Antique Medicine Bottles Dr Cannon's Medicine Chest

ANOTHER "PATENT MEDICINE ARTICLE" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

Blue glass has particular eye-appeal, and some specialize in collecting items in this color. It’s made by adding cobalt or copper to the basic recipe of sand, soda, and lime. Therefore, colored glass was more expensive to produce, so it is found less commonly in medicine bottles than the natural aqua color. From the time that Bromo-Seltzer was patented in 1889, the company used the familiar cobalt blue bottles, apparently because it was thought that light had a deleterious effect on the contents. Perhaps this reasoning was shared by the other manufacturers, or that the blue color might help sell their product.

I find 32 examples of cobalt blue and 7 examples of corn flower blue in my collection of glass medicine containers:

COBALT
1. Civil War: U.S.A. / Hosp. Dep’t in circle, oval, 6 7/8 inches tall; 5 3/4 inches tall, 2
1/2 inches tall.

2. Cough Drops: Lutted’s / S.P. Cough / Drops, log cabin dish, 7 inches tall,
probably an older reproduction.

3. Drug Store: Dickey / embossed mortar and pestle and within Pioneer / 1850 / then
below Chemist / S.F., rectangular, 5 3/4 inches tall.

4. O’Rourke & Hurley / Druggists & Pharmacists/507 Main Street / Little Falls, N.Y., oval, 4 1/8 inches tall.

6. Swank’s Pharmacy / Carpenter & Greene Sts. / Germantown, oval, 5 1/4 inches tall.

7. Drug Supply: Budwell’s Emulsion of Cod Liver Oil No.2 / With Guaiacal / And
Creosote Carbonate / Budwell Pharmacal Co., Lynchburg, Va., oval, 8 1/4 inches tall.

8. Chesbro’s Liquid / Corn Plaster/Chesbro Bros. / Williamtic, Ct., round, 2 inches tall.

9. Keasbey & Mattson Co. Ambler, Pa. around the shoulder, round, 5 7/8 inches tall.

10. Lactopeptine // The Best / Remedial Agent in All / Digestive Disorders // The New York
/ Pharmacal Association, square, 7 3/4 inches tall.

11 Peptenzyme // // Reed & Carnrick / Jersey City / N.J., square, 8 5/8 inches tall;

15. John Wyeth & Bro., square, 5 3/4 inches tall with Dose Cup embossed A Heaping Dessert Spoonful around This / Cup / Holds and the numbers 1-12 around the opposite rim.

16. Eye: Collyrium // Wyeth embossed on eye cup stopper or a round, ABM bottle, both 7 1/4 inches tall.

20. Proprietary Medicines: Bromo-Seltzer / Emerson / Drug Co. / Baltimore, Md.
round, 4 1/4 inches tall.

21. W.H. Hooker & Co. / Sole Agents / North & South America // Acker’s English Remedy // For The Throat & Lungs, rectangular, 3 5/8 inches tall.

23. Solomon’s / Strengthening & / Invigorating Bitters // // Savanna / Georgia, square, 9 5/8 inches tall.

26. Dr. Wynkoop’s / Katharismic Honduras / Sarsaparilla //New-York, blow-pipe pontil, rectangular, 10 1/8 inches tall.

28. Poisons: Melin & Badger / Apothecaries /Boston, Mass. // ribs each side, rectangular, beveled, 5 1/8 inches tall.

CORN FLOWER BLUE
1. Drug Supply: A over B in circle / Bishop’s, oval, 3 3/8 inches tall.

2. Bishop’s / Granular Citrate / Of Caffeine // Headaches Cured on bevel above and below, rectangular with beveling, 6 1/8 inches tall.

4. Phillips’ / Milk Of / Trade Mark and monogram in circle/ Magnesia / Reg’d. In U.S. Patent Office / Aug. 21, 1906, oval with strap sides, 6 7/8 inches tall.

5. Proprietary Medicines: Bromo / Caffeine, round, 3 1/4 inches tall; Clarke’s // World
Famed / Blood Mixture // Lincoln.

6. Veterinary: R.C. Trigger / Veterinary Surgeon / Newcastle, rectangular, 6 1/8 inches tall.

The Budwell’s, Solomon’s, Swift’s, U.S.A. Hosp., and Wynkoop’s are very desirable bottles and have served as past Medicine Chest subjects. So has the Lutted’s. I like the Embossed Eye bottle, and have not seen another example.
The Robinson is rare, and I purchased it from Gene Blasi of Louisville. In his book Louisville’s Early Medicine Bottles, 1992, he lists a square lip one plus R.A. Robinson & Co / Importers & Wholesale Druggists / Louisville, KY., square, 7 1/2 inches tall, and R.A. Robinson & Co./Importers & / Wholesale Druggists / Louisville, KY., rectangular, 6 inches tall, all cobalt and rare. Blasi gives an 1864 ad and an 1879 sales slip which indicates that R.A., Wm. A., and Worthington Robinson were officers of the company as well as Charles H. Pettet.

John Odell, Indian Bottles And Brands, 1977, had this to say about Kickapoo Sage Hair Tonic in

1992: “Healy and Bigelow had sold their interests in the Kickapoo Company and their successors, who

maintained the company name, were responsible for the introduction of this product. I know it was introduced quite late and have seen the labeled examples with the Food and Drug Act notice. The Kickapoo Sage Hair Tonic is very uncharacteristic of other Healy and Bigelow products”.

Bishop products may have been of Australian origin with a branch in San Francisco, but I’ve not been able to find out for sure. The Clark’s appears to be English. It was advertised in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1980.

I have no information on the Chesbro Brothers of Williamtic, Ct. This is not the same as Chesebrough of New York who put out Vaseline.
The other items are from fairly well known sources and are reviewed by Richard Fike in The Bottle Book, 1987.
I cannot leave this subject without again commenting on Dr. Sam Greer’s giant

Wynkoop’s Sarsaparilla For The Blood. He even took it out of the case and let me hold it. It went for a cool $36,000 in the auction! When viewing another’s collection, one should always wait to let the owner decide whether a specimen is to be handled. Then if you break it, it was broken in a nice way.....

References:
12. Cannon, R.: Civil War Medicine In Glass, Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, Jun, 1991.
2. Ibid.: Lutted’s S.P. Cough Drops, AB & GC, Jan., 1997.
3. Ibid.: Fishy Medicine, AB & GC, March, 1989.
4. Ibid.: More Hall, Budwell, and Craighill, AB & GC, More Hall, Budwell, and Craighill, Jan., 1992.
5. Ibid.: The Invigorators, AB & GC, July 1990.
6. Ibid.: Swift’s Syphilitic Specific And Billy Bowlegs, AB & GC, Oct., 1992.
7. Ibid.: Honduras Sarsaparilla, AB & GC.
8. Munsy, C.: Bromo-Seltzer, Bottles & Extras, Jun, 1992.

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