# Need a Show To Display At



## Bixby Bill (Jan 4, 2010)

I`ve been collecting Bixby bottles and items for 33 years now and have quite a collection. I`ve displayed at our local show, Somers CT Antique Bottle Club in Enfield, CT in late Feb. and I will be again this year, but I`m looking for another show or two to display them at in the Northeast somewhere. I want to share them with more than just the Southern New England crowd, does anyone out there who`s involved with their club`s show like to have another display? I hate having all these bottles and not being able to share them with more people. I`ve included a picture of some of my collection to give an idea of what I have.


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## Ohio Rob (Jan 4, 2010)

WOW!  You can come and display in Ohio anytime.  I knew Bixby's came in a number of colors, but not that many.  A couple weeks ago there was a thread on which bottle has the most variations -after seeing this: Bixby officially gets my vote.  I probably won't ever get far enough North to see them - Could you post a few close ups of  some of the rarer ones?  I 've noticed that most colored ones have the square bottom.  Is the square bottom newer?  I dug an apple green one about 30 years ago and was hooked ever since.


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## GuntherHess (Jan 4, 2010)

Do you happen to know this guy ? 
 http://www.mentalfloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/425_Martian.jpg


 nice collection. do you just colelct the bottles or the go-withs too?


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## cyberdigger (Jan 4, 2010)

That's a beautiful, impressive display, Bill !!! WOW!!!


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 4, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments, when I`m surrounded by collectors of flasks and colored pontilled medicines, my humble Bixbys don`t always get a lot of attention! I collect anything Bixby, bottles, advertising, and go withs. If it`s Bixby, I like it. I have about 300 pieces in all, all different in one way or another, and that is counting everything, not just bottles. It`s amazing the variety of colors that these things come in, I`ll see if I can put a few pictures in the bottle chat section sometime soon. One thing I want to do is start making a master list of everything that Bixby had, including every color variant, later this month. The squared bottles were the last style to have the patent date on them, before them they were round with the date in an arch, then a tall variant of that, and the first style only had Patent Applied For on the base. I`ve included a picture of a rare style that came right after he got his patent and used the Patent Applied For bottle mold and crudely cut the patent date on the side. I have that one in aqua, apple green, and clear. I`ve seen mention on the web that Bixby used the same bottles for ink and shoe polish, depending on what label was used, which is totally wrong. Bixby had their own bottles for ink, the bulbous shoulder ones were strictly shoe polish. I`ll get some things posted on the bottle chat section soon, see you there!


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## GuntherHess (Jan 4, 2010)

So any idea if the BIXBY'S DEATH TO PAIN bottles are related?


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## Staunton Dan (Jan 4, 2010)

I figured that this might be a good time to post a few of the Bixby bottles that I have found recently. Here's a couple of different colors and sizes. Both have the patent date in an arch on the front with Bixby embossed on the bottom.


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## Staunton Dan (Jan 4, 2010)

Here's 3 aquas, all different sizes. I thought that the cone was a Carter's or something but it is embossed Bixby on the bottom. The one on the left has the typical patent date in an arch on the front with Bixby embossed on the bottom. The center one is different all together and is shown in the next post.


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## Staunton Dan (Jan 4, 2010)

This may be one of the earliest of the Bixbys in that it doesn't have a date enbossed on the outside front or back but the bottom is embossed "Bixby Patent Applied For" That's my favorite.


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## bottlechaser62 (Jan 5, 2010)

very nice collection!! The apple greens and the honey ambers are very cool. Could you provide a close up of the top two shelves of bixby's??? There is one apple green that looks like it has embossing on the front of it.

 Thanks


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

I doubt it, unless keeping your shoes shiny makes your pain go away!


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Those are a few nice Bixbys that you have! The short amber one is almost always found in very dark amber, yours is nice and light, and the citron colred one is awfully pretty too. The ones with the Patent Applied For on the base are the older ones, before he was approved for his patent, so they date to the early 1880`s. Here`s a picture of the ones I have of that style. They are getting to be a little tough to find.


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Here`s a picture of the apple green one, along with a couple others of that style. I find that the more unusual green colors are some of the most difficult to find, after the cobalt one, that is!


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Here`s the other ones I have like that .


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## Staunton Dan (Jan 5, 2010)

Bill, I didn't see a cone ink like this one in your display. Can you comment on it?


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## ajohn (Jan 5, 2010)

Bill, all I can say is WOW!


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Dan, I hate to take up all the space here with my pictures, but you guys don`t seem to mind! Here`s a picture of my inks, although yours could have been their glue bottle because it has a sheared lip for the sponge applicator to fit on. All my labelled cones with a round lip have ink labels, while all the sheared lip and a couple of the round lips have the mucilage labels.


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

I gathered some of my nicer colors together for a group shot for you.


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## bottlechaser62 (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks for sharing. I had no idea that Bixby had so many different shapes and colors of glass.


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## Staunton Dan (Jan 5, 2010)

Don't mind the pics at all. They're great. Thanks for this thread. Very enlightening. Don't know if you want to come this far South but we have a nice bottle show in Harrisonburg, VA at the end of April. There are several displays and yours would be a real hit. Also there is a great show in Richmond, VA usually around the 1st week in October. I'm sure that you would be welcome at either show. Here is an ink display at the Richmond show this past October that won 1st place.


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

That`s quite an ink display! I wouldn`t mind going farther down south to display but my old pickup may have other ideas. I`m hoping to get some new wheels this winter or spring, so you just may see me there this year or the next!


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## annie44 (Jan 5, 2010)

Bill,
 Thanks for sharing the photos of your collection.  Very impressive - I love color groupings and you have an amazing array of colors there!  

 Cindy (aka Annie44)


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks, Cindy. When I first started collecting them so many years ago I had no idea the scope of what I was getting into, but I like them because there is so much and they are cheaper than a lot of the other bottles I used to collect.


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## PrivyCheese (Jan 5, 2010)

Bill,  Please consider comming to the Baltimore show. Its one of the largest if not the largest local bottle show in the country. Might be a drive for you, but think your collection is really nice. We would love to have you.


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## Ohio Rob (Jan 5, 2010)

Bill - The Mansfield, Ohio show is in May.  I am amazed at all the colors.  Are there any rare or unusual base marks to look for?  Here is my first dug Bixby.


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## Ohio Rob (Jan 5, 2010)

Last question.  Here is a Bixby with "20" embossed on the side under the patent date.  Do you come across these very often?  It's the only one I have like it.  Thanks again for showing some of your collection.  Keep posting and I'll keep looking.


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 5, 2010)

Hi Rob, one of my very first colored Bixbys was also a citron one like you dug, it`s still one of my favorites. I have a series of the side numbered bottles like you pictured, I`m trying to get every number they had. So far I have 19 different ones between 2 and 34. Those are also the only Bixbys that have the whole name S. M. Bixby & Co. spelled out on the base. If it doesn`t have the number on the side, it will only say Bixby on the bottom. I have no idea why they did this, as several different molds were used to do that, it wasn`t just one mold that they changed or the same base mold either. That`s one of those things that makes it interesting!


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## Dabeel (Jan 6, 2010)

Ellington, Ct to Baltimore, MD

 5 hrs 59 min and 324 miles

 That's not too far for an old pickup......Go for it Bill.........Great Collection!

 Doug


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## Bixby Bill (Jan 6, 2010)

Hi Doug, a few of my friends set up at your show and they`ve been telling me to display at your show, so I emailed the contact on your website. He told me that this year the displays are already lined up, but to try again next year. Next year is fine with me, I`ll still try to get down there to shop around anyway. I`ve never been to it and it looks like fun!


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