Posted 7 years ago
SpiritBear
(813 items)
I now have two mid-1800s bottles with their labels still attached.
While the Castor Oil was exciting, it is a very common type of medicine, so my excitement lessened (mind you, I still like it) and I began to desire something more unique.
Whilst browsing e-Bay one evening, I came across a labeled pontil bottle called Great American Remedy For Colds, Coughs, Asthma, And All Diseases of the Chest and Lungs.
While such types of medicine have always been common, its name struck me as unique, and the price was acceptable. After a couple minutes of research, I found references in online scanned books to the exact description above as far back as 1845, and further back with "British" in place of "American".
So, I purchased it, and it shipped lighting-fast.
Sadly, the seller did not notice that the label was repaired (wherever this sat for eternity, it began to fall apart, but the finder found additional pieces and did a very good job putting it back together, but they had aged differently) and that the label was coated in something to preserve it (I hope it's not gonna yellow over time).
Still, I am happy with what it is, as the bottle itself is of mid 1840s to early 1850s American manufacture, and the label is original as I had seen under my loupe (the printing, aging, and damage is all correct).
Applied top, open pontil, cotton-pulp-blend label-- which should age better than straight-up paper-pulp as seen in the 1850s bottle at left.
Nice!
Happy I ran across this post, as my mind is always open to learn.
lovely pontil medicines the lips are fab & original labels what more could you ask for first class SpiritBear !!!!!!!!
Love the look of old glass, great find(s)
Karenoke, thank you. I use Google Books, which scans old directories and such for worldwide public use, to find much of my sourced historical information. The oldest reference I found came out of a scanned ad in a newspaper from Tennessee in 1845.
Malkey, thank you very much. I much prefer flared lips, but the rolled and applied tops look decent and are typical of American bottles of the day. As for what more could I ask, I once saw a labeled pontiled med circa the 1850s where they had used a coloured plate to stamp the label. It was beautiful.
Political Pinbacks, thank you. Someone else found them for me. I just happened along them in online auction and decided to go for 'em.
Very nice SpiritBear!
Tahiti1, thank you. Thought it has label damage, it was too good to pass up.