Bixby Shoe Polish

[robertk]

Bottle Vitals​

	Date	Color	Shape	Size (Height x Diameter)	Value*
Bixby Shoe Polish	1880s	Aqua	Round cylinder	3.75" x 2.5"	$20.00

Bottle Views (click to enlarge):

Front	Back	Side	Side	Bottom
Patented Mch 6 '83				Bixby 1

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 is that if you weren't really careful, you wound up with shoe polish all over the outside of the bottle (and probably your hands, the floor, your clothes, and your furniture). He solved this problem by inventing a bottle with a trapped air chamber above the polish but below the point where the applicator came out of the bottle. This allowed the spongy applicator to expand into that air space and then the excess polish would get scraped off by the neck of the bottle itself, dripping back into the bottle rather than all over everything. He was granted a patent for this invention on March 6, 1883. That date was embossed on the bottles soon after. The bottle underwent some additional changes over time, including migrating to a squared off base for better stability, so this is one of the earlier versions of the bottle, likely from the mid 1880's. Before his invention of the bottle shown here, the polish came in a straight sided bottle, which you can find here.

The company expanded several times, but during the time of this bottle, 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).

It was sold in the US and Canada. Here's one of the advertisements that ran in Canada at the time.

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.

 

[Limitool]

Good job AGAIN... You slipped 3 past me. Now I gotta catch up...!