interest. In 1994 Jan Rutland, the Museums President whose finger seemed always to be on the pulse of violin bottle collecting, encouraged the Weaver family of Springfield, New York and Frank Bartlett of Stoney Brook, Ontario to exhibit their collections of violin and banjo bottles. And did they ever! Nothing did as much for violin bottle awareness and visibility as the Weaver's Symphony of Color and Frank's Symphony of Colour which were presented at the entrance to the Saratoga, New York bottle show of 1994 and 1995.

Their first displays got a rocket launch attention. And, as if by clairvoyance, three thousand miles away Don and Doris Christensen had already made a distribution of their first book called: “Violin Bottles.” Safe to say by others who had spent considerable time chasing down glass fiddles and information on them, Doris and Don had created the first real print matter ever on viobots with a nice intro from Roy Topka of the Museum. Landmark material for my bottle book library.

I was privately chagrined to have to admit in 1994 that both of the forgoing events had to be pointed out to me. When you think you are on top of some market heap be prepared to do something constructive if your ego gets whacked. I owned my share of violin bottle curiosity so I decided to put both oars in the water and address the question of how many other violin bottle collectors were “out there?”

An ad in AB & GC offering to buy violin bottles and at the same time encouraging other possible collectors to “get in touch” proved to be fulfilling. Some excellent bottles turned up but, significantly, other viobot collectors did start to “get in touch”. And one of the first was “Jerry Jill” Yaffey who was already counting her viobots in the hundreds and who told me a thing or three about her knowledge of them. It was an educational and humbling phone call, but we ended up great friends and co-Chairs of the Violin Bottle Collectors Association.

Again thanks to the guidance of Jan and Meg Stevens at the Bottle Museum, the VBCA got off the ground at the 1995 Saratoga Bottle Show with 15 charter members two of whom were bottle dealers. Both Rick Weaver and Frank Bartlett were on hand with their encouragement and the Museum delivered a list of about fifty potential members from its' records. Now, after twenty-two months, the VBCA has 52 members coast to coast in 21 states and two Canadian Provinces. Collection sizes range from 5 bottles to several hundred and new members are showing up at a rate of one or two per month. A lot of networking is going on. A newsletter, a page of which is often in color, and which mixes human and bottle interest is produced by the Christensens four times a year as a membership benny. A classification and color coding system has been made available to members whose profiles range from people who drive high speed trains, police dispatchers, math teachers, nurses, authors, automobile dealers, and bankers to many who play real violins professionally in symphony orchestras. Others teach the fiddle and a few sell and service violins for a living.

Rare crystal, (left) only 4 exist, and equally rare lateral amberina (right) only 5 exist. Both are blown at Pairpoint Glass Co. from an old mold now on exhibit at the National Bottle Museum.

But, do 52 vibrant members in a bottle club with a newsletter and increased dealer offerings at bottle shows make a violin bottle market? Not necessarily. At least, not a very big one. But hold the fort! Take another, closer, different look. There is a huge and active market in viobots going on every weekend all over North America and it only slows down a bit during the week. The challenge of this market is that specialized collectors and dealers are forced to compete with a big block of buyers who continually invade the supply lines. How so? Well, many collectors have discovered this trading bazaar and good news for them is that new inventory flows into it continuously. It's part of the time, gas and food relief chase.

Thousands of viobots change hands at yard sales, flea markets, group shops and antique emporiums all the time. Undoubtedly there are more collectors and dealers hunting down these favorites than ever before, but the rub is that most viobots are not necessarily being bought by specialized collectors... not yet. I've said this before but reports of scarcity are mostly because there is active competition going on among a lot of ladies who buy them up readily by ones and twos all the time... just as they were sold in the first place... for ambiance, décor, or color in the home. They are rarely dug and there are no distributors . Occasionally a dealer will buy up someone's collection. They are very good looking, diverse in shape and color and still relatively inexpensive. They come out of homes where they may have been ensconced for up to 50 years. Four or five “bird dogs” who regularly canvass this market are my own best source of viobots and I pay their price with little quibbling.

Whish brings up the subject of price. Viobots are not for sale for long in the market. A low quick sale price is the right price on the garage floor of the flea market table. Group and antique shops tend to get more. However, for the dealer at the bottle show, it's a trickle-up situation and the price has to be healthier, and it should be. For instance: Unbelievable as it may seem, with my mouth and wallet both agape, I bought an amberina LV1 for $10 at Ginny's Flea Market in Rowley MA. (Originally made from a large mold in Clevenger Bros. Possession back in the 1940's) On a dealers table at the bottle show this amberina ought to go for $100-$150., perhaps more. Amberinas are scarce and much sought after. And if I personally wanted one, I wouldn't hesitate to step right up and pay the piper. A few years ago I did... from a dealer for $75. Not a bad deal in retrospect. But take my advice, you're going to get real ancient waiting for another $10 deal like mine.

The flea market and yard sale hunt may be fun, which is hard to value, but the cost of gas, fallen arches, exhaustion and the value of one's time makes me believe that the flea market, yard sale, group shop and bottle show prices are running in a dead heat. In most cases the acquisition costs are just more obscure and sometimes unadmitted... depending on one's viewpoint. Then, of course, most collectors put a value on bragging rights no matter how many miles and hours it takes to find a bargain. And no one talks much about the disappointment of an empty creel after a day's fishing.

French Violin Bottles read: "Bottle Made in France" on base.

Finally, with rare exceptions, the viobots market, hasn't really been tested via the auction block. Maybe it is a little early to expect bottle dealers, investors, speculators and specialized collectors to show up in quantity looking for viobots at one of the auctions. I'm sure the sponsors would be willing to handle a consignment, but potential buyers might be reluctant to bid up on bottles about which they are unfamiliar. Dealers and auctioneers are, nevertheless, learning about viobots and a few are already “hip.” There is a feeling among some specialized viobot collectors that what dealers don't know won't hurt them for a while longer. Band spin, I think, since markets mature with exposure and education.

So again... is there a violin bottle market out there or just the perception of one? I think a big one has always existed for the home decorators and those who cater to them, and another more specific one is being uncovered and defined for some avid and hawk-eyed collectors. For the latter, an expanded buyer base and a greater ration of dealer acceptance may take longer to mature than did the discovery aspect. More education and palaver at bottle club meetings would be helpful. For instance, how many dealers know that there were eight different and distinct molds, seven BIMALS and one ABM, which made the popular large type viobot which they often have for sale. What determines the price tag? We need to notch up viobot awareness some and I think there is room on the bottle collecting totem for that. Patience.

The Kovel's latest bottle book only summarily describes viobots but it does list a dozen of them under figurals which is four times as many as was in their previous edition. The VBCA has been listed in their book under the bottle clubs. Nice. The Christensen's second book has 287 pages of pictures and prose where every conceivable viobot, go-with or look-alike seems to be covered. At least six VBCA are known to have collections numbering more than two hundred, all different viobots! They all stated with one bottle and two of these collectors have been “at it” for less than 5 years.

Something real is certainly stirring in the marketplace and Viobotters are coming forward justly proud of the diligent hunting effort which goes into their collection. Acquisition is pretty much a scavenging exercise which is perhaps just as much fun as digging for a grimy old brown jug in an ancient latrine. Keep in mind that very few violin shaped bottles have been made since the 1904's and many older ones are already genuine antiques. I think the bottle collecting interest can always afford to expand its' market acceptance dimensions especially for something that is no longer “just on the horizon.”

The author wrote “The Classification of Violin Shaped Bottles” for the National Bottle Museum. He is presently the President of the Danvers Historical Society, Danvers, formerly known as Salem Village, is the site of the witchcraft hysteria where several historic digs have yeilde3d major parts of bottles dating into the 1600's...

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