Sample Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, and Comstock's Dead Shot Worm Pellets - This is very neat sample "envelope" of the famous patent medicine product which was first produced in the 1830s.  This items appears to date from the late 19th century or early 20th and is sealed with the original "pills" and "pellets" still included within!  This item is like a small first class mail envelope except that it is only 3.2" by 2" in size.  Still fully sealed - never opened - and in great condition as it still has a crisp and solid feeling with only some mild soiling and a tiny (2 mm) tear on the top (above the "P" in SAMPLE).  Dr. Morse's Pills was bottled in a small pill bottle; the company history and bottle is outlined in one of Dr. Cannon's great articles from AB&GC Magazine (on the Glass Works Auctions site) at this link: http://www.glswrk-auction.com/073.htm  Great go-with for the medicine bottle collector...or just bottle collectors in general.  $15

DR. MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS advertising Confederate Currency - Here is another medicine go-with and again for Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills.  This is a "FAC-SIMILE" (sez so on the front!) of a Confederate $20 bill that was given out as an advertising flier for the famous patent medicine in the late 1800s or very early 1900s.  (Not sure why the company felt compelled to say "Fac-simile" since CSA currency was of no value for many decades already?)  The advertising part on the reverse notes it was a "...specific cure for most of the Blood, Stomach and Liver Diseases."  The pills were also for "...Giddiness, Headache and are most useful for female disorders."  No comment on the latter claims; click on the images above to see much larger, better quality scans of this fake Confederate bank note that measures 7" by 3".  This IS the real thing and not a modern reproduction (which I've never seen anyway).  I picked this up - actually two examples - in a lot of weird bank or bank-like notes at a numismatic auction decades ago when I had a bout of coin and paper money collecting.  This item is essentially pristine with no stains, rips, or other issues...just a couple very faint creases which can't even be seen in the scans.  A fantastic and certainly rare go-with quack medicine item that is in fantastic shape.  $20

JOYS - SARSAPARILLA - THE / EDWIN W. JOY CO. / SAN FRANCISCO - I sold one of these some time back, but found another in box I didn't know I had.  The embossing is scattered on three sides of this rectangular medicine bottle from California; the remaining (back) side is a typical plain, indented label panel.  Actually, all of the sides are indented and the embossing is bold and distinct - sometimes these are not that boldly embossed in my experience.  (For a better view of what both side panels embossing looks like, see the previously sold example images in the "sold" section below.)  This is also a very nice example in a "Western" bluish aqua, tooled single collar ("patent" finish), smooth slightly indented base, almost 9" tall, ca. 1880s to 1890s.  A scarce sarsaparilla from the West which didn't produce very many embossed sarsaparilla bottles it seems (and most of those are quite rare).  Condition is near mint with no chips, cracks, overt staining or other post-production damage besides a tiny "flea bite" on the middle of the outside edge of the back, unembossed panel and a little bit of very faint haze inside primarily in the lower back and one side panel; the outside is virtually spotless.  This example also has some body crudeness and bubbles in the glass adding to its visual appeal.  It is what I would call "about mint" and is also a very nice example - at least as good as the sold one.  $50

NOTE: I also have another example that is identical - a nice blue aqua (just a tiny bit less blue than the example to the right) - but is full of hundreds of seed bottles and has nice rude, wavy glass, stretch marks in the glass, and is a very nice example.  It is also in essentially mint condition but does have a couple small almost invisible "flashes" at the edge of the base; pictures on request if desired.  A beautiful example and priced accordingly given the small flashes.   $30

ROWAN'S - TONIC - MIXTURE - OR / VEGETABLE - FEBRIFUGE - PHILADA - This bottle is one of the oldest I have for sale and among the earliest embossed patent medicines bottles made in the United States.  It is also one of a small handful of over 4 sided medicine bottles that are embossed on every side - six embossed sides in this case.  And if that were not enough it is also unusual in that it has "left hand" embossing, i.e., it reads from the base to the shoulder (and best read holding it in ones left hand) whereas the vast majority of vertically embossed bottles read "right handed."

According to the late John Odell's book on pontiled medicines (a great book BTW!) the product first claimed to have been sold in 1830 and continued (apparently) until about 1843 when it was renamed "Rowan's Improved Tonic..." and the bottles (likely) began to be embossed as such (I believe IMPROVED / TONIC on one side?).  Not sure of the precise dates of manufacture, but suffice to say 1830s and 1840s...early!

In any event these are early, crude, and light glass bottles that have a lot of appeal for an aqua medicine bottle.  It is about 5.5" tall, blown in a true two-piece "hinge" mold, and sports a nice blowpipe style pontil scar; click base view to see such.  The lip is a short, tapered banded example that was tooled or rolled over to the outside to form it.  The surface of the bottle is very wavy, lumpy and crude which is largely a function it appears of the rough, unpolished surface of the likely iron mold it was made it.  The bottle also appears to have been professionally cleaned at some point and there is still some faint surface etching visible on most of the sides.  However, it is very hard to see due to the noted crude "as blown" surface and is non-distracting.  Outside of the noted glass surface issue, the bottle is otherwise in about perfect condition with no chips, cracks, dings, flashes, or other issues.  Great bottle that is one of the earliest of the "medicinal tonic" bottles I've collected.  $100

NASH'S / RHEUMATIC AND / KIDNEY REMEDY - This is a cute little (3 3/8") amber medicine bottle which is from the S. Nash & Co., Detroit, MI. according to Matt Knapp's massive 2012 book "Antique American Medicine Bottles".  One of the easiest ways to get your own embossed "proprietary" bottle was to order a plate (aka "slug plate") from a glass company engraved with what you wanted embossed on the bottle.  It was then inserted into an existing mold and viola!  You've got your own custom made bottle.  (Ordering custom, non-plate molds was many times the price of just having a plate made up.)

An example of the above is this bottle which is embossed on the base (W. T. CO. / S / U. S. A.) with the makers marking for the Whitall, Tatum & Co. This NJ company had to be the top producer of various druggist/apothecary bottles in the U.S. from the late 1870s until the early the 1920s.  According to their 1880 catalog, the plates cost "One dollar and fifty cents to six dollars each for engraving" along with a list of all the druggist style bottles they had plate "moulds" for including the "Philadelphia Oval" which is what the offered bottle style is.  According to our article on the company (on my other educational website at the following link: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/WhitallTatum1.pdf ) the noted base marking was used from about 1890 to 1901 dating this bottle pretty tightly.

The bottle itself is the previously noted height and nice bright medium golden amber color, has a typical tooled "prescription" style finish or lip, and the noted embossing on the indented oval base.  Condition is essentially mint with a light scratch on the back, just the faintest dullness on the body in a few places (essentially invisible) and an equally invisible small (1-2mm) roughness to the edge of the lip...not chipped but just a miniscule bit of roughness that can be felt.  Nice example of what is likely a scarce medicine bottle.  Knapp's book also notes that the likely preceding bottle (same height and color) was embossed with "CURE" instead of "REMEDY." Different plate for different times I guess.  $20

Embossed Owl on a druggist's mortar & pestle - THE OWL DRUG CO. - Bottle collectors all over the country are quite familiar with the plethora of different bottles used by this national drug store chain during it's many decades of operation. Richard Fike's great 1987 book on medicine bottles notes that the company was established at 1128 Market Street in San Francisco in 1892 (that original office was destroyed by the great 1906 earthquake) and eventually went national.  The company became affiliated with the Rexall Drug Co. in 1919 and ceased business under the old name in the early 1930s.  (I also have one of the emerald green "citrate of magnesia" bottles for sale on the Western bottles page).

This large example (just under 8" tall, 3.25" wide and 2" deep) of their standard rectangular bottle is interesting in that it has the classic one wing owl on the front which was primarily used on their mouth-blown bottles.  However, this example was produced by an early semi-automatic machine (more below) in the early to mid 1910s and likely during the transition from the one to the two winged owls.  Click close-up of the one wing owl to see the details which includes TODCo on the mortar and TRADE MARK at it's base. 

I understood that these rectangular bottles, which they used for all variety of their liquid products, that the single wings were always mouth-blown with a tooled prescription finish (like this example) and the machine-made ones were two winged owls.  I'm not an expert with the myriad of bottles used by TODCo. but this is likely a rare exception to that "rule."  This bottle also has the script embossing on the back shoulder of THE OWL DRUG Co. with plenty of room below for the paper label that noted what product that was bottled in that particular bottle.  I also don't know if this is the largest of this style bottle, but must be on the upper end of that run as it likely held about a pint. 

Several interesting features can be observed on this unusual bottle; features which might help pin down which machine produced this bottle.  One distinct feature - though is somewhat common with most earlier machines - are offset vertical side mold seams.  This is a function of the use of two molds to produce bottles on a machine - the first "ring" mold which held the gob of glass by the finish/lip and neck followed by a 45 degree rotation of that mold as it moved the yet-to-be-blown bottle into the "blow" mold.  The offset mold seams are visible at the following link - click image of the shoulder, neck and finish.  It shows the body (blow mold) seam coming up the left side of the image onto the shoulder then disappearing in the neck; the neck ring seam is to the right side of the neck and starts on the shoulder and runs up to another mold seam which is found on the extreme outside edge of the upper finish. 

Of interest also is that there is no continuation of the side mold seams onto the upper surface of the finish; the mold seams end at the noted edge of the finish seam.  Click view of the top of the finish to see this lack of a mold seam on the upper finish surface - a common attribute on most other machines including the "individual section" machines used today.  One other visible attribute is the faint oval mold seam on the base of the bottle which was NOT induced by an Owen Automatic Bottle Machine (a scar which is way more sloppy).  Click base view to see this faint fine line of the seam which was formed by the ring mold during the first mold part of the blowing cycle.  (Note:  The machine likely used to make this early20th century bottle was the O'Neill Semi-automatic Machine which was one of the first machine capable of producing a narrow mouth bottle and contemporary with the Owens machine.  If interested, this machine is discussed in depth in an article found on my educational Historic Bottle Website at this link - https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/ONeillmachines.pdf  )

The bottle was found by a friend I worked with for years who didn't collect bottles and gave it to me.  It was found out on the rangelands of Eastern Oregon (private land) many years back having naturally turned a nice shade of lavender from its century or so laying out in the sagebrush and juniper country.  No irradiation enhancement here!  Since TODCo. also sold liquor - and actually had a few styles devoted to their liquor business (very rare) - I suspect that was what was in this bottle but we will never know for sure.  I can picture the cowboy herding cattle into the sunset with a final nip to end the day.  Condition of the bottle is about mint with just some wisps of dirt inside that will clean out, a few minor scratches and a very small (5mm x 3mm) bubble near the back base (visible in the back image above) which has a tiny pin hole in the covering glass.  It also has a few bubbles in the glass befitting it's early machine heritage.  That along with the nice amethyst tint makes it a great addition to an Owl Drug collection or any other collection.  Time to pass it on to another appreciative collector.   $50

PAINES - CELERY COMPOUND with complete labels! -  This is a great and rare example of a common bottle.  This example has both labels still present - the front one is 95+% complete and the rear one essentially 100% complete.  To top it off the bottle is a beautiful light to medium golden amber, has various bubbles in the glass, and it has a true applied "brandy" style finish (aka "lip") with a bit of slopover.  Having never been buried the bottle has no staining inside or out and is in perfect mint condition.  Click on the images to the right to view larger versions of those pics.

Click the following links to see additional images of the bottle:  PAINES embossing side; CELERY COMPOUND embossing side; close-up of the upper body, shoulder, neck and applied finish. 

According to Richard Fike's great (1987) book on medicine bottles, the product was first introduced in 1882 and made at least into the 1920s.  It was a popular patent medicine for a wide variety of different ills.  This early (mid to late 1880s) example has labeling (image to the immediate right) which notes that the product "Restores Strength, Renews Vitality, Purifies the Blood, Regulates the Kidneys, Liver and Bowels" - all for a dollar a bottle!

As fine an example as one can get of this bottle.  $40 

Wm. R. WARNER & Co. / (fancy W & Co mongram) / PHILA. ST.LOUIS. -  That is embossed on one side of this large "French Square" (a bottle catalog name) type medicine bottle.  This style was commonly used for druggist bottles since the mid-19th century though saw a lot of duty with patent medicines, bitters, and likely other liquid products.  This example has 99+% of the original label on the back noting that it contained Warner & Co.'s "Liquid Pancreopepsine" which was for "Indigestion."  Click on the image to the left to read everything on the label...always a fascinating read with these old medicines.  The label notes near the bottom in small print that it (label) was "Revision 1918a" pretty well dating the bottle to that year which was just before National Prohibition.

Below the embossing is another small label which reads: Notice: This preparation has been made with non-beverage alcohol, and the sale or use thereof for beverage purposes will render the vendor and user liable to severe penalties."  Wow!  Obviously a reflection of the times where many states had already gone "dry" and with National Prohibition all but inevitable within a year or so.

The bottle has a tooled "prescription" finish (again, a bottle makers name for that style lip), is 8" tall and almost 2.5" wide to each of the square sides (likely holds about a pint), and has a slightly indented base with no embossing.  I would date this bottle to the first two decades of the 20th century if it didn't have a label noting that it was likely bottled/used made in 1918.  (Note: Hand blown - aka mouth-blown - druggist bottles of various style were made by some bottle makers into at least the mid-1920s before being totally overwhelmed by the cheaper and generally higher quality machine-made versions and styles.) 

This bottle is essentially mint with just the tiniest of "pin prick" marks on the edge of the lip; otherwise no cracks, chips, staining (except that visible on the labels), or other post-production issues.  Something for your labeled and embossed collection.  $25   

PURE EXTRACT JAMAICA GINGER labeled small shoo-fly flask - Jamaica Ginger - a type of medicine - was typically bottled in small, oval in cross-section, "ginger oval" bottles as they were called by bottle makers. Click HERE to see an example of a couple standard "ginger ovals" offered by the Illinois Glass Company in 1906 (left page center).  

However, the product was very frequently bottled in other shapes including paneled extract bottles as well as smaller shoo-fly flask like the offering here.  A large collection of original, labeled Jamaica Ginger bottles was auctioned on eBay recently with most of the bottles not being the standard ginger oval; this bottle was one from that collection.  (Note: I cover Jamaica Ginger on my educational Historic Glass Bottle ID & Information Website at THIS LINK; scroll down that linked section until one finds a Jamaica Ginger bottle. I purchased this bottle to illustrate on that page; it will be added in the near future.)

Anyway, this example has the original label which reads "Pure Extract Jamaica Ginger Alcohol 95%, Guaranteed by Kimball Bros. & Co. Under the Food and Drugs Act, June 30th, 1906, Serial Number 2310, Prepared By Kimball Bros & Co. Enosburg Falls, VT."  With it being 190 proof there couldn't have been much "ginger" in the product - the alleged active medicinal ingredient! Also, that was a much higher percentage of alcohol than the 80-100 proof whiskey that shoo-fly flasks were typically used for. 

For more information on Jamaica Ginger see the following article by the late Dr. Munsey posted on my other website:  
Munsey, Cecil.  2006.  Paralysis in a Bottle (The “Jake Walk” Story).  Bottles and Extras 17(1):7-12 (Winter 2006).   Very interesting article on Jamaica Ginger and the bottles that held it.  This article is also available on this website at this link:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/JakeWalkStoryMunsey.pdf

This little shoo-fly is mouth-blown, 5" tall, colorless (aka "clear") glass, and has a tooled "brandy" finish like most such flasks.  It is in mint condition and the label is 100% intact with just some light staining to the back primarily; a label that is certainly original.  The base is boldly embossed with an "O" in a flattened diamond.  (Click HERE to see a base image.)  That the relatively rare to find makers marking attributed to the Oakman Manufacturing Company (Cheshire, Mass.) who used that marking on bottles from 1890 to 1897.  See THIS ARTICLE on my educational website which discusses that marking.  Given the date this bottle was produced and the original appearance of the label on this bottle, it was likely a reuse of a bottle used previously for liquor - the reuse of bottles by small producers very common in that era.  In any event, a perfect bottle and label for a notorious product that was on its way out beginning with the 1906 act proudly noted on the label.  $25

S.S.S. - Swift Specific Company, Atlanta, Georgia - SSS "Blood Medicine" - This is a body unembossed, label only, early machine-made proprietary medicine from the 1920s.  It contained the blood medicine produced by the Swift Specific Company (Atlanta, GA.).  This company earlier produced Swift's Syphilitic Specific - which was bottled in a large cobalt blue bottle (image courtesy of Glass Works Auctions) - in the 1870s and 1880s to treat that malady noted in the name.  It was the origin of this later (more genteel) product name of simply S.S.S. with the original meaning of the middle "S" being strangely not mentioned (ha!). Amazingly, SSS is still being produced and marketed by Wal-Mart today...or at least up to just a few years ago!  That certainly indicates that the company managed many "go-arounds" for at least 125 years in order to meet the ever restrictive regulatory environment for such medicines...and that the product continued to be popular with customers!?

The label notes that it "Contains 12% Alcohol" as well as the notation about the contents - "A Vegetable Compound which we recommend as a general Alterative Tonic and in the treatment of such forms of Rheumatism and Skin Diseases as arise from an impoverished condition of the Blood."  (In a word - syphilis.) The base is embossed with "CHATT. CO." - which indicates the bottle was made by the Chattanooga Glass Co. (Tennessee) which used the marking from 1918 to 1934.  See the article at the following link for the full story:  https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/ChattanoogaGlass.pdf   (This actual bottle is the one on page 237 of that article used to illustrate that marking!)  This bottle with the cork closure lip (cork still present als0) likely dates from the first half of that period, i.e., 1918 to mid-1920s.  It has about 99% of the label intact and easily readable as the image indicates; click to view a larger version of the image.  It is of a nice yellow amber color, 7.3" tall, and what I would call a "strap side oval" style of bottle.  The bottle itself is mint as one would expect as it was never buried.  Great historical item from a company that originally advertised it product via an cast iron "witches kettle" that was embossed with S. S. S. FOR THE BLOOD (image of one of those pots HERE).  I remember seeing years ago the trade mark for the product which included the witches around the pot mixing up a batch.  Cool history!  $20

THREE MILK GLASS LOTION/SKIN "CURE" BOTTLES - Here are three pretty nice milk glass "skin medicine" bottles that likely came in lotion form.  Two are different mold varieties of the HAGEN'S / MAGNOLIA / BALM (individual images of both HERE and HERE).  The other is embossed with G. W. LAIRD / PERFUMERS / NEW YORK; click HERE to see a close-up of this bottle.

Hagan's Magnolia Balm held a skin cream for "Beautifying the Complexion, Eradicating Freckles, Eruptions, Sunburn and Tan" (Fike 1987). Early sunscreen?  The Balm was first produced prior to the Civil War and made until well into the 20th century by several different New York companies during it's long tenure.  Bottles are about 5" tall, rectangular with beveled corners, what appear to be somewhat crude applied "patent" finishes/lips, and smooth (not pontiled) bases with no embossing. 

Laird's was advertised as early as 1864 and as late as 1915 according to Richards Fike's book. What it contained is not noted but certainly some product similar to the Hagan's since all of these bottles were found together decades ago in Oregon. The Laird's bottle is a bit over 4.5" tall, has a tooled and fairly flat "patent" finish, and a similar body conformation as the Hagan's except a bit wider and not as deep (see base images above.)  Click HERE for another view of all three bottles showing both the bases and the side embossing.

Condition of both Hagan's is very good with some largely invisible iridescence to the outside surface (because of the milk glass).  Both have very tiny, less than a pin prick nick on the back edge of the lip; no chips, cracks or other issues.  Both likely date from the late 1870s or 1880s as they exhibit no air venting markings. As the images show one has very bold embossing (to the right in image to right); the other has flattened embossing which is quite readable and a bit of grey-ish stain (?) highlighting to some of the letters (possibly from contact with something in the ground?).  Click on the links to the individual bottles earlier in this listing.  Condition of the Laird's is also very good with no chips or cracks - just some of that almost invisible iridescence from being buried for a century or so.  All of the bottles have a few of the commonly seen - on most milk glass bottles - stress lines on the top surface of the lip.  Don't know why that occurs but it is ubiquitous to most all such bottles made of milk glass.  Nice set for beginning or rounding out a milk glass bottle collection.  $45

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