Vending machines were used as long ago as the days of the ancient Greeks. The coin-operated mechanical machines familiar today were not common until the late 19th century, when they were used to sell items like peanuts or chewing gum.

By the 1920s, arcades and shops often had a selection of machines. The most popular were jukeboxes and other music-making machines, and gambling devices like slot machines.

The most fanciful were vending machines. Vending machines dispensed food, fun and entertainment for a nickel or less. Much-less-glamorous vending machines are still used to dispense candy, stamps or matches.

Collectors are searching for old ones and will pay high prices.

My late brother left me his collection of German pottery steins. I have researched them as much as I could at my local library.

Some of the steins have no marks, but others are stamped with a mark used by a firm called Gerz. Most of them are cream-colored with dark-blue designs.

One is a character stein. He’s a very round man with long hair, a hat and a fancy cloak but no mark other than “No. 801” on the bottom and “1/2 L” on the side.

Your half-liter character stein was probably made by Marzi & Remy, a firm founded in 1879. It sounds like a “Rich Man” stein, a type Marzi & Remy made around 1900. All of your steins date from the same era.

Simon Peter Gerz’s company, founded in 1862, was another stein manufacturer of the time. The Gerz firm is still working. These stein makers and many others were located in the HGrenzhausen region of Germany.

The steins are valuable today, ranging in price from $250 to $750.

Can you give me any information about my mother’s old iron? It’s the kind you warmed on a hot stove. It has a wooden handle attached with clamps to the pointed oval iron. The words on the iron say “Asbestos Sad Iron.”

Your mother’s iron dates from about 1900. The word “sad” means “compact” or “heavy.” Irons like your mother’s, with no built-in source of heat, are called sadirons.

My family found some old, glass pop bottles dating to the early 1900s. They were in a creekbed. The bottles have a milky look to them. How should I clean them?

Soak the bottles in soap and water. Clean them on the inside with a bottle brush. Use a soft-bristle brush to clean the outside. This will help remove any loose materials.

The milky look probably can’t be removed. It was caused by chemicals reacting with the glass. The chemical reaction etched the glass, creating the cloudy appearance on the surface. Sometimes a little mineral oil can be swished inside the bottle to cover the marks, but this is a temporary solution.

I collect milk-glass salt, pepper and spice shakers. Some are decorated with blackbirds, some with red and green cherries, and some with flowers, ships or people. I know many were made in the 1950s and ’60s. Is there a way to identify the maker?

Collectors tell us that these types of shakers were decorated with colors applied directly to the glass, or with a decal or paper label. The best have lithographs applied to the glass.

Tipp City Pottery of Tipp City, Ohio, made shaker bottles with grooved corners. They’re usually marked “Made in the U.S.A.” The Roman Arch shakers were made by the McKee Glass Co. of Jeannette, Pa.

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