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KNOW YOUR FELLOW COLLECTOR

Hi, I am Wayne and I live in Cheektowaga, New York. I started collecting miniature liquor bottles in
1977, when a friend gave me four Rutherford & Co. “Spirit of Scotland” ceramic books as a thank you
for helping him build a garden tool shed. After that I collected a few bottles, but nothing serious. A
year or two later my wife and son gave me over a hundred bottles for Christmas and that got the
juices flowing.

After talking about it for some time, my son and I, along with two other collectors went to a Midwest
Bottle Club show in Chicago. I came home with enough bottles to fill half a pool table. I was hooked!
My collection has grown from those four bottles that a friend gave me to approximately 4300 bottles.

Miniature liquor bottle collecting has allowed me to make a lot of friends across this country, Canada
and several other countries, most of whom I would never have known if it wasn’t for bottle collecting.
Since becoming hooked, I have been to most of the bottle shows held by MMBC in Chicago and now
in St. Louis and also by the Del-Val Club (now disbanded) in Skippack and Philadelphia. I helped to
start WESTNY (now disbanded) and played a part in organizing the two bottle shows that we held.

To keep track of my bottles, I have been forced to improve my computer and photography skills. I
have developed a series of spreadsheets to keep my bottles organized, and to keep me from buying
duplicates, and a photo file containing a separate picture of each bottle. Many of the pictures include
not only the front of the bottle, but the back, and the box or tube that the bottle came in.

As all of my bottles are on display, I have had to build display cases to house them, thus improving
my carpentry skills.

My collection includes Blended Whiskies, both Rye and Bourbon Whiskies, Canadian Whiskies,
foreign whiskies, Scotch and Malt Scotch, Icewine, Tequilas, Calvados, Cognac, Cream Liquor, Gin,
Rum, Vodka, Sloe Gin, Liquors and some figurals. I still add to most of the categories, but mostly
concentrate on whiskies, Vodkas and Tequilas. My blown glass bottles are the bottles in my
collection that I treasure the most .

To me miniature bottle collecting is more than a hobby, it encompasses computer skills, photography,
and personal relationships. When I travel it adds to the trip because of the thrill of the hunt for new
bottles at each destination. Miniature bottle collecting to me is a passion. I go out of my way to follow
this passion. An example of my passion is a trip I took to Mount Vernon, Virginia to buy a bottle that
is only sold there. That trip was almost a 900 miles, but I bought 17 of those bottles, 16 of which went
to fellow collectors.

Wayne Full

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