Glass Bottle Inventory - Completed!

By Doreen Mitchell - Volunteer

Doreen Mitchell, volunteer at the museum for a number of years, is very happy today - she has completed inventorying an entire glass bottle collection!! This bottle collection contains a few hundreds of bottles, in all different shapes, sizes and colours. Over the past few months, Doreen has identified and recorded every single bottle, giving us a complete inventory: a very useful document that will allow us to work with the collection. 

A few bottles especially stood out to Doreen from the rest. The first two, are miniature perfume bottles. These are also called scent bottles or vials. The one with the label still intact, is a 1/2 ounce bottle of "Corsage" manufactured by the Lander Company. The Lander Co. was established by Charles Oestrich at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York, in 1920. They produced a range of cosmetics, perfumes, and toiletries with a variety of scents. From the 1930's to the 1950's, the affordable Lander perfumes were found in most "5 & 10" dime stores and were extremely popular. 

Another bottle that peeked Doreen's interest, is a tall black, iridescent bottle. Along with seven other bottles of this type, it was found at Scuttle Bay, by Simon Fraser University students, during an archaeological dig. This bottle is a corkscrew type and it is very likely that is was a wine bottle. 

Doreen will be taking a break from museum work in February, but later coming back to help with another inventory that is even larger than this bottle collection - and a little heavier.... the Golden Stanley Library inventory!