Things You'll Need
Instructions
Organize your bottles by category. According to Reggie Lynch, director of the Antique Bottle Collector̵7;s Haven, collectors recognize nearly 60 different antique bottle categories. These categories range from antique apothecary jars to antique whiskey bottles.
Display your antique glass bottle collection on shelves according to manufacturer or country of origin. Many manufacturers stamped their names or locations on bottles, flasks and other glass containers made prior to 1910. Consult an antique bottle guidebook if you have an antique bottle and are not sure of its manufacturer.
Arrange your antique bottles by color or function. Color often specified a bottle̵7;s contents in the past. Clear and light-colored bottles often contained fruits and foods. Black glass--which appeared black but was really very dark green or very dark brown--often indicated poisons. Buyers of bitters in the 19th century learned to look for amber glass bottles. Glassmakers also produced large quantities of aqua, cobalt blue, ruby red and purple glass.
Highlight any antique bottles that qualify as scarce or rare. Bottle collectors define rare by the number of a certain type or color of bottle on the market, not by how many were produced. Rare antique bottles, such as the glass target balls produced between 1850 and 1880, can fetch thousands of dollars at auction.
Organize your antique glass bottles by shape or style. Antique barber bottles that contained rosewater, hair tonic or shampoo, for instance, offer many distinctive shapes because the barber often had to identify the contents based on bottle shape.