Some of Our Members

Steve Mueller

Steve Mueller

My name is Steve Mueller from Juneau Wisconsin. I have been collecting bottles from Dodge county cities for over 40 years. I have a large collection of Beers, Sodas, medicines, back bar bottles, and milk bottles. Along with the bottles I collect all early advertising from these towns to include cigar, store, breweries, dairies, soda works etc. Items include bottles, wooden cases, trays, signs, glasses, photos, ect. As time goes on I find myself looking for items from the late 1800's and early 1900's. Items included in my search are from Beaver Dam, Lomira, Theresa, Mayville, Horicon, Hustisford, Watertown, Waupun, Randolph Watertown, and all other small Dodge county towns. A few items I am still in search of include a Wm. Darge blob beer from Mayville - Neitzel hutchinson from Mayville - Snyder Ginsing seltzer bottle from Horicon - Peter Seifert blob beer bottle from Waupun - All Barwig bottles from the Barwig distillery Mayville. (920) 386-2997. stmueller@yahoo.com
Author: Peter Maas
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Jim Koutsoures

Jim Koutsoures

I have been diving for bottles and other artifacts in rivers and lakes Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin for over 38 years.   Email Jim

Author: Peter Maas
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Linda Hoffman

Linda Hoffman

I started research about my grandmother Ruth in 1998. During this time, I hunted for Miller High Life Girl in the Moon collectibles at estate sales, flea markets and other thrift sales. See photo of me next to my Miller Girl exhibit at the National Brewery Museum, Potosi, Wisconsin. (Located on second floor in NE corner of building) I am published in the American Breweriana Journal issues #182 Proof of Ruth March/April 2013 and #189 Proof of Tom May/June 2014.There are more articles coming soon.
My husband Brian started collecting and selling beer cans in the 1970’s and was a member of the Beer Can Collectors of America. He has over 800 cans still. Email Linda
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Al Kohlman

Al Kohlman

When first starting to collect stoneware, it was with Red Wing some 30 years past and it was the zinc glazed pieced I adored. I loved that creamy white glaze, great sheen and perfect stenciling. While all the seasoned collectors were screaming salt glaze, I thought they were in early stages of dementia. So I was taking advantages of those under privileged collectors and began trading and selling my salt glazed finds for those perfect zinc pieces they had in their collections.
After 10 years of collecting those unspoiled zinc glazed pieces, I began to drift ever so slowly to those early primitive salt glazed pieces. It was not long after that my love of salt glazed began to change and I commenced to appreciate those primitive pieces of stoneware and the potters that fabricated them.
In my early years of collecting, those seasoned salt glazed collectors came after me like maggots on decaying meat. They invited me to their homes to exhibit their zinc glazed pieces they had to trade or sell and while there I viewed their collections. A few of these Wisconsin Red Wing salt glaze collectors also collected Wisconsin Stoneware along with Red Wing. I remember saying to myself “Red Wing salt glaze is quite crude, but this Wisconsin stoneware should be buried and never seen again”.
Well as I started to shift my Red Wing zinc glaze to salt glaze, it was not long before I began to appreciate those hand drawn decorations and how primitive some of these pieces were, yet still attractive to view. As my salt glaze collection began to grown so did my desire for these pieces to become even more primitive. I think it was at that time when the mule kicked and those buried never to be seen Wisconsin stoneware piece began to emerge.
In or around 2002, I began to gather all the information I could find on Wisconsin Stoneware. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. It was the short production period, glazes, history and rarity that fired the furnace inside me. After finding a few nice pieces of decorated and signed Wisconsin Stoneware pieces I was extremely impressed on how well they displayed along side my Red Wing salt glaze pieces.

It has now been10 years that I have been collecting Wisconsin stoneware along side of Red Wing and I have loved each and every find I have found, fought for, threaten to behead and held ransom to achieve. My interest is decorated & signed Wisconsin Stoneware (along with nicely decorated Red Wing salt glaze) which may hold a different decoration than I have in my collection.

I am currently interested in securing a L. J. Farwell piece along with a 2 or 3 gallon Oakton Springs Water jug. Email Al



Author: Al Kohlman
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Sid Hatch

Sid Hatch

I have been collecting bottles since 1976 and have been a member of the Milwaukee Antique Bottle and Advertising since 1977. I am currently the President of the MABA and throughout the years I have served the club in the positions of President, Vice President, Director, and Show Chairman.
I started collecting bottles while pursuing another hobby of mine, SCUBA diving. I found some bottles while diving in a lake in Wisconsin and went to the library to attempt to find any information that I could about them and one thing led to another and soon I was deeply immersed in both hobbies.
Through the bottle collecting hobby and as a member of MABA I have learned a lot about the history of Milwaukee and Wisconsin and have networked with many collectors and made lasting friends. I enjoy talking about my collection and showing it to fellow collectors. I also particularly enjoy talking with individuals that are interested in getting started in the hobby, sharing with them what I have learned and answering questions.  Email Sid
Click on the photo to see Sid's full wanted list.
Author: Sid Hatch
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Roger Peters

Roger Peters

I have collected antique Wisconsin soda bottles for many years. I am the author of the book on soda bottles titled Wisconsin Soda Water Bottles 1845 to 1918 and am currently working on several other books on Wisconsin soda bottles.

I have an extensive list of items I am looking for - click on the image at left. If you have any of them please contact me.  email Roger.


Click on the photo to see Roger's full wanted list.
Author: Roger Peters
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Mark Youngblood

Mark Youngblood

I am a long time collector have been collecting Wisconsin / Minnesota bottles for 40 years. I am an avid digger, digging between 50-120 pits per year. I really like blob sodas, Quart Hutches, embossed whiskey flasks. I Dig a lot in Western Wisconsin. I Enjoy going to the Milwaukee Bottle Show and I am also the Administrator for the facebook sites Old Wisconsin Bottles and another one called Old Minnesota bottles. If you are looking for western Wis Bottles I may have some. Email Mark
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Dan Gross

Dan Gross

My main collection is West Bend, Slinger, and Hartford pre 1910 bottles. I also collect hutchinson sodas, Pre-Hutches, and quart hutchinson bottles from Wisconsin. I would love to find a paper labeled hutch from Wis. or perhaps a pre hutch or West Bend brewing co bottle from West Bend. The West bend Brewing botlles with a horse shoe on the front of it would be nice also. And, just like most collectors, I have a large collection of pretty window bottles.

I am a digger of privies and a hunter of treasure.

I enjoy digging privies (old out houses) and have had a lot of luck finding nice things over the years both in and around old privies. In addition to bottles I'm also into metal detecting, both land and water. You never know what will pop out of the ground when your detecting! In fact that's how I started collecting bottles as one day I got a signal and when I dug it up it turned out to be a hutch bottle with the metal stopper still in it. Things sorta took off from there.

In my spare time I also enjoy metal detecting but, my biggest passion 'at the moment' is prospecting for gold at my claims near Chicken Alaska. I have had many great adventures while there plus, I get to find gold!   Currently I'm looking for a possible partner to help run the new dredge. Interested? contact me for details.

There's so much treasure and so little time! 

Email Dan
Author: Dan Gross
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Rick Tyler

Rick Tyler

As an international internet antique dealer I spend most of my time buying, photographing, researching, and selling many types of antiques. I am the owner of Prairieville Antiques L.L.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We purchase pre-1900 beer, soda, mineral water, milk, and medicine bottle collections. My main focus and passion is working with old bottles and discovering their history. Wisconsin has a rich brewery and soda manufacturing heritage which dates back to the early 1800's. If you have a few old bottles, or a whole collection, and you would like to learn more about them, feel free to call or send an email message. In the future, I will be posting bottles for sale on this site. You may contact me through this website or direct to my home at: Email Rick
Author: Rick Tyler
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Barna Bencs

Barna Bencs

I really enjoy collecting anything related to bottles from the cities of Racine and Kenosha. I was born and raised in Racine and currently living in Somers which is just a small town right in between the two. The bottles I lust after include soda, beer, pharmacy, milk, seltzer, whiskey flasks, medicines, dose cups- anything thing that is embossed, debossed, paper labeled, or paint labeled. These bottles are from the 1860's all the way up to 1970's. For some reason though I have little interest in anything to do with Johnson Wax products or Horlicks Malted Milk. Anyway, I also enjoy collecting items related to these bottles including bottle openers, wooden cases, pictures, advertising give-aways, calendars, old letterheads, just about anything.
I also collect any variants of the typically green purgative water bottle embossed with Janos Hunyadi or the many copy cat bottles, any other Hungarian related bottle, Wisconsin etched seltzer bottles, Wisconsin hutchinson bottles, and Racine/Kenosha city directories or newspapers (pre-1920).
I do have a few side collections including a 50 state hutch collection that is missing Alaska, New Mexico, Nevada, Rhode Island (kind of) I have a Postens from Providence.  Email Barna
Author: Barna Bencs
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Henry Hecker

Henry Hecker

I have been a collector since a young boy, fossils, insects, coins, stamps, baseball cards, you name it. I have been collecting antique bottles and stoneware since 1970. Started digging an old railroad dump near our family farm and I was hooked. Soon after, I learned that old bottles and jugs actually had value and could be found at auctions, flea markets, just about anywhere if you looked hard enough. Even stranger was the fact that there were a host of other folks with this same interest. A great circle of friends developed that eventually became the MABAC in 1972. I was also a member of the now long defunct Madison Bottle Club. The clubs soon held annual shows. Those were the days of $100 “Chas. Schlitz German Wine Bitters” triangular log bottles, honey amber Barth flasks for $50, and even a Bird decorated Hermann churn for $200. There was always something good to find at these events. The aforementioned prices were “big money” in those days, but we just didn’t know how good some of those finds would be almost 50 years later. Plus we discovered that bottles literally filled some lake and river spots where old amusement parks, hotels, and tour boats once existed. Finally we “graduated” to privy digging which remains the great almost unlimited source for future bottle finds. In 1979, when Diane and I bought our first house I sold off much of my Milwaukee beer collection, a necessity at the time but a great regret now as it would be hard to duplicate today.  Email Henry

My Great Wants:
Blossoms Badger Ale
Stoneware Dickinson’s Ale, Meesow’s Detroit Ale
Pottery Wm. E. Root Beer, Milwaukee
Any strap sided flasks, bitters, whiskeys from Milwaukee
Enameled and label under glass Milwaukee Back bar bottles
Anything Wisconsin pontiled and any glass or stoneware item with Milwaukie and or W.T. (Wisconsin Territory)
Author: Henry Hecker
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John M. Schoenknecht

John M. Schoenknecht


I collect Waukesha souvenir china and Waukesha stereoviews. These items help tell the story of Waukesha, the Spring City. Waukesha was once noted for its many mineral springs, bottling plants and breweries.

I have written several books about the history of Waukesha, including “The Great Waukesha Springs Era,” published in 2003 and a revised edition, published in 2014. I also wrote “From Prairieville to Waukesha,” which is a compilation of history columns published in the Waukesha Freeman. Some of my newspaper columns have been published as books, including “What’s Shaking at the Attic,” the story of a popular gathering place for Waukesha teens; “The Motor Works: A Waukesha Institution,” and “Wisconsin Centrifugal: An Amazing Story.” Email John
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Peter Maas

Peter Maas

I am a collector, dealer, author, digger, diver and local history buff who has collected Wisconsin bottles, stoneware and advertising for over 40 years. I started collecting in 1971 when I started scuba diving in local lakes and found bottles. I developed an interest in antiques in general over the years but my collecting focus has been early Wisconsin bottles and stoneware. Here are a few of my favorite categories:
- Stoneware bottles from Wisconsin.
- Bitters and whiskey bottles, especially amber strap-sided flasks.
- Blob sodas, mint examples with wires, pontil marked and colored. Also John Matthews.
- Beer bottles in mint condition with applied lips.
- Unusual colors and molds from Wisconsin Glass and Chase Valley Glass.
- Colored Hutchinson sodas from Wisconsin.
- Decorated and signed stoneware from Wisconsin potters including Maxfield, O.F. Baker, Charles Hermann, Th. Gunther, Gunther & Berns, Bachelder, W.D. Mosier, Portage City, Cunningham, Farwell, Bonesteel, Chamberlain or Wisconsin territory pieces.
- Decorated pottery from Whitewater Wisconsin.
- Backbar whiskey bottles, especially colored enamel or White enamel
- Advertising shot glasses from Wisconsin
If you have any of these items please Email Peter.
Author: Peter Maas
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Article rating: 5.0
Wayne Weber

Wayne Weber

I collect items from Neosho, Wisconsin and surrounding areas. I am looking for items bottles, advertising, post cards, advertising or any antique items from Neosho. Neosho is a small town located about 40 miles northwest of Milwaukee in Dodge county. I also collect Weber Brewery bottles and advertising items.
If you have any of these items please contact me.
Email Wayne.
Author: Wayne Weber
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