Mini Liquor Bottles

John Lewis started collecting miniature liquor bottles in the 1970’s when the airlines would hand them out the way they hand out stale pretzels today.  The collecting got fast and furious when John and his wife Jean retired in Alaska in the mid 80’s. Their first winter in Alaska taught them they did not want to spend winters in Alaska, so they began to travel the world collecting bottles along the way.

Their travels took them to every continent. The collection accumulated at a breakneck pace in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s. Collecting bottles dominated their vacations and luggage would break under the weight of new acquisitions. John stopped collecting after the turn of the century when manufacturers converted from glass to plastic. Plastic just seemed cheap.

The collection celebrates the boom in global vacation travel.  Around 2000 when John and Jean left Alaska for a retirement community in Pennsylvania the collection was boxed and stored in a cool basement.  Jean pressed John to do something with the massive collection and repeatedly threatened to make a large punch out of it. Push came to shove in 2009 when they moved to smaller quarters. Patrick, one of their two sons, packed up the collection and took it to Florida where it has been stored in various closets, away from Jean and her threats to make a punch. Five years later Cindi, Patrick’s wife, has threatened to make a punch out of the collection. Fortunately, Patrick has some friends that do websites. They unpacked the bottles, photographed and categorized the collection. The result is John and the world can see this amazing collection.