It was a summer evening on the cusp of fall 2005, and two eBay bidders -- let's call them John and Susan -- on either end of the country did what they do best: They quietly placed their hefty snipes on a coveted auction and waited. John won; Susan lost.

Shocked that someone had bested her on what should have seemed to anyone else like a modest restaurant bowl with a dull metal lid, she gave it some thought. She had been amassing a collection of glass and china bowls with flip-top lids that gave her tremendous pleasure, but she knew of no one else who collected them as she did. What if John were her ultimate rival in the below-the-radar world of flip-tops?

THE BOWL OF CONTENTION

Impulsively, she e-mailed him the next day. The answer came quickly: Yes, he had been collecting them for some 15 years; he had quite a head start on her. He started filling her inbox with photos; she sent him a link to hers on the web. Both peered deep into their monitors to get better looks so they could tick off what they had in common and, more important, what they had missed. It was shocking and delightful at the same time.

They were in agreement that flip-tops had been completely overlooked in print as collectibles, and their love of the tarnished lids with their dings and scratches and the piano hinges that allow them to open and close over the heavy glass and china bowls overwhelmed their competetive natures: They formed an alliance.

These pages are the result of two individuals sharing what little they know about the ware and its manufacturers. They welcome anyone with any information, or a different design of bowl, to e-mail, using the link above. It will be added to the site with due credit. And naturally, all offers to sell an unusual bowl are encouraged. John and Susan might fight over who gets to buy it, but they promise that no flip-tops will be harmed in the process.