Collections: Found Beer Bottle Caps

During the first year of uni I learnt of the word ephemera which got me really excited because I had finally found a word to describe one of the type of things I like to collect. By that time, I had already accumulated a far bit of business envelopes and after having seen how they could potentially be used in a rather clever way, my mind just simply exploded in excitement.

But moving on to the featured collection...

I don't drink beer or any alcohol for that matter (nor do I support it) but there's something I really like about beer bottle cap ephemera. I was first intrigued by them when I saw them featured in the end papers of Shaun Tan's picture book The Lost Thing - in fact the protagonist of the story is a bottle-top collector himself and since I was also a collector of random things, I found it absolutely amusing (but I'll set aside The Lost Thing for now).

Since then I started to notice them scattered and strewn around the cities and suburbs. At first I didn't think much of them... but as I began to notice how often I'd encounter them - I decided once and for all to start a collection.

My favourite would have to be the one with the spades but I do love all the pictorial ones. Unfortunately I left some caps in Thailand which had Thai versions of Coke, Pepsi and Fanta (I'll probably get my aunts to pass them on somehow)! I'm hoping to find more as I go particularly vintage ones. I have a good gut feeling I'll find a fair bit in Germany :) and all around Europe. I love the thrill of finding them even though it probably looks a little suss.

And while we're on the topic of bottle caps, I absolutely love this Asahi ビール(beer) poster from the 60s by graphic artist Kazumasa Nagai. IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND THIS BOTTLE CAP PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW!