Select highlights from the David P. Wilber and Anthony Gugliotti Barber Bottle Collections
FOHBC Houston 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition
The items assembled in this book include the Dave Wilber collection, the Anthony Gugliotti collection, and others purchased separately by the collection’s owner. The Wilber collection is massive, with over 1,000 pieces, and contains some excellent pieces sold at auction 15 to 30 years ago. The Gugliotti collection includes hundreds of items and many rare shaving paper vases. Many pieces from this vast group of bottles, shaving paper vases, and other related glass pieces are included in the book. While many are rare, there are also some excellent examples that the average collector can expect to acquire. Many plates in the book are paired, showing a bottle with a matching shaving paper vase or bowl. In other cases, a range of colors and shapes of a given bottle are depicted. Quite a few items included in this book were pictured in barber supply catalogs from as early as 1882 to as late as 1915. Others can be found in photographs of barber shops from that same time period. Although there is no conclusive proof, other bottles that have always been considered barber bottles have been included. Still, others have been included if it was thought that they were barber bottles or could have been used for that purpose. We hope this book inspires people to collect these beautiful hand-crafted, hand-painted glass objects from a bygone era. Others may simply enjoy seeing the beautiful forms, colors, and decorations. – Ed Gray
The corresponding David P. Wilber and Anthony Gugliotti Barber Bottle Collections ehibition hard-bound book is 308 pages with 238 specimen explorations in full color. Book signing and sales at the exhibition opening from 1:00 to 6:00 pm, 01 August 2024 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Hall. Book sales will also occur throughout Houston 24 at the FOHBC tables at Hotel ZaZa and online afterward.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.