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Show Bottle collectors possess antique after antique ' 11 pj!$ jk . . j I By Jay Wamsley If you thought the only things glass was good for were drinking water out of and reading small print through you need to have a visit with Jean and Jack Funkhouser. The Parowan couple, transplanted tran-splanted from California about seven years ago, have found a different, perhaps more interesting in-teresting use for glass and bottles and jugs and jars: collecting them. Now, you've probably come across bottle collectors before and may not have been totally thrilled at looking at a handful of still dirty, ' purple bottles uncovered at the town dump. But bottle collecting is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the country and in the hands of professional collectors is quite fascinating. The Funkhousers collected a good deal of their bottles and glassware due to Mr. Funkhouser's former occupation-heavy equipment contractor. In the course of working over the land, the treasures were uncovered. But once the hobby got into their blood, the couple began attending at-tending "swap meets" and visiting pawn and antique shops to complete their collections. Uncovered most They estimate however, they ' found or uncovered the. bulk of their assortment, except for Mrs. Funkhouser's unique collection of nursing bottles. "She paid $25 for some of those bottles," Mr. Funkhouser said, pointing to a pre-1900 baby bottle, "and they are probably worth more than that now. You just don't see them now, at least not in a big collection." One of the old baby bottles has a place for a thermometer on the outsidea handy thing for turn-of-the-century mothers. Another was made with a "whittle mold"--a mold actually whittled out of wood. Most of her nursing bottles are of a strange, flat shape, which enabled the bottle to be set on the chest of the babe or sickly adult. A tube could also run from the bottle to a nipple any length away. Two small, perfectly shaped doll-baby bottles which would pre-date Barbie and Ken by 50 years are also in the possession of Mrs. Funkhouser. Bottles tell story Each of the old medicine bottles the couple has found tells a story. Just read them: "Dr. Pierce's tablets for kidneys and backaches." "Dr. Upjohn's phenolax wafers," "Dr. King's new life pills." "Mack the Medicine Man's tonic." "Mrs. GUESS AGAIN. Here is one of the many unique items in the collection of glassware owned by Jack Funkhouser. What could be any number of things is really a pickle caster, from the 1800 s. 1 1 v ' r n n y u I ! n P s In! t "t ' 1 , ' 'n 1 I - , Ii j I v 'V-l j FRENCH WINE. Surrounding a large, French wine bottle, used in shipping, are many of the various old bottles the Funkhousers have found. The small blue piece in the foreground is an overnight holder for a glass eye. Winslow's soothing syrup from the Anglo-American Drug Company." "Syrup for baby's teeth." And this jewel: "Milford Pharmacy E. F. Misch, Proprieter, Milford Utah." Or how about the poison bottle with serated edges to protect the blind? The Funkhousers also have a bottle which held Edison battery oil, complete with Thomas Edison's signature embossed in the glass and a bottle from the Salt Lake Soda Pop Company, probably about 1880. And plenty of hand-blown 1858 mason jars, which Mrs. Funkhouser still uses for storage of staples. But past the bottles are more collector's items. The Funkhousers have a heavy glass inkwell and pen holder they uncovered. "I plan to save it and give it to my son to sit on his desk when he is a lawyer," Mrs. Funkhouser said. "He's a senior in law school now." Functional Lamp Mrs. Funkhouser, a native of Newfoundland, also has a functional func-tional pre-1900 Queen Anne kerosene lamp, possibly used on board a ship. She also has a heavy wine decanter used to smuggle perfumes and wines into Newfoundland years ago. And a four foot high French wine bottle, used to ship liquor across the Atlantic. An 1871 mustard bottle, and 1880 pickle caster, two candle holders recovered from a 1930 shipwreck, 80 year old Bromo Seltzer bottlers and the list goes on and on. Parents of four, one of which is the w ife of actor James Coburn, the Funkhousers have also refinished old sideboards and iceboxes, as well as ow ning the organ from the Parowan 1st and 2nd Ward building. Needless to say, the Funkhousers themselves are a collector's dream. i ) |