A2O-Lanbaster Farming, Saturday, October 25,1986
COCHRANTON Ayrshire milk
bottles pose a challenge for Mercer
County dairyman Arvid Kobosky.
To him the bottles represent the
gold in a treasure hunt. He has
been known to talk to scores of
people and shift through dusty,
forgotten boxes in search of a prize
bottle.
Through these means, plus letter
writing and long distance calls,
Arvid has collected milk bottles
from 104 different Ayrshire dairies
and a total of 600 different dairies
in the U.S., Canada and England.
Three of these milk bottles rise
to the top of Arvid’s collection.
The love of the Ayrshire cow prompted Arvid Kobosky to
focus his milk bottle collection on bottles from Ayrshire
dairies.
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Arvid places the most value on a
pyroglazed quart bottle from
Ardrossan Ayrshires in Villanova.
Pyroglazed bottles, bottles with
painted lettering, were common in
the late 1930 s and early 19405. He
estimates the vintage on this bottle
to be after 1934 based on a story in a
1934 Ayrshire Digest.
This Digest featured retailers of
Ayrshire milk and mentioned
Ardrossan in particular, Arvid
explained. He notes that Mrs. Scott
didn’t know the farm retailed milk
until he inquired about the extent
the farm’s retail business.
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“I wouldn't sell this
bottle for $1 million. ”
The prize bottle from Ardrossan
shows an Ayrshire head and the
words Ayrshire milk. “I
wouldn’t sell this bottle for $1
million,” Arvid said. Then with a
chuckle he added, “But my wife
might.”
A Christmas gift from John
Tutton, a milk bottle dealer and
collector in Virginia, ranks second
in value for Arvid. This bottle
originated from the Penshurst
Farm in Narberth -and is of the
embossed variety, the Mercer
County dairyman notes.
Embossed bottles are the oldest
type of milk bottles, and Narberth
Ayrshires are found in the
pedigrees of 90 percent of the
registered Ayrshires, Arvid ex
plained.
Adding to the historical
significance and value of the bottle
is it’s intact paper cap. Arvid notes
that will bottles survive the test of
time rather easily, paper caps
usually don’t fare as well. This
fact, he adds, make them a
collector’s item by themselves.
Rounding out his three most
valuable bottles is a Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company Ayrshire
milk bottle. This is an embossed
bottle from the 1920 s or 19305, Arvid
said.
What makes the bottle so
valuable is that few people know
that life insurance company had a
farm and they never operated a
retail milk business.
The insurance company owned a
herd of SO Ayrshires at a farm in
Wilton, N.Y. The company bottled
the milk and shuttled it by train to
the cafeteria of their office
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building in New York City. The
cafeteria utilized the herd’s entire
production, eliminating the need
for a retail route, Arvid explained.
He learned of the bottle thiough
the editor of Milk Route Magazine,
Tom Gallagher. He read the story
in an old Ayrshire Digest.
“I try for a story on each
dairy that I get a bottle
from."
Arvid has a collection of Ayr
shire Digests that date back to 1923.
“I try for a story on each dairy that
I get a bottle from,” he said. The
old issues of the breed magazine
have also enabled him to find some
bottles.
It is within the past 10 years that
his collection has swelled to it’s
present 1,000 plus bottles level.
The milk bottle collecting fever
infected him at an the precocious
age of 6. “I guess I started
collecting milk bottles from the
local area because I knew then I
wanted to be a farmer,” Arvid
said.
“When a different milk
truck would go by, I'd flag
it down to buy a quart of
milk. I'd drink the milk and
keep the bottle.”
He grew up in the Pittsburgh
suburb of Belle Vemon. Arvid
never missed an opportunity to add
to his collection. “When a different
milk truck would go by, I’d flag it
down to buy a quart of milk. I’d
drink the milk and keep the bot
tle,” he remembers.
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During the summer when he was
10 years old, his family visited his
brother in Nutley, N.J. The
caretaker of the apartment
building where his brother lived
also operated a milk truck for
Welsh Farm. Arvid would ride
with and help the caretaker on his
pre-dawn rounds. All Arvid asked
for as pay was a bottle to
remember the dairy by.
His devotion to adding to his
collection found him working at
one farm for a summer for the
experience and a bottle as the only
type of compensation, Arvid notes.
“My parents tried to explain to me
that was crazy, but it was worth
it,” he said.
One summer he worked on a
farm to earn his first 4-H project, a
Jersey calf. This calf enabled
Arvid to meet and form a friend
ship with Carlton Squire of Ben
tleyville. This friendship would
later help Arvid expand his milk
bottle collection and form his own
dairy herd.
Arvid’s mother destroyed his
original milk bottle collection
while he served in the army in 1970
and 1971. “Mom didn’t like clutter
and she thought when I returned
from the army I’d forget about the
collection,” he explained. So,
during his absence she cleaned the
cupboards and smashed his entire
collection of 50 bottles.
In the process she temporarily
destroyed his interest in collecting
milk bottles, Arvid explained.
When Arvid decided to get back
into the dairy business in 1976, he
contacted Carlton Squire and
purchased half of his herd from
Squire.
Squire operated Avondale Farm,
one of the top Jersey herds in the
state during the 19405. The Jersey
breeder knew of Arvid’s earlier
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