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Greetings
From France
from
Michel Houche, Marseille,
France
Dear
Friends,
First
of all I would like to excuse myself for my poor English! As you know, I am French and it is not really easy for me to
write in English. So if you
don’t understand the exact meaning of some sentences, don’t hesitate
to ask me for more details!
How
long have you been collecting Coke items?
I have been collecting Coca-Cola foreign country bottles since 1977,
so I have now behind me 25 years of collection.
I started collecting when I was 22 years old!
What
got you started in collecting Coke items?
I always would like to collect something when I was young but I
wanted to collect something very original and something that nobody
except me had the idea to collect!
In these years (1970’s) the collections of Coca-Cola items were
at their very beginning around the world and nobody in France could
imagine that such a type of collecting was possible!
More than that, I wanted to collect something without any money
value (a regular coke bottle is a no value item) because I always
thought that a collection could be something very important more than
the financial value of it.
So
I started my collection helped by hazard (chance).
I was on a summer holiday tour in Greece with my wife when I
ordered a Coke in a restaurant. Immediately,
when I saw the bottle, I fell in love with it.
I thought: “if the sentences are written in Greek language on
the bottle sold in Greece, all the bottles will be different in all the
countries around the world!” Coming
back to my home through Yugoslavia, Italy and France (of course), I
began my collection with 8 difference bottles from 4 countries.
My collection was born: a
beautiful item, absolute symbol of Coca-Cola and most famous item in all
the world, very cheap and easy to obtain during travels, very easy to
display and to have at home permanently in front of me.
Now I have more than 2,700 different bottles from 179 countries! That is the most important collection of Coca-Cola bottles in
the world to that day (the collection is about only one type of bottle:
foreign countries Coca-Cola (no light, no caffeine free,
no Fanta or other brand from the Coca-Cola Company) less or equal in
volume than 500 mL, full bottles (except for bottles before 1940).
How
do you see the state of this hobby today?
Today my hobby has completely filled my
life and I ‘work’ for it around 4 hours a day.
I am in relation with collectors everywhere around the world for
trades and fun time. I am a
member of the Coca-Cola Collectors Club in USA, of the Memorabilia Club
in Italy and of the Spain chapter of the CCC; I founded 2 years ago the
French Coca-Cola Collectors Club of which I am the actual President and
I organize the French National Conventions.
I
have also co-written a book with my close friend Richard Mix about
international Coca-Cola bottles. I
write regularly articles for newspapers or books about Coca-Cola
history. I travel through
many countries around the world and complete my collection each time I
can. My collection is displayed all over the walls of my house
from floor to ceiling (roof) in all rooms of the house. Coca-Cola bottles collection is my life!
What
would you like to see in the future?
My collection is growing near 100 bottles
more per year. Today, I
have no more room in my house to display the next coming items and I
plan, in 2 years, to buy or build my own private museum.
I would have a very great place, specially reserved and devoted
to my collection, well displayed, open to all my friends and the public.
What
would you recommend for someone new to the hobby?
My first recommendation for a new
collector is to have fun with his passion!
Don’t be too serious. The
most important thing through the collection is to meet and discover many
different people, to ravel and go out of his own home.
The most important thing is not to accumulate thousands of items.
You need to fall in love with your items. And don’t love it because of its value but because of your
regard for it. My second
(and more practical) recommendation is, if you can, to try to choose and
collect only one kind of item!
Is
there any particular item that is your favorite?
As I collect only bottles, my favorite
item will be a…bottle! To answer that question is very difficult because I love all
my bottles! Each one has
its own history, each one is part of my collection!
However, if I have to choose between some, I can speak about the
following bottles:
Ø
A very rare bottle from Somalia with Somalian script on it
(different than Cyrillic) know only in 1 exemplary in the world!
Ø
The ‘silver jubilee’ bottle from Ireland know to exist in
only 3 exemplary in all the world!
Ø
The commemorative bottle for 1980 Moscow Olympic games with a
mylar label on it and Russian Olympic logo (because of the U.S. boycott
to these games, all these bottles were destroyed except for 3 known to
that day that still exist!)
Ø
The very first bottle every bottled in Bulgaria (with the
Bulgarian flag on the neck) given to me by the Prince Alexandre Makinski
as a gift for my collection
Ø
A very hard to find series of 20 silver-plated bottles edited for
the end of the millennium in Switzerland (on each bottle is written a
philosophical sentence about ‘time’ from great philosophers such as
Platon, Virgile, Hegel and Pascal, etc.)
Where
do you get most of your Coke items?
One third of my collection is brought from
travels I make with my wife around the world for holidays (including
trades during Coca-Cola conventions held in different countries by
Coca-Cola clubs). One third
is from friends and family who come back from foreign counties and bring
back bottles for me and the last third come from trades with my
collectors from around the world by post office and now with the help of
the internet.
What
does your family think of all of this?
My family (I would speak above all of my
wife) passed through many different states during the 25 years of our
life with my collection between us…!
At the beginning, it was a game for her and she like the
collection because of the low number of pieces in our home and because
we were young and carefree. Then
when the collection began to grow up and invade the apartment, she asked
me to slow down and to be a little bit more for her…We also had a very
hard period when she wanted to ask me to stop collecting completely
because she thought my collection was too invasive and too intrusive for
our ‘couple’ life…Finally, and now because her love for me is
stronger than many things she lives with me and for my passion and she
decided to put herself into the management of the French club and I
think she lives more serenely with ‘our’ collection.
For anybody collecting (Coca-Cola items or other kinds of items)
three principal things are difficult to manage:
money, space and family (wife or husband)!
If
you could change one thing within your hobby of collecting Coca-Cola
items, what would that be?
Nothing, thank you…!
I am happy with my collector life and philosophy.
If I had more money, I would have more bottles and my collection
would be more important and beautiful, but I would lose the pleasure to
wait, to try to find, to make trades and wait long times wit anxiety and
to pass that time to find THE item!
All that makes collecting a passion!
Have
you attended one of the National Conventions and if no, why?
I became a member of the Cola Clan in
1984! I was, at that time,
one of the first foreign members of the future Coca-Cola Collectors
Club! I attended 7 National
Conventions (Sacramento, Dallas, Atlanta, etc.) and I was in Orlando
last summer for the last convention of the TCCCC.
I also attended a Springtime in Atlanta.
What
do you plan on doing with all your Coke items in the future, when you
decide to no longer collect?
I will never plan to no longer collect!
On the contrary, I think that after my retirement, I will have
more time to take care, more than today, of my collection.
I will travel more, I will attend more foreign conventions, etc.
Of course, I can imagine now what will become of my collection
after my death…and for that I have a dream!
May be a little bit presumptuous, but MY dream…I dream to give
my entire collection in donation to the Atlanta Coca-Cola Company (and
that they agree to display it in their Museum).
For sure, I would like to do that a few years before my
death…so that I could help arrange the installation and see the
exhibition of my collection in the Museum!
It is a serious project that I could suggest to the Coca-Cola
Company in 20 or 30 years, but it is also my absolute dream! That’s also the goal of a collection: to dream until death!
The
"Walt Disney Studios" Paris bottle (pictured above)
This is a very beautiful
bottle made for the Opening day of the very new “Walt Disney
Studios” in the park of Paris. Model
25 cl, this bottle was made 100 exemplary only for the Grand opening of
Disney Studios in Paris! The
bottle was a gift for 100 VIPs invited to the inaugural fest.
But nearly all the guests drank the Coca-Cola and put the bottles
in the garbage after! So
now we don’t know how many bottles remain in good condition!
I
have one for my collection, newly acquired!
Your friend, Michel Houche
*Michel
is a Nuclear
Chemist in applied research laboratory at the Marcoule nuclear plant. He
enjoys sports, such as tennis (President of Marcoule Tennis Club), rugby
(Federal Rugby referee), as well as volleyball and motorcycles. Michel
is also the President of the French Coca-Cola Collectors Club, enjoying
meeting people, discovering countries, having fun, and sharing my
passion!
And
we are happy that he has shared it with us today.
NOTE:
The above information first appeared in the May - June 2002 issue of The Coca-Cola
Collector's Club Bottle Chapter newsletter and has been used here with
Michel's permission.
Find out more about The Bottle Chapter @ https://www.angelfire.com/pop2/bottleclub2002/
Or by E-mail : TheBottleChapter@aol.com
Michel
can be reached at : mhouche@club-internet.fr
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