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RARE WINES FROM ARGENTINA

Because of their rarity I have long been thinking of writing an article on the
miniatures presented here. However, when possible, I like to write some history
related to the pieces of interest. Since I could not find any information about the
company that fabricated them it occurred to me to ask my friend Alfredo Spinelli if he
knew something about them. The answer was as immediate as surprising: He and
another collector, Mr. Francisco López made them!

Alfredo was one of the pioneers in the Argentine miniature bottles collecting.
However, at this point, I would like to tell a little about the history of our hobby in this
part of the world. It is fair to say that Mr. López was the person who gave the initial
kick for the beginning of collecting miniatures as a systematic and organized hobby
in Argentina. It is clear that because the finding of very old collections assembled
since the beginning of the 20th century, some people used to collect miniature
bottles, and for that reason from time to time, it is possible to find and know about
unexpected gems. However, Mr. López started to join people with the common
interest of collecting miniatures during the 1950’s.

By luck, as I had a
rare article written
about him by Mr.
Néstor M. Ferré, as
well as the stories
that Alfredo told
me, it is possible to
know a little about
Mr. López and his
role in the history of
the minis presented
in this article. The
story began when
he was the owner
of the “Almacén
Suizo,” a food store
located on Santa
Fe Ave. in one of
the most elegant
neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires city. There, besides selling many national and
imported alcoholic beverages, he also sold miniatures of many of them.
Coincidentally, he was an active philatelist and member of one of the associations
that collected stamps in Argentina. At the “Almacén Suizo,” many of his clients
bought miniature bottles to collect them. Also, with an active interest in buying and
exchanging miniatures, they began to have meetings with that aim in around
1954/1955. Finally, under the López initiative, they decided to form an organized
group. Hence, in 1956/57 they founded a club called "La Botellita". As seen in figure
2, on November 20th, 1957 the club was formed on the occasion of the presentation
of the first bottle exhibition organized in Argentina.

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