Local Legend: Bottle obsessive’s redeeming features

Andrew Mathieson
COLLECTOR David Smith’s wife should be bottled.
And after 33 years, this Mrs Smith is for keeps.
The patient soul can be excused for coming a distant second to her husband’s wacky 33-year glass obsession that has taken hold of their lives.
“I plan my holidays around bottle shows, basically – either buying, selling or exhibiting,” David says.
“There was one in Perth in July last year and I had my two weeks holiday at the same time as the national bottle show there.”
His wife, Hany, tags along on such trips with an air of trepidation.
And for good reason because collecting bottles takes precedence over teaspoons or snow globes from favourite holiday spots.
“When we’re away for a couple of weeks in Perth, she came three or four days later after the bottle show finished and then we had the rest of the holiday together,” David adds.
“We had a campervan full of bottles that we ended up posting home. I think I got 14 boxes of them.”
More than three decades ago David found his first relic in a Cairns collectables shop. A miniature bottle caught his eye during an extended honeymoon around Australia.
David, full of wit, then quickly clarifies: “Wife number one was 33 years ago and wife number three knew when we met that I was a serious collector so I made that very clear.”
Fossicking for old glass bottles was little more than a passing interest – something that was stacked away in a dusty box or just looked nice on the mantle.
Then a turning point or two in David’s life changed everything.
“Probably it comes down to a divorce, a painful separation, getting more active as a bachelor, I suppose, and I had more disposable income,” he recalls.
“Bottle collecting also became a serious hobby because I had to give up motorcycle riding and trials – I was getting too old for that.”
Turning up for every bottle and collectables show listed then became a must.
Shifting dirt, as bottle collectors say, to uncover hidden treasurers was only hindered by an ageing back.
Now more than 3000 rare bottles and other chunks of glass fill his Belmont home.
The 55-year-old counts 2000 different 1960s ceramic-label soft drink bottles that are neatly shelved in one custom-designed room alone.
“When I bought the property, as soon as I saw that room, I knew what I was going to put in there,” David smiles.
“My wife and I like to sit in there with a dry biscuit and cheese and a glass of wine because it has very good feng shui, good karma in the room.
“I’m planning an extension and renovation that we want to do because a lot of my fruit jars are still in boxes.”
Many of the fruit jars in his possession are circa 1920, a period that pre-dates refrigeration when not only fruit, but also vegetables and even meat had to be presevered during hard times.
The Geelong Bottles and Collectables club president’s greatest joy comes from bringing a bottle back to proverbial life.
One was uncovered from a Geelong company that sold spirits in a strict 1800s Temperance Church that built the temple from the proceeds.
“So we regard ourselves as the keepers of history,” he proclaims.
“We do as much research as we want, but it’s the curiosity value and the beauty of them and the fact that a lot of them are handmade, not machine made with a lot of craftsmanship in them.”
Spending ten of thousands of dollars on these artefacts has been about breaking a mental barrier.
David at first shunned a $1500 price tag for a historic Geelong bottle.
One of only 10 in circulation, he later smiled when the rare collectable sold for double.
So paying $600 for a one-off skittle bottle proved “priceless”.
“I’ve spent too much – put it this way, it’s now a good super fund,” David chuckles.