Posted 12 years ago
junquecoll…
(1 item)
This bottle was in a lot of bottles that I bought online. I was intrigued
when I saw this on in the picture. I knew that it was a pharmaceutical bottle but it had a perfume label on it. Otis Clapp & Son is the company name on both labels. Otis Clapp started a pharmacy in 1840 located in Boston. This company made numerous pharmacecutical products. I can't find any connection between the Otis Clapp & Son Co and this or any other perfume. I also can't find anything about this particular fragrance. I wander if it is one of their own creation. They were chemists and who knows this might have been their own creation. This bottle has 2 labels. The top one is a beautiful embossed gold label with Rusalka and Otis Clapp name on it. The bottom one has 3 7/8 Fluid Ounce - Rusalka Toilet Water - Made in U.S.A by Ottis Clapp & Son Incorporated - Boston & Providence. It stands 5" tall.
That embossed label is stunning. I think it would have been one of their own creations. Just a guess though.
Here's a little history to put with your OtisClap bottle.In 1957 I was a salesman for Otis Clapp, then well into its second century and managed by the third generation of Clapps. T.Wilkerson Clapp was enchanted by the Dvorzak opera Rusalka and soon made a cosmetic line under that name. I was particularly fond of the talcum powder. The original scent was dusky and romantic, according to Clapp, a sixth generation Yankee not much given to extravagant words. OC had three retail stores - two in Massachusetts, one in Providence, RI - the main styore was a landmark on Boylston Street, Boston, near many of the old families who favored his wares. There was also a wholesale pharmaceutical operation and OC was a pioneer in packaging for the industrial medicine business. A troop of seven salespeople traveled in New England and New York. Sales for the retail products like Ruisalka were world-wide. Eventually, some years after I moved on, Clapp found no one in his family willing to carry on the business and sold it all to two men who retained only the industrial products and the name. They moved the manufacturing from Boston to Cambridge where they continue. A coupolke oif additional items: Most aspects of the manufacturing took place in the cvarriage house of Oliver Ames, one of the partners of the Union Pacific Railway. It was a magnificent building with cork flooring, tile and marble walls, etc. While I was employed there, certain items were packaged inFrench mold bottle supplied by the commercial division of Tiffany and Company. Clapp was then the last manufacturer in this country of homeopathic tinctures, tablets and collyria, now returning to favor. You can see from the label that his goods were considered elegant but affordable. I 'm sorry that the current generations cannot enjoy those old scents, lotions, soap, etc. Enjoy your find. Carleton Cronin