Vintage Lab Glass…Yes, Please!

I adore vintage lab glass flasks, beakers tubes and such because they are so nerdy cool. In my younger days I quite liked science. Even in my sophomore year of college when my anatomy class dissected cats in the late afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I could never eat dinner afterwards because of the reek of formaldehyde on my hands and clothes.

But nowadays, take this glassware out of the lab and they look great in the home or at weddings. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Last year I sold four lots of various lab glassware in quick order. (One went to a TV production studio!)

So when Belinda of Schmahl Science contacted me wondering if I was interested in some of their lab glass, I was intrigued. Turns out the glass was a former donation to her organization and they were no longer doing much organic chemistry in their programs. Yes, I would be interested!! And bonus their warehouse was just 25 miles away. Belinda gave me great directions and I was on my way.

Zowee, there were a lot of boxes. Many filled with pieces I’d never seen before. Some were dusty. Others had chemical grime. A few had dead bugs inside. Still I decided to take as much as I could and filled up my Mini-Cooper.

There are quite a quantity of round-bottomed flasks which apparently are used for “heating or boiling of liquid, distillation.”

Here’s a zany one with three necks. Brand new it sells for over $200. Mine is used with lots of residue. I’m soaking it now.

I’m not sure about all the tubes, adapters and condensers. Will these sell?

I’ve got over 60 of these little glass bottles that according to my research are Wheaton molded serum bottles or vials in the 125 ml size.

I can picture little groupings of these filled with wildflowers at a wedding reception. Afterwards guests could take them home as favors.

This heavy 17″ Pyrex bell jar is the best single piece. I am tempted to keep this and use it for plants, but maybe not. A similar one sold in May 2020 for $350, though a median price of $150 is more typical, at least on eBay. Gosh this would be a pain to ship though!!

There were also a quantity of the more typical flasks, some in larger 2000 ml. sizes all the way down to 10 ml. I’ve given these a wash already.

I did get this lot of six tiny 50 ml Pyrex flasks listed. Perfect as bud vases. Or even for shots if you sterilize them!

This little wooden rack with compound bottles with handmade labels is too cute.

All in all I have a lot of work to do sorting, cleaning and researching all this. And eventually photographing and listing it. And I’ll need to do some creative reorganization in my garage to store it. Still it’s a lot of fun too and I’m thankful to Belinda for contacting me through my blog. (If you want more science in your child’s life, check out Schmahlscience. You’ll be glad you did.)

My cost: $0!! Though I will be making a donation to the organization.

Happy hunting, but stay safe,

Karen