FOHBC Show, Collinsville, 2007

It seems that there are two bottle clubs in the immediate area, one based in St. Louis, the other in Collinsville. The St Louis Antique Bottle Collectors Association, which has a reputation for being priggish and egotistical (sounds like a Brit!) was miffed that the National would embrace Collinsville rather than St Louis proper, and hence wanted nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, the Collinsville club claimed that the chosen date conflicted with a monthly flea market that many of the members sell at and attend. Sheesh, maybe we should have gone there instead!

The net result was that there was little or no local representation, an expanse of empty floor space, and no-one to help staff the show. The FOHBC usually relies heavily on local clubs for organization and man-power - but to their shame, neither club sent even one person to help. Grand Rapids may have a club with a small membership and their show was in an out-of-the way location, but to their great credit, they knew what they had to do and they ran a very smooth show.

To my mind, this is equivalent to the Olympic committee choosing St Louis as the site of the 2008 games, but the city officials saying - "nah, sorry, we don't want to help. We have a Little League softball game to attend that week". Shame on them. If I've got this totally ass-backward, I'm more than happy to print a rebuttal here as a part of the show report, but shame on you guys, shame on you both.

As the afternoon wore one and the chances of scoring glasses diminished, I slowed down and took stock. glugster had grabbed a minty Alter Bismark bitters glass from Steve Ketchum; Steve is based in MN but seems to attend all the major shows. I'd seen him bring out this glass a couple of times before out east and since I had one already, had just made a mental note of it in case someone should send in a request for one to the website. It's a superb glass and a steal for under $100 if in good condition. I'd also seen xxxtruk take a nice Red Top Rye text glass - another nice buy (and one I should have snatched up - I just realized I don't have it! Ed).

I was comparing notes with Paul Gronquist when I spotted lakerdude sitting on his own at one of the tables near the concessions, and dragged Paul him over to introduce them. Before long, Dick Bales and his wife Joanne

showed up, then Clint, Romney, the rbra72 team and xxxtruk.

I think Arky Joe probably took home the best of the show: a classic Fuldner (WI) from Paul Van Vactor's table, a glass that epitomizes the raw talent of pre-Prohibition artisans, a rare mint text glass from IL, a pristine purple tonic from Jamestown, NY, and a pre-pro glass from Billings, Montana.

How many MT glasses do YOU have in your collection?! Doesn't get any better than that!

Clint has to be runner up in the spoils competition, not for glass, but for a tray. Clint collects decoys and duck-hunting memorabilia. The best known shot glasses featuring ducks are from Chas. Whittenberg & Co. of St. Louis: I know of three variants and there may be others.

One of the vendors at the show had an oval whiskey tray from the same company, the first time I'd seen one for sale. It was a little pricey and the dealer wouldn't budge given its rarity, but after much deliberation, Clint ultimately took it home with him. Very nice Clint, very nice.

The hour was getting late and I remembered Paul Van Vactor had mysteriously asked that I stop back at his table before the show closed at 5 pm, so I made my excuses and headed back into the sales area.