Hi! I’m Phil. I’m your host on this site. I’ve collected antique glass and stoneware bottles since 1974. I’ve published both a magazine and several books on antique glass and stoneware here in Canada through the years, and I ran an absentee auction house from about 1993 to 2012. Antique glass and stoneware are basically a part of my DNA.

My primary fascination, what keeps me going in the same hobby year after year, is the history. The ability to “reverse-engineer” an appreciation of social history out of a mute piece of glass. In the case of late Persian glass, I knew nothing – probably less than nothing because most of what I did know was supposition and rumour – about Persia prior to jumping into this area of glass research. I’d say I likely know more than nothing at this point, although the learning curve is still quite steep – which is the part that excites me most.

Over the past 40 years, I’ve collected many of the styles of bottles the world has to offer – sodas, poisons, black glass, ginger beers, drugstores, bitters, torpedos, saratogas. I enjoy good glass (and good stoneware), and I enjoy a good puzzle – most of my collections have led to magazine articles or books. More than simply collecting like objects, I enjoy learning – and telling – the stories of each piece – where and when they were made, who by, who for, and the circumstances of place and time. It’s been a delight to solve the puzzles (as much as each one could be), and then to tell the stories, complete with facts and photos.

I’ve published three articles on Late Persian Glass thus far, and have provided supporting imagery and research for a fourth:

  1. 2013 10 BBR Article on Persians – Part 1
  2. 2014 01 BBR Article on Persians – Part 2
  3. 2014 02 Der Glasfreund (German magazine article on Persians)
  4. 2015 05 Bottles and Extras

If you share my curiosity about late Persian glass, please do send me a note. It fascinates me to see how much traffic this site garners, from all over the planet, and yet so few people ever write.

I’m planning to publish a book on late Persian glass in 2017, drawing from the content on this site as well as other available research. If you can offer any insights, contemporary or current, to this glass, all information is welcome. At this stage in the process, a co-author would be very welcome. And of course, photos and “for sale” lists are always welcome as well.

phil.culhane@ctlabs.ca