Before degelation of the airline industry the competition for the business and first class customer was furious. Each air line tried to offer something special to set them apart. In 1952, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines created as series of 3” ceramic gin bottles that replicated historically important houses in Holland. The houses portray everything from Rembrant’s home to an Amsterdam brothel. There are nearly a hundred different models with at least one new one each year. The bottles are made using the same glazing process as the famous blue tiles produced in the Dutch city of Delft. Each holds about a shot’s worth of genever, a Dutch style of gin distilled by Lucas Bols BV since 1575

Over time they have become a status symbol with an enthusiast collector base. The idea being the more bottles you have the more you travel, the richer and more important your are. One collector is reported to have over a 1,000 of the miniatures. They have remained highly popular over the years and any attempt to eliminate them has met with an outcry from its customers.

An entire industry has evolved around these short rounds. At a gift shop in central Amsterdam, tourists pay almost $40 for houses. There are guidebooks for visiting all the houses. Several Dutch Web sites, including KLM’s, also let sellers and buyers haggle for the houses.

Special edition bottles can go for $1.000. When Princess Christina of the Netherlands sold her 210-house collection in 1996, it went for more than $10,000 at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam.

Of the complete collection, a KLM flight with carry about 30 different models so the serious collector does have some choice provided he can sweet talk the flight attendant. Of course you can also pinch the empty one that you non-collecting seat buddy left behind. However as is the case with all collectible bottles, they are worth more if they are unopened. A extremely difficult thing to maintain during a long flight.

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