The show contains thousands of rare and unusual bottles — some up to 375 years old — and will be on display at Dunedin’s Edgar Centre this weekend.
New Zealand Bottle Clubs national convener Warren Roberts said it was only the second time the show had been held in Otago in the past 30 years, and collectors from across New Zealand and Australia had brought thousands of exhibits.
Among them is a Bellarmine pottery wine bottle made in the 1650s, the first commercially made Schweppes lemonade bottle made in England in 1810, a Dickson Leith Thistle whisky bottle from 1860 and a Dutch pinch-waisted gin bottle from 1880 — each ranging from prized to priceless collectables.
"If any of them got broken, it would be absolutely horrifying."
Mr Roberts said there would be 75 categories on display.
"Predominantly, the bottles on display are from New Zealand and are all in the 1870 to 1950 age, but there will be some from overseas as well.
"And then there are collectables. They range from some 1930s Deco glass that was made in the Depression, to cast-iron money boxes, old brass paperclips for the office, and there will be New Zealand-made pottery.
"There will also be an exhibit of early Dunedin brewing artefacts and some Milton Pottery items.
"The exhibits are obviously each collector’s pride and joy, and some of them will be for sale. Some of them will be worth thousands of dollars each."
Asked what bottle collectors were officially called, he said: "We have all sorts of names — some we can’t repeat.
"There is no official name, like a labologist who collects labels.
"I don’t think we have been branded other than ‘weird’."
He said when he told people he collected bottles, they looked at him sideways.
But when he showed them the bottles, told them about their history and explained to them how they worked, they were quickly "enthralled".
"Many people ask: ‘Why did they put a marble in the neck of the bottle?’
"It was so they kept the fizz in the bottle. All the inventions to make soft drink bottles work in the day was quite clever.
"We take it for granted today when we buy a bottle of fizzy drink."
The show starts tomorrow at 10am and ends at 3pm on Sunday.
