Melbourne Daily Photo

Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.




Waltzing Australia

Tuesday 10 November 2009

House of Bottles

Ten Green Bottles?
Actually 13,569 of them went into the building of this bottle house. It was built in 1969 by Joseph Eykenbaum and was carefully planned in order to bring out the contrasting colours of the bottles, and inside is - you guessed it - a bottle collection with a vast range of bottle types dating back to the early 19th century from all over the world. Muriel Gray who with her husband Les, owns the property estimated the collection of bottles inside to be around 10,000.

There are also fossils, dinosaur droppings and dinosaur eggs, minerals, rocks, memorabilia and an unusual collection of 5500 ornamental shoes made of everything from leather to glass, metal to pottery.

13 comments:

arabesque said...

i had to see the picture up close and that's quite a very unique house! ^_^
such ingenuity!

Anonymous said...

Now that looks interesting! :) So do you see the bottle mouths on the inside? If the collection inside was not behind glass, I'd be a bit nervous bringing the little ones into it.

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

That's wonderful - I see it even has stained glass windows! Does it have walls inside, or does the light shine through the bottles?

Ornamental shoes seem like an odd thing to collect. Muriel and Les must be entertaining to talk to.

B SQUARED said...

This really is very cool.

brattcat said...

What an unusual idea. If one of these bottles should happen to fall...but then, no, not the way it's put together. Those bottles aren't going anywhere. I, too, wonder about the interior light. And the way it might look at night.

Lowell said...

Fascinating. Hard to believe someone would put so much effort and time into this kind of thing ... but to each his own.

I think living there I'd feel all bottled up, though!

Susan Ellis said...

There's a very similar house to this one on Highway 17, en route to North Bay Ontario..only this version is much more finished and designed! I wonder if it gets awfully warm on sunny days....makes a person thirsty thinking about it!

Cezar and Léia said...

wow it's a different house for sure!
Very impressive!
Léia :)

VP said...

Speechless! Great catch and a very patient builder.

Unknown said...

I have never seen anything of the kind. Just amazing!

http://graceolsson.com/blog said...

great shot..-.I like your work cause U write explaining about the photo....
I am like the same....PHOTOS AND TEXT...HAHAHHAHA
HAVE A NICE DAY
Thank u very much for your suppport

Anonymous said...

it reminds me of a simpsons episode where Barney licks the windows of mr Burns new factory because they are made of recycled beer bottles XD

AB said...

Amazing. I wonder if the owner personally emptied all these bottles.

Melbourne Daily Photo

Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.