Many years ago, an acquaintance of
my mother gave her some labels from bottles of various liquors--mostly
wine, but also hard liquor, such as bourbon and vodka. Now by some, I
don't mean just a little. There were quite a few. She is an artist and
works mainly in paper, decoupage, collage, and assemblage and so
welcomed the unexpected gift, more or less.
The man apparently had a passion for collecting alcohol labels, over a
long period of time. One of his family's businesses was manufacturing
whisky and gin, so that must have been a part of the desire.
It took hours, and I do mean hours, for her to sort them into categories, which made it easier when she wanted to find a particular type...red wine or white, Italian or French, and so on.
When I started my vintage shop on Etsy, she gave me a few packages of them to try to sell. I broke them down into smaller packs and began to sell some, now and then. Whenever I did, I would let her know. She would say, "Let me know when you want more of them." I didn't really believe she had that many more. Boy, was I wrong! She had what seemed like a million of them--far too many to count.
Eventually she decided she did not want them any longer and that I should take them all. I have gradually been putting them up for sale and have had fun deciding what to sell: Kentucky Bourbon, Vermouth, Italian wine, Spanish wine, French Champagne... I have enough to open a second shop selling only these labels!
I'm always curious as to what the
buyers do with them, but not wanting to be intrusive, don't ask. My
presumption is that they are using them in their artwork, but perhaps
they are collectors of some sort, or own a bar. Maybe they want to use
them as wallpaper. After all, we had a half bathroom with decoupaged
walls when I was growing up!.
Kentucky Bourbon
