Beginning around 1965, a relatively new craze spread rapidly across the U.S. Collecting antique bottles had been mostly the province of more affluent northern collectors, who had been buying and trading for decades. . . . Times were about to change. The government began a somewhat questionable program known as "urban renewal," where the oldest, poorest, most dilapidated, and often most historic sections of towns were bulldozed flat. Then came the diggers. . . . One of these diggers and collectors was Lowrell Pierce, though Lowrell was not the average collector. He was an illustrator inspired...