I have been collecting shotglasses for almost half of my life, and for the longest time, I felt like I was the only one who collected these things. Over the years, I have searched for information on shotglasses and shotglass collecting. There is not much information available, so I decided to create this site to share what I have learned.

More Autographed Glasses

I finally got my first NASCAR autographed glass -- from the 2020 champion Chase Elliot. I did not have a one of his glasses, and the event where we met him was not at the track where I could have purchased one, so his autograph is just on an interestingly shaped glass (I had a few plain glasses in my collection to choose from:) Maybe I will be better prepared with at least a NASCAR logo glass the next time I get to meet a driver.

Broken Glasses

Among a nice selection of glasses, some pre-pro, some box sets, some international, were a few things that I had never purchased before. It appears that if the the previous owner broke a glass, he just glued the pieces back together, and kept the mended glass in his collection. The application of glue was not very precise, and the glasses do not look very nice.

I never thought about gluing a glass back together -- even if it was a fairly rare glass, if it broke, I tossed the pieces. Has any of you encountered mended glasses before? Do you glue your broken ones back together?

Autographed Glasses

The 2015 NASCAR season is over, so I will have to wait until next year for the racing to begin again. I recently attended a small Sci-Fi convention, which provided an opportunity to get a different type of autograph. Many conventions have shotglasses available to commemorate the event, but many of them do not. This convention had glasses available, and they also had a few celebrities who were signing autographs. One of these celebrities was actor Richard Hatch, who played Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica, and more recently, he played Tom Zarek in the latest vesion of Galactica. I now have a one-of-a-kind DerpyCon shotglass, autographed by Richard Hatch.

Anime Glasses

(Bleach, Levi from Attack on Titan, and Miku)
Click on the image to see it larger

Jimmie Johnson 2013 NASCAR Champion

Nipple Caps or Nipple Covers

Many if these caps have a flat top, such as this example so if you stand them up, they look like a small glass. They are also about the same height as a shotglass, and are made from fairly thick glass, so I can see why someone might add one to their collection. Two problems that I have with caps being included in a collection is that since these bottles had fairly small openings, these covers are fairly narrow (much narrower than your average shotglass). These covers also usually have some name embossed on them, and with names such as "Steri-Seal", "Stork " and "Tuffy-Kap" it seems obvious that they are something other than shotglasses.

But having said that, here are three examples that are in my collection. I obtained them as parts of collections that I have purchased, and keep them as examples of what might be, or might not be, a shotglass.

Toy Tumblers

A "toy tumbler" is a small glass that was sold as a child's toy -- a glass made for playing "house" with a doll or teddy bear, made to serve water or lemonade. In the days before toys were made out of plastic, children were allowed to play with things that were made out of glass. These glasses usually came in a set that included a tiny pitcher. The sets are regularly seen as children's toys and sold that way. As with most breakable objects, the entire set often does not survive, and the remaining glasses make their way onto shelves marked as shotglasses.

Many of these "toy tumblers" come from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, so the style of the glass often mimics a fancy cut glass pattern. Because they are so old, and were "played with" they often have small chips missing from their base or their rim. Also, since they were made as toys, the workmanship may not be as good as it would be on an "adult" glass of the period.

As you can see from the photograph, they are usually smaller than a "standard" American shotglass, but about the same same size as a "Slightly Barrel Shaped - small" glass which is quite common in Europe which hold 20 ml or 2 cl of liquid. Most of the "toy tumblers" that I was able to find online are being sold as sets, with the price of over $10 per glass (even as a set missing the pitcher). I do not know if you can get the same price for a single glass if you correctly identify it as a children's toy, but most of the ones that I have purchased as "shotglasses" were priced much lower. The "toy tumblers" in the database can be found (along with a few others) by searching for the keyword "toy"

Tomorrow Never Dies

More Shotglass Origin Info

The shotglass has its origin at the beginning of the 20th century. Manufacturing processes that made glassware inexpensive probably played a part. Prohibition helped kill the thin-sided "pre-prohibition sample glass." Soon after these stopped being made, the more sturdy, thick-walled shotglass appears. Perhaps bartenders and/or owner of places that served alcohol had been using the free glasses and liked them. When the free ones were no longer available they had to pay for a similar glass, and since they were spending their own money on them, they wanted something that would last, and started using thicker glasses.

The research continues...

More Disney Shotglasses

More Epcot Shotglasses

One of the odd things about the new glasses is that the Norway glass, while similar in design to the rest of the countries, is at least twice as large as the other glasses. Also, while in the past you could purchase a glass for Sweden and Denmark at the Norway pavillion, there are no other countries represented with the new design. Both the China and Japan pavillions did not have glasses in the previous, flared design, and they do not have the latest design either. They both still have an older "standard" shaped glass.

Buying Shotglass Collections

Shotglass Size

While researching this I had found one attempt at creating an "official" definition for a shot in a State (the state of New York tried to legislate the minimum size of a shot in 1947), but the bill was not passed. The next closest thing was a law in South Carolina that required the use of mini bottles (at first 1.5 ounces, and later 1.7 ounces) -- no shotglasses or free pours allowed. This was repealed a few years ago. In March of this year, the state of Utah changed their definition of a shot from one ounce to one and one half ounces. As far as I can tell, Utah is the only state with a current law.

Bejing Olympics Shotglass Set

Over the years, there have been a couple of different sets of glasses available at Epcot. These sets usually have the flag of the country along with the name of the country. There are often more than eleven glasses in the set, as glasses from Finland and Sweden are available in Norway, while Nothern Ireland, Scotland and Wales glasses are available at the United Kingdom pavillion. These sets are specific to Epcot.

There are occasionally other shotglasses available at the pavillions, usually representing some part of the host country. This year there was a set at the China pavillion that I just had to buy. They have created a set of 38 shotglasses to commemorate the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There is one glass for each of the sports. I have many Olympic shotglasses, but I have never seen a set with this many glasses.

Doc Holliday's cup from the movie Tombstone

My usual answer to this question is that metal cups are easy to make on a small scale, and they often have no maker's mark on them, so their origin is difficult to determine. So even if I had the item in front of me, I might not be able to determine where (or when) it was made. Trying to identify an object from a movie is almost impossible.

Well, I decided to use some of my knowledge of the theater and movie making, and see if I could find out more. Asking somebody to remember a small prop from a movie made over a dozen years ago is quite a longshot, but as it turns out, I was able to contact someone from the the production who remembers the cup. If a prop comes from the property department (props) they will have more than one, just in case one gets lost or damaged. This cup stood out because there were no replacements, so when it went missing, it HAD to be found. Most likely this cup was picked up in Santa Fe by Val Kilmer himself, and he brought it to the set.

Anybody in Santa Fe want to start checking out the local metalsmiths?

Shipping Shotglasses

• Crumpled newspaper is a BAD packing material for glasses unless it is compacted tightly
• Put as much "stuff" between glasses as possible
• Putting stuffing inside thin walled glasses helps them survive some crushing
• Many people remember to keep the glasses away from the sides of the box, while others are good at keeping them away from the top and bottom, but few keep them away from all sides
• Most original packaging was not designed to survive shipping via UPS or USPS
• If there is an original box and you can remove the glasses, wrap them individually BUT DO NOT PUT THEM BACK IN THE BOX unless there is lots of extra room! In many boxes the slots were designed for the glass, not the glass plus wrapping -- putting wrapped glasses back in damages the box
• If there is an original box, with sufficient padding between the glasses, wrap the box tightly (like a birthday present) so the top cannot come loose, then put padding around it
• If you remove the glasses from the original box, try to put something in the box that will protect it from crushing, but that will not damage the cardboard insert(s)
• More is Better when it comes to padding

In the previous paragraph I mentioned insurance. In general, insurance for shotglasses is a waste of money (although some people think that a package marked as insured will get better treatment.) In order to make a claim, you need the small, green insurance receipt, and most shippers do not put it in the box. If you have the receipt, and wish to make a claim, you need an independent book or guide that identifies the glass and provides a value. Very few glasses can be identified this way.

Reviews

I NEED YOUR HELP!

I am in the process of trying to come up with guidelines for dating a glass based on the shape of the glass, and what the maker's mark on the base of the glass looks like. I am trying to determine the earliest use of a particular style of glass and the range of dates that a particular maker's mark was in use. For example, the Libbey Glass Company recently changed the base of their glasses -- The main mark is still a script upper-case L but the "mold numbers" are now below the letter, while prior to 1998 they were to the left of the letter.

This is where you can help me. If you have any glasses that have a date on them, such as those that were were made for a specific event, like a wedding, or the Superbowl, tell me the date, what the mark on the bottom of the glass looks like (see my identification page ) and the shape of the glass. Also, some newer glasses have copyright dates on them, and this information can be useful, but be aware that designs are usually copyrighted before they are used. An example of this is the logo for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics -- it was copyrighted in 1992, so glasses with this design might have been made 4 years before the "big" date.

You can send me the info by leaving feedback, or by leaving a message on the MessageBoard If you have a photograph, and you have your own website, you can link to the photo in your MessageBoard message.

Thanks
              Mark

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