Sir, – It appears that Ann Donnelly is not alone in recognising the beauty of the glass that usually gets disposed of at bottle banks (Letters, January 9th). Indeed, she can add “sell” to her more familiar options of “reduce, reuse, recycle” with regard to some categories of bottle. There is a somewhat surprising market in these empty vessels, especially from champagne and of the more elaborate blue gin ones, operated on eBay and similar sites.
As books are made more valuable by having dust jackets, or watches by their accompanying boxes and papers, it seems that bottles sold with corks and even the wire cages from champagne are most sought after. Blue gin bottles are often sold for over €10 and vintage champagne bottles, with corks and cages, can change hands for over €20. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.