Ginger medicine!

pganjon · Aug 12, 2009

Hello Everyone! I was detecting during lunch in the woods and found a small surface Dump! Mostly broken glass and pieces of can and then out popped this :headbang:

"F Brown's Ess of Jamaica Ginger Philad a" Very Good shape :icon_thumright:

Mr Ripley · Aug 13, 2009

Very nice. Knapp's 2007 price guide shows it at 8 bucks.

Mr R

silvercop · Aug 13, 2009

Mackaydon · Aug 13, 2009

Jamaican Ginger Extract (known in the United States by the slang name Jake) was an early 20th century patent medicine that provided a convenient way to bypass Prohibition laws, since it contained between 70-80% ethanol by weight.

In the '30s some 30,000 to 50,000 users of Jake became paralyzed, some permanently, due to manfacturers adulterating the liquid to fool the revenuers.

Source: Wikipedia

pganjon · Aug 13, 2009

Thank you for your replies! This particular bottle has seams that stop at the beginning of the neck. I think it should be around an 1890's bottle. My kovels book is a 2006 and list it at $32.00, but reality set it when I found one sold on E-bay for $4.99. I guess the market fell a little since then :crybaby2:

It has an indention at the bottom and the book describes it as an open pontil. Still was exciting to find in all that broken glass :icon_thumright:

Mr Ripley · Aug 14, 2009

pganjon said:
Thank you for your replies! This particular bottle has seams that stop at the beginning of the neck. I think it should be around an 1890's bottle. My kovels book is a 2006 and list it at $32.00, but reality set it when I found one sold on E-bay for $4.99. I guess the market fell a little since then It has an indention at the bottom and the book describes it as an open pontil. Still was exciting to find in all that broken glass

The open pontil variety of your bottle would be worth every bit of $30, but I do not think that is what you have. A pontil mark is created when the glass blower snaps his pontil rod off of the bottom of the bottle after forming the neck and lip. Ordinarily this mark would be a small near circular pit in the glass itself, probably jagged and sharp if you ran your finger across it. Post a pic of the base to make sure.

http://www.sha.org/bottle/glassmaking.htm#Blowpipe or Open Pontil

Still a great bottle!

Mr R

pganjon · Aug 15, 2009

Here are three pictures of the Ginger bottle Mr R :help:

The indention at the bottom is very smooth and doesn't feel like it was snapped off a pontel rod! I also took a couple pictures of the neck. Do you think this is an 1890's or earlier bottle? The link that you sent about bottle identification was excellent :headbang:

Have a Good one :coffee2:

Paul

Mr Ripley · Aug 15, 2009

Hi Paul,

That particular indentation is not a pontil mark, just a feature of the mold that the bottle was blown into.

Looking at you neck pics, The seam does stop on the neck, and I think the 1890s ia a very reasonable age estimate for what you have.

Glad the link helped,

Mr R