Attic Find

[Road Dog]

Was found this in an attic years ago. The Box was so fragile it crumbled away. However, it left a mint condition bottle inside complete with contents.

 

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[Harry Pristis]

Was found this in an attic years ago. The Box was so fragile it crumbled away. However, it left a mint condition bottle inside complete with contents.

Nice find! The labels made amazing claims prior to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906!

Here's one with a label and embossing on the other side. More amazing promises!

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Sarsaparilla was used as a treatment for serious diseases, including syphilis. Here is the translation of the label from a French sarsaparilla medicine, DR. GUSTIN'S RED SARSAPARILLA:

The best purifier of the blood

Red Sarsaparilla of Doctor Gustin

Contains an essence, concentrated against all the defects of the blood, gout, rheumatisms, afflictions of the skin, hardening of the arteries, and all the manifestations of arthritis.
Method of use: 2 to 3 spoonsful with soup per day.

2.50 francs per bottle
Principal repository:
Commercial Pharmacy of France
25 & 27 Drouot Street, Paris

I don't imagine it had to taste very good. If you are sick enough, you'll down just about anything to get well.

 

[Road Dog]

Nice labelled bottle. If it had the right amount of alcohol it all tasted good. Got any more?

 

[Harry Pristis]

Nice labelled bottle. If it had the right amount of alcohol it all tasted good. Got any more?

Sure, I've got more . . . but, it's your turn!

 

[Road Dog]

Here is a neat one. For internal and external use? WOW! Scary.

 

[Road Dog]

Here is a Dr. B.J. Kendall,s Blackberry Balsam. Cures Dysentery, Flax, Cholera, Cholera Morbus and Diarrhea.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here is a Dr. B.J. Kendall,s Blackberry Balsam. Cures Dysentery, Flax, Cholera, Cholera Morbus and Diarrhea.

Well, the DIOXOGEN is just hydrogen peroxide; but, you've got to wonder what was in the Blackberry Cordial that would cure dysentery and cholera!! Nice finds!

 

[Road Dog]

Yeah! Yummy. Anyone up for trying some? Here is a good one that is very hard to find with a label. It is Dr. E. Cooper's Universal Magnetic Balm. For Fever and Ague, Cough and Croup. Also, for toothache and burns too! This stuff is surely nothing short of miracle.(LOL) I collect this bottle and have 3 others. One is a light Sapphire Taper Top Open Pontil one (Only one I've seen, rare) . The other variation is a Ice Blue hinge mold with a flange lip.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Yeah! Yummy. Anyone up for trying some? Here is a good one that is very hard to find with a label. It is Dr. E. Cooper's Universal Magnetic Balm. For Fever and Ague, Cough and Croup. Also, for toothache and burns too! This stuff is surely nothing short of miracle.(LOL) I collect this bottle and have 3 others. One is a light Sapphire Taper Top Open Pontil one (Only one I've seen, rare) . The other variation is a Ice Blue hinge mold with a flange lip.

Nice bottles! I couldn't find a listing for your bottles in Knapp's 2006 Price Guide.

Collecting variants really appeals to me, and I do so whenever I have the opportunity.

Here's one that I like. Like your bottles above, this bottle is embossed with the label glued over the embossment.

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[Road Dog]

Kool looking bottle. I see it now and then without the label. If you see the Cooper's bottle listed at all it will be as Dr. E.C's Balm. Most folks aren't aware of the full name.

 

[Road Dog]

Let's not forget to take care of the Hair and Scalp too. This one is unopened and a label that fully encloses the bottle.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Ok, I found one variant alpha-listed under "E C". It's the 5-inch, tapered lip, OP bottle which Knapp listed at $33.00. Nice!

I don't think I've ever seen a wrap-around label quite like that Ayer's bottle. That's interesting!

 

[Road Dog]

Ok, I found one variant alpha-listed under "E C". It's the 5-inch, tapered lip, OP bottle which Knapp listed at $33.00. Nice!

I don't think I've ever seen a wrap-around label quite like that Ayer's bottle. That's interesting!

Price is off on that or it's a diff. Bottle. The plain Aqua no label usually goes for 20 to 25. The flange /hinge mold last I saw sold went for 50 -60. The pontil in light sapphire runs over 300. The Ayers has writing on all sides and on the bottom. There are 2 languages on this one. I think the other language is german maybe?

 

[Road Dog]

Here is a rolled lip open pontil bottle. An attic find with most of it's label intact. N.C. Brakenridge Wholesale Druggists Norwich Conn. I kinda wet toweled around the label to clean it was all.

 

[Harry Pristis]

I don't think I've ever seen a wrap-around label quite like that Ayer's bottle. That's interesting![/size][/font]

Price is off on that or it's a diff. Bottle. The plain Aqua no label usually goes for 20 to 25. The flange /hinge mold last I saw sold went for 50 -60. The pontil in light sapphire runs over 300. The Ayers has writing on all sides and on the bottom. There are 2 languages on this one. I think the other language is german maybe?
[/quote]
That price divergence doesn't surprise me (though I am disappointed in Knapp's coverage). The bottle that Knapp describes (and that may have been a single transaction, who knows) is aqua. Color is everything, pricewise, with medicines. Such is the nature of price guides, as collectors learn as we gain experience.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here is a rolled lip open pontil bottle. An attic find with most of it's label intact. N.C. Brakenridge Wholesale Druggists Norwich Conn. I kinda wet toweled around the label to clean it was all.

Nice little bottle! It's amazing that any of the label survived.

I have one of these little (4.35" tall), twelve-sided puffs on my shelf. All I am missing is any trace of a paper label!

 

[Road Dog]

I don't think I've ever seen a wrap-around label quite like that Ayer's bottle. That's interesting![/size][/font]

Price is off on that or it's a diff. Bottle. The plain Aqua no label usually goes for 20 to 25. The flange /hinge mold last I saw sold went for 50 -60. The pontil in light sapphire runs over 300. The Ayers has writing on all sides and on the bottom. There are 2 languages on this one. I think the other language is german maybe?

That price divergence doesn't surprise me (though I am disappointed in Knapp's coverage). The bottle that Knapp describes (and that may have been a single transaction, who knows) is aqua. Color is everything, pricewise, with medicines. Such is the nature of price guides, as collectors learn as we gain experience.
[/quote]I don't buy price guides much anymore for that reason. My books are mostly info based. Bought my Mckearins in 1978. Digger makes some nice pontil Med. books. Gave him a few pics to use on his last book. I do get a book that contains all the bottle auction sales to date across the country.

 

[Road Dog]

This bottle (my Avatar). is a basement find. Dr. Pinkham's Emmenagogue (say that three times real fast). These were reported to have been found in a store basement in the late 70's. There were 50 or so in a case and never been used or labeled. My guess is the med was never bottled and sold. One of these has never been dug by anyone. I read some fellow found (dug) one in South Carolina? It's a Open Pontil bottle and one of my favs. I think the med inside probably would have been something to cure illness peculiar to females.

 

[Harry Pristis]

<snip>
Such is the nature of price guides, as collectors learn as we gain experience.[/size][/font]

I don't buy price guides much anymore for that reason. My books are mostly info based. Bought my Mckearins in 1978. Digger makes some nice pontil Med. books. Gave him a few pics to use on his last book. I do get a book that contains all the bottle auction sales to date across the country.

Which McKearin book -- the Helen and George (1950) book or the McKearin-Wilson book (1978)? I have an extra copy of the 1950 book, if you need it.

I think we can be pretty confident that your bottle was intended to contain "something to cure illness peculiar to females" since an emmenagogue is "A drug or agent that induces or hastens menstrual flow." Perhaps Dr. Reno's was a similar preparation, put on the market after the word "emmenagogue" felll out of use.

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Yes, auction results are best. That's why I can be disappointed in Knapp's coverage. Matt Knapp maintained an auction-results web-page for years before he published this guide. He explains in the forward to the guide that values are based on 2000 to 2005 sales and auction results.

Of course, no guide could ever include all the medicines that are available, much less all the variants.

Just out of curiosity, how close does Knapp come with this one? (Remember 2000 - 2005 sales prices.)

#417 DR. PINKHAM'S EMMENAGOGUE, height 6", square shape, OP, tapered lip, aqua . . . . . . . . . . . . $129.00

I've never had a chance before now to compare current market values with these guide prices. I don't actively collect medicine bottles. The impression I have is that the market for better bottles outraces my ability and inclination to keep current with it. Thanks for this good information.

 

[Road Dog]

Not too bad. I've seen them go 150 or more. I got mine for 60 bucks years ago. I have the 1978 Mckearins.