Houston, TX, USA, Feb 7, 2024 — Antique bottle and glass enthusiasts will want to mark their calendars from Thursday to Sunday, August 1st through 4th, 2024. That’s when the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC) will hold its 2024 National Antique Bottle & Glass Exposition in Houston, Texas. The event will be held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) and the historic Hotel ZaZa in the Houston Museum District.
“After a successful Reno 2022 Convention, the FOHBC took the year off in 2023 to plan for a different experience in 2024,” said Ferdinand Meyer V, past three-time president of the FOHBC and one of the driving forces for this year’s event. “If you like history, great antique bottles and glass, museums, and nature, Houston is the place.”
Houston 24 is already shaping up as the most extraordinary antique bottle and glass event in a generation, as both the FOHBC and HMNS are sponsoring and underwriting the exposition. A beautiful antique bottle butterfly is the Houston 24 logo, as visitors and attendees can experience many of the museum’s great attractions, such as the world-famous Cockrell Butterfly Center, Hall of Ancient Egypt, Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, Morian Hall of Paleontology, Burke Baker Planetarium, Wortham Giant Screen Theatre, and many other permanent and special exhibitions.
On Thursday, August 1st, at 1:00 pm, the Sandor P. Fuss “American Antique Glass Masterpieces” exhibition will open in the Brown Gallery, which includes an extraordinary group of early American tableware and legendary historical flasks, bitters, spirits, and other bottles and glass meticulously collected and displayed. Three legendary cobalt blue figural bitters will also be reunited and on prominent display. A hard-bound book showcasing the collection will be for sale.
A second major exhibition, opening simultaneously in the Hamill Gallery, is titled “Select highlights from the David P. Wilber and Anthony Gugliotti Barber Bottle Collections.” The best of over a thousand examples from both collections will be displayed. A hard-bound book showcasing the collections will also be for sale.
The packed Houston 24 itinerary also boasts an outdoors pre-event titled “Peachridge Glass in the Grass” antiques sale on Wednesday, a Thursday evening catered Texas Hold ’em Bottle & Glass Competition, a Friday evening Cocktail Mix & Mingle and Dinosaurs Banquet in the Hall of Paleontology, a live Saturday evening catered Bayou City Sunset Auction, seminars, educational displays, membership breakfast, youth activities, raffles, Hermann Park and Museum District tours, virtual museum imaging, merchandise sales and much more.
From Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon, the public can attend the Antique Bottle and Glass Show & Sale at Hotel ZaZa for $5. A commemorative mold-blown cobalt blue Drakes Plantation Bitters was also commissioned for the Expo in a limited number for sale. All registered Expo attendees will also get a five-day pass to the museum, which is considered one of the top natural history museums in the country.
As of this writing, dealer tables are still available should you want to sell antique glass and small antiques at either the Wednesday outdoor shade-tree event or the indoor three-day weekend antique bottle and glass show and sale. Hotel rooms are also available at the host Hotel ZaZa and Hilton Doubletree Hotel & Suites at special Expo rates.
For more information about the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors and this year’s Houston 24 event, please visit the www.FOHBC.org event page or send an email inquiry to Ferdinand Meyer V at fmeyer@fmgdesign.com.
About the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors:
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors was formed in 1969. Today, the non-profit organization represents a couple of thousand members and is affiliated with over 100 antique bottle and glass clubs across the United States and the world. For more information about the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, please visit www.FOHBC.org.