 At 9:20am on Sunday April 19th 2009 several hundred people enjoyed the beautfiul weather outside the gymnasium at 250 Humber College Blvd in Rexdale, Ontario to see and marvel at all the beautiful glass for sale inside at the 16th annual Toronto Bottle Show.
An indoor attraction, the Four Season’s Bottle Collector’s Club Show and Sale had to compete with the first warm sunny weekend of spring, and I’d say the bottle show won, as attendance was up 12% this year and there were a lot of new faces in the crowd. The line-up ran clear down the hallway through the doors and out onto the sidewalk, where it snaked east down the length of the building.
 As the official Dumpdiggers blogger, I endeavour to document the people that make this show the best in Canada. This report will detail 24 pictures of the event, and try to identify and describe the characters that make this occasion so remarkable. And so first here's a picture of me, Rob Campbell. This is what I looked like as I sat with so many of the dealers and tried to determine who they are as people, and what they have that defines them as collectors, and perhaps glean more insight into the bottle collecting bug that has infected their souls...
Robin Newton-Smith scrutinizes something that belongs to Jamie McDougall. The moustached man collects early glass of all makes and models, and by that he means 1840’s glass bottles – mostly from England and some American glass. He likes really early stuff, and I'm sure he's an expert on glassmaking and all early Canadian factory bottles. I was impressed by Robin's witty banter all through the day; he's a very charismatic fellow.
Here's a picture of Malcom Mcleod (on right) in conversation with a relaxed collector at his table. In the foreground note a loose assembly of Canadian and some English stoneware ginger beers. These are almost all dug relics, and medium value ($50 -$250) items. This is what he put out for public comsumption after his rare and original material was gobbled up by the other dealers last night. Read about that here. Malcom and Newf are dumpdiggers and that's what makes them special.
Micheal Anders of Sins and Tins collects and sells tin cans of every description. He's got those tiny Anacin aspirin cases (those cute thumb-sized containers that secured only four pills), and larger more elaborated decorated hat boxes, and of course cookie and coffee tins; his business card reads ‘specializing in period tobacco and liquor / beer nostalgia and advertising tins.’ You can contact Michael at sinsandtins AT rogers DOT com.
When I asked Michael Anders about the future of his tins as collectibles, he responded with an original thought on the state of antiques collecting in general, and described the collecting bug to be like a sine wave that runs through the entire human population, with peaks and valleys corresponding to economic and cultural motifs. According to Michael Anders, Canadian collecting is experiencing a peak right now and trending downward. Do you agree?
Dwight Fryer had the most colorful bottles on display at the Toronto Bottle Show, and his table is the one that I believe would most benefit from new faces – especially new female collectors. It’s a fact women love poisons and that’s what Dwight sells. He has local poisons, which are rare and some interesting bottles from Toronto dentist and druggists. Personally I love poisons too, and I was actually quite surprised to see how cheap these bottles sell for on Dwight’s table. If I had a few thousand dollars I'd come and buy all of them He's the poison king and we haggled over a giant cobalt blue poison bottle that was manufactured in the 1860s for the British navy. I want it, but can't afford $350 dollars. Dwight has two of them, and I'll bet he's keeping the best speciman.
Kert Wrigley is one of the youngest collectors at 34 years old. He absolutely loves cod stopper bottles or cods as they're called. They're an unusual looking bottle with a motled top in which a marble was once held in place by the carbonation of the beverage as a means of closure. Kert dominated this category of bottle at the show and served as inspiration to many other diggers and collectors eager to know more about the prices and availablity of this unique breed of bottles. Kert has been collecting cods for ten years, buying online and at auctions and markets with his old University pal Jamie McDougall, the current president of the Four Seasons Bottle Club. They were both educated in archeology at Sir Wilfred Laurier and Kert now lives and scours Peterborough Ontario.
Bob Hayward is from Bowmanville. He collects Oshawa Dairy items and by that he means milk bottles that have been silk-screened or embossed with the word Oshawa, or businesses that were located in Oshawa (and Bowmanville). That’s a focused personal collection, and you can believe he’s probably the world’s foremost collector of that very specific category. But yet even he doesn’t have everything – Bob seeks a yellow silk screened Maple Groove Dairy quart bottle that has eluded him for years. He knows it exists, and was made for only a few years by a start-up Oshawa dairy in the 1950s that may have lasted to the 1960s, but there is precious little evidence of this bottle today… Do you have this rare dairy bottle?
 Terry Matz of Bluevale Ontario is the club’s resident torpedo bottle expert and runs TorpedoBottle.com He collects torpedo bottles of course, and sodas, and specializes in coloured, pontilled and Canada West (C.W.) glass and stoneware – he’s been accompanied at the Toronto Bottle Show by his daughter since she was a very young, and she still tags along now as a teenager, but wasn’t keen to share a photo with her father. Terry’s torpedo bottles are very early creations – they mostly products of the 1850s and the best piece on Terry’s table, on display atop a foam cushion under glass, was a light cobalt blue Pilgrim Co. Hamilton CW torpedo. The C.W. stands for Canada West and Canadian bottle collectors are expected to know that means the bottle was manufactured and sold before Canadian Confederation in 1867. Terry loves this bottle and admits that he would have a hard time selling it for any price. He bought it thirty years ago for good money and says to me that he would let it go for $5000 and that it would be probably be one of the best investments anyone could make. Are you interested in owning something like this or do you have a question for Terry Matz. He can be contacted electronically at: sodapach AT scsinternet DOT com.
 Grahame Hudson is a fruit jar collector from Stouffville, Ontario. He has been collecting fruit sealers for twelve years and got started as an employee at Sheraton Nurseries… I’m not sure exactly what connection his hobby has to that business, but its somehow linked to how and why Grahame caught the bottle bug and grew his collection. A resident of Unionville, Mr Hudson prizes his canning jars above all others. When I asked if he had a left facing beaver, he remarked that he didn’t have one and he hasn’t even seen one at the show today. They are very rare. Grahame did have lots of fine right facing beaver quarts and a lovely amber beaver jar for which he was asking two thousand dollars.
 Ron DeMoor showed me his peacock blue F.Proderick man.r. Ottawa soda bottle. He’s asking $2000 for it and if I had the money I’d buy it as an investment. Its an exciting colour and a very beautiful piece of history. Ron taught me by comparison that ‘egg shaped’ torpedos are generally North American in origin, while the more pointed torpedo bottles tend to be of English manufacture. Beside his soda bottle shrine, I noticed some  unusual coloured fruit sealers. When I asked if perhaps they'd been irradiated, Ron replied that he sincerely believes the plum coloured jar is a factory original, and if anything it faded over time, rather than gained in colour. Here’s his ‘plum coloured’ fruit sealer on the left, as compared to sun coloured amnythest in center that he’s personally stored in sunlight for years – can you spot the difference?
 Abel daSilva stationed his wife June behind thrity years of treasure and then orbited about the bottle show buying and selling, and making three way trades. He’s a true wheeler and dealer and likes to talk about bottles and share his knowledge with anyone and everyone he engages. Abel is still buying industrial art and advertisements and he’s been selling early Canadian glass bottles and ginger beers on eBay for almost ten years.
 Wendy and Marlow Morris are Canadian Bottle Lovers.
They are easy going people who walked around most of that day, leaving their table unattended. Wendy and Marlow have a historic farm house near Arthur Ontario and were relating stories about their pet cat and the damage it did in their bottle room. The anecdote made me wonder how much a family could love their cat. Wendy is charm and she was grinning with amusement as she related the story of how she caught the bottle bug almost twenty years ago while exploring dead end roads and backwoods areas with Marlow. In one of their sorties they uncovered a cottage dump and found Vicks Vaporub cobalt blue jars and silk screened sodas on the surface, and then lots of older medicines and embossed bottles just under the soil. They were hooked, and their hobby has grown stronger with their marriage. And they still go antiquing on every vacation or car trip up highway 11. Marlow told me that he’s selling his druggist bottles, but still hunting patent medicine and rare Ontario sodas.
 Mark Wilson shared a table with John Goodyer of Atticmint.com Mark is a diver from Peterborough and when I asked him which bottle on his table he’d most like to pose with, he picked up a J B Begg bottle from Lindsay Ontario for which he’s asking $250 dollars. The price is defined by rarity and colour. There was an older Begg bottle right beside this speciman, but it was not as pretty, and consequently less valuable at $200. Mark collects sodas and crocks and keeps an eye on eBay for Lindsay, Peterborough, Bracebridge, Omemee, and even Hastings, Ontario bottles.
Roger and Carol Warren still have they English accent they brought to Canada in the 1960s. Roger is a real estate agent and can be contacted at anytime through his website RogerWarren.com
 Fred Spoelstra is the king of Canadian silkscreen soda pops. He's a real showman, and has by far the most bottles on display. Fred is the respected author of several well researched articles of dairys, pop bottlers and Canadian glass factories. I remember reading his articles in the Canadian Bottle and Stoneware Collector, many years ago.
When I asked Fred is there was any message he'd like to communicate to my readers silently raised a white piece of paper on which he had drawn this message:
Fred started collecting bottles as an eight year old in 1956. He walked or rode a bicycle along dirt roads gathering up discarded pop and beer bottles for a two cent deposit. Some of these bottles were too old to be returned, and they became the foundation of his bottle collection. He still has some of them today.
Norm Playter operates Norjac Antiques and Crafts in Owen Sound. He loves crockery but his business card advertises nostalgia, memorabilia, brewerania, service station collectibles and furniture.
And because he's been in business since1974, he knows a lot of people. "The web helps collectors, but can hurt dealers" he told me, "especially dealers caught with stuff they'd paid too much for." And Norm explained how the antiques market works in cycles, and the cycle of supply and demand is a little different in each category. When three or four young collectors start buying and bidding against each other there's a market, and when they move along and their collections get dumped in consignment booths the prices fall.
 When I asked Norm Playter which piece he’d most like to pose with, he picked up a lovely N. Eberhart Toronto C.W. 3 gallon jug. This is an $850 dollar piece of salt glazed stoneware that'ld be a jewel in just about any Ontario pottery collection .
Jason Pfeffer grew up on a farm and as a boy he watched his mother preserve fruit in beautiful glass jars. As time passed Jason began buying more and more attractive fruit sealers to compliment his mother's stock, and this hoard eventually became his collection. Jason is still buying, but now focuses exclusively on amber and rare colours, and rare makes and models. Jason despises irradiated glass and he has a good story about being stuck with some suspicious glass as a novice collector.
The jewel on his table was a good condition 1890’s beer bottle from the Lion Brewery (which is still in business in Waterloo Ontario?) which has a complete lightning closure mechanism on top. It's rare quart aqua beer bottle that he bought at auction in the town of Waterloo five years ago. The bottle was selling for $1100.
 Marcus Johnson works for the City of Toronto, but unfortunatelty not in any capacity that would allow him to probe contrustion sites, or dig under sidewalks... not yet anyway.
Marcus collects bottles from outside of Toronto and focuses specifically on towns situated along Georgian Bay. He likes this suff because it looks good in this cottage, which is as you might have expected, is on Georgian bay.
Marcus stirred up a lot of attention at the show by debuting a fine ¼ gallon jug that was stamped Quetton St George & Co. This gem, and another piece of attractive early redware had many dealers milling around his table at the top of the day.
 When I asked Marcus how he got started, he related stories about dump digging excursions that were deliberate treasure hunting exercises in which his whole family particpated. When Marcus was just three years old, his mother and father would hunt and excavate farm dumps in New Brunswick. He remembers a particularly productive dump on the back of an abandon farm house in which he unearthed a Gurd’s ginger beer bottle which is still one of the jewels of his collection, now on display in his cottage.
While I watched, he conversed with Malcom to work out the details of another matually satisfying , but complicated, three way trade.
Jean Marc Helie of Antique Quebec Medicine Bottles is only 24 years old and that makes him the youngest dealer at this year’s 2009 bottle show. He's seen here holding a Dr Gray's Syrup of Pine Tar and standing beside Frederic Hartl, another bottle collector and digger from Quebec.
Jean Marc grew up in Gatineau Quebec with a geologist father that took him along during long car trips away from home, prospecting old mine sites looking for lost mineral oppportunities – Jean Marc became an expert in finding camp dumps and unearthing the bottles. After meeting and learning more secrets from Scott Jordan, Jean Marc turned professional, and focused exclusively on Quebec medicines. It's safe to say he's now something of an expert in this category.
 Scott Jordan has a PhD in toxicology and works at a desk job in Ottawa. He is one of the brains behind the ByTown Bottle Seekers Club and an all around nice guy. Scott collects pre confederation Canadian medicines and all manner of early pottery.
Bytown Bottle Seekers Club of Ottawa is holding their 36th Annual Event on Sunday April 26th at 1701 Woodroffe Ave. Admission is $5.
Paul Marchand is a distant relative of the legendary Pilgrim mineral water bottlers and is therefore genealogically obligated to collect all remnants of their bottling business. Consequently Paul has every Pilgrim Bros bottle variation known to man and is now buying up the wooden crates in which the bottles were originally shipped.
 Scott Wallace of Maple Leaf Auctions has been collecting, dealing and auctioning a wide range of Canadian antiques for over 20 years, including: stoneware and redware, decoys, tins, advertising, lighting, clocks and furniture. In 2002, Scott and Phil Culhane co-authored two books on Canadian bottles: Transfer Printed Ginger Beers of Canada and Primitive Stoneware Bottles of Canada.
Lastly, there were other attractions at the Toronto Bottle Show, not the least of which was this lovely display of restaurant creamers. 
The end.
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