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Bottle Vitals
| Date | Color | Shape | Size (Height x Diameter) | Value* | |
| Bixby Toyal Polish | 1880 | Clear | Round cylinder | 3.75" x 2" | $20.00 |
Bottle Views (click to enlarge):
| Front | Back | Side | Side | Bottom |
 |  |  |  |  |
| Patented Mch 6 '83 | Bixby 7 |
In 1860, Samuel Bixby operated a shoe store in New York. In his spare time, he made shoe polish in the basement. Apparently the shoe polish worked well, because that business took off. He formed the "S. M. Bixby & Co" company to manufacture the shoe polish as well as ink and glue.
By the 1880's, Mr. Bixby realized that one of the problems with shoe polish was the mess it could make, and invented a unique bottle design to solve this problem. You can find more about that bottle style here. That style was patented in 1883, and replaced the style of bottle shown here, making this bottle date to no later than 1882 or very early 1883.
The company expanded several times, and by the late 1880s, was in a six story building in New York.
The Polish was very popular and widely advertised, and sold for five cents a bottle (which was said to be unbeatable at any price).
As shown in the above advertisement, they offered blacking for men's shoes, and polish for women's shoes. This bottle would have been for women's shoes. I could not find any advertising for the period showing the straight sided bottle. However, I was able to find an example of this bottle style with the label still attached, and this is what it would have looked like (click to enlarge)
Bixby's bottles were quite distinct, with the word "Bixby" on the bottom with an exaggeratedly big "X". Some bottles had a number or a "dot" or both. It is not clear whether these were used as mold identifiers or if they had some other purpose.
I like this bottle because it has a tie to the one I dug at the Mystery House, though mine was just a fragment. But I also dug a shoe from that period, so its preservative powers must have been great indeed!
Here's the before and after. Just soap, water, brushes, and a scraper were used.
* Value is based on sold eBay listings at the time of posting, and vary considerably with condition.
