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

antique bottles THE MEDICINE CHEST --- BY DR. RICHARD CANNON old bottles

It was late afternoon when our flight arrived in Denver. We decided to drive on up a way into the Colorado ski country before dark. By Idaho Springs, the sunlight had vanished and snowflakes were falling. We pulled into the Argo Motor Inn.

I was registering in the lobby when Sonja, my wife who always has a keen eye for antiques, said, “Look at this beautiful old safe!” I turned and couldn't believe my eyes as they read: H.H. Warner, Gen'l, Ag't / Rochester, N.Y. What collector doesn't love Warner's delightful old medicine bottles with the embossed safe?

We found that Laurie and Steve Marshall own the motor inn and safe. Laurie said that the safe had been in Denver since 1892 and was though to be new at the time; the Marshalls have owned it since 1979. It stands 54 inches tall, is black with fancy gold lettering which also includes Mosler / Bahmann & Co. / Cincinnati, on the upper front. There is an original painting in the upper corner of the front plus other decorative artwork. More paintings and decorative artwork grace the interior of the safe.

I remembered that Hubert Harrington Warner, 1842-1913 had owned an impressive safe business in Rochester, N.Y., before entering the proprietary medicine business in 1879, but that's about all I knew. Jack Stecher of Rochester, N.Y., Jerry Eger of Lebanon, Ohio and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County have contributed additional information about the history of the safe.

Warner was first in the hardware and stove business in Ann Arbor. Michigan. Bankruptcy ensued and he moved to Rochester in 1870, where he soon became an agent (dealer) for the Mosler Safe Company in Cincinnati. With this enterprise he experienced great success, particularly in selling safes to oil drillers in Titusville, Pa. where oil had been discovered in 1859. Warner weathered the depression of 1873, and became a millionaire by the end of the decade. At its peak the business had 200 salesmen on the road and was grossing two million dollars a year. Warner gave up the business in 1884, selling it to the parent firm in Cincinnati.

Gustav Mosler, 1816-1874, a newspaper editor in Austria, immigrated to Cincinnati in the 1840's. He and Fred Bahmann founded the Mosler-Bahman Safe Company with a factory on Pearl Street in Cincinnati in 1867.

American's industrial revolution began to blossom, and so did the safe business and renamed it the Mosler Safe Company. Soon the business was moved to larger quarters on Elm St. Growth continued and a new factory was built on Front St. and devoted entirely to burglar-proof work. It became incorporated under the name Mosler Bank Safe Co.

By the early 1880's, sales offices had been established in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Mexico City. Mosler had undoubtedly become the number one safe maker in the world.

After 1890, a 300,000 square foot plant was constructed in Hamilton, Ohio, and the Mosler Safe Co. exists there to this day.

The 1892 Williams Directory for Cincinnati lists the Mosler Bank Safe Co., 86 Elm and Hamilton, Moses Mosler, pres. And treas.; Wm. Mosler, vice pres. And secy. Max Mosler (grandson of Gustav?) was given as manager of the Cincinnati Branch of the Mosler Safe Co., 86 Elm. Gustav's widow, Mrs. S. Mosler, was also listed at her home, 540 1/2 W. 8^th.

In the same directory there is a listing for Mosler, Bahmann & Co. E.H. Austerlitz, pres. And treas.; Fred Naeher, vice pres. and supt.; Fred Naeher, Jr., secy.; Safe Manufs., 2-8 Kindel Ave. Hence two different companies existed in 1892, and probably nearly back to the death of Gustav. Fred Naeher was associated with Moses Mosler and Fred Bahmann in Kenny's Illustrated Cincinnati, which seems to be a late 1870's publication.

I asked Jack Stecher, the most knowledgeable Warner's collector I know how common Warner's safes are in his experience. He known of three others; none as fancy as the one in Idaho Springs. The others have plain fronts and are center split with hinges on both the right and left. There is one Museum of Maritime History in Newberry, Mass., which is lettered Mosler Bahmann & Co., Cincinnati, O., Warner, Stockbridge & Co., Agt's, Rochester. N.Y. There is an 1870 date in the dial and an 1875 date to a cobbler in Newberry Port. The safe from the Warner's building is still in a nearby machine shop in Rochester. The owner is the son of Jacob DeMay from the family that bought out the remnants of the Warner Co. from the English syndicate in the 1900s. The safe has been painted over so there's no visible lettering. Jack thinks the Idaho Springs safe is earlier than 1892, because Warner gave up the safe business in 1884.

A Warner's safe should be the ultimate go with for the Warner's collector. In this hobby, there's no telling what's going to turn up!

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