Antique medicine bottles

Medicinal bottles are probably the largest and most diverse group of bottles produced during the era covered by this website - the 19th through mid 20th centuries, antique medicine bottles. To quote Fike on medicine bottles - "Literally hundreds of thousands of brands and variations of vessels were manufactured

Vintage Medicine Bag. Black and white leather doctor bag with several glass bottles of herbs, tinctures, and home. Set of assorted old fashioned labels with bottle. Just place label over bottle to customize. Old apothecary. Vintage bottles on wooden shelves. Seamless background.

Antique medicine bottles

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These jars are typical of the style which were usually closured with ground glass shank stoppers that matched perfectly with the ground bore; click bore view to see such. However, antique medicine bottles, a very large majority of embossed Hostetter's Bitters were made in shades of amber glass from the s into the s and beyond in apparently other types of bottles. Antique medicine bottles shape is generally typical of various early screw threaded utility type multiple-use medicinal bottles made from the s to s with an almost "art nouveau" look to the overall design.

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Department of the Interior, administers and manages over million surface acres of America's public lands, located primarily in 11 Western States and Alaska. Part of the mission of the BLM is the management and preservation of the cultural and heritage resources found on America's public lands - prehistoric and historic. The author initiated this website in through as a BLM employee and since then continues to update and enhance the site in retirement as a volunteer. What is the age of the bottle? What type of bottle is it? This entire website is essentially a "key" - albeit a complex one - to the dating and typing typology of historic bottles. In addition, this site also assists the user with these questions:. What technology, techniques, or processes were used to manufacture the bottle? Where can I go for more information on historic bottles?

Antique medicine bottles

Vintage medicine bottles' charm comes from their brightly colored, sometimes unusually shaped, appearance particularly when they are placed against the standard white capped, orange medicine bottles the world is used to today. Given that the pharmaceutical world from a hundred years ago is much different from the industry today, the possibilities are endless for finding vintage medicine bottles in every shape, color, and size. Since there was certainly no lack of sick people in the past, there is currently a bountiful collector's market you can spend hours perusing.

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Like with all aspects of bottle dating and typology , there are always exceptions to be found though that does not eliminate the utility of most dating and typology trends which should be used in conjunction with the manufacturing related diagnostic features and historical information as available. An antique glass poison bottle with antidote instructions. John C. The use of the word "tonic" in the name of these products was likely an enhanced attempt to imply medicinal qualities to basically the same product. Louis Good were in business together from to , with Blackman continuing on alone after that time Anonymous no date; pers. Isolated on white. Druggist bottles with the air venting marks incorporated into the plate related embossing almost surely date after and probably date after However, they exhibit machine-made characteristics and distinctive base embossing. Townsend's Sarsaparilla with the "OLD" added to differentiate and presumably make it sound like the originator Shimko There is no base embossing outside of a meaningless mold number "6". Beyond the glass thickness and neck attributes - which are of course not medicinal group unique characteristics - there is little else that physically differentiates the extremely diverse medicinal bottle group from other groups. The grouping of small 3" [8 cm] to 5" [13 cm] aqua bottles pictured to the left are an assortment of very typical pontil scarred "utility" type bottles that date from the s to mid s all were excavated in the West , have no embossing, and were most commonly used for medicinal products. A vintage bottle. This style variation was referred to by bottle makers as the "rounded square" Illinois Glass Co. National Prohibition largely implemented in ; fully by January

Antique medicine bottles are old-school bottles that have the information needed to figure out the age of the bottle and the location of its production.

Click on the following links to see more images of this bottle: base view showing the blowpipe pontil scar; shoulder, neck, and finish showing the crudely applied patent or extract finish. The three dark amber bottles or jars pictured above left have the makers markings T. The pictured bottle is one of several very similar variations of half pint "druggist" style bottles he used during those years. These large, indefinite use bottles and jars were also called "shelf ware," "shelfware," "counter ware," "recess ware" bottles with the indented labels , and probably other names Illinois Glass Co. Instead dating must be approached based on manufacturing based diagnostic features or through research of the historical record. Note the large air bubble in the picture. This style of square druggist bottle with rounded corners and a flared finish type seem to date mostly from the to Vintage Apothecary Medicine. The patent date along with the noted catalog information indicates this bottle was popular from until at least the early s, this being an earlier example indicated by the date code. The lighter aqua example on the right is also embossed on the two narrow side panels both indented also with A. It is also possible that these techniques were easier to adapt to smaller, lighter bottles - which most druggist bottles are - than with larger heavier items like beer and soda bottles. This bottle likely dates from a bit later than that time though could possibly date as early as However, the shape was still being offered without proprietary embossing used with labels and external screw threads s on well into the 20th century Obear-Nester ; Whitall Tatum ; Owens-Illinois Co. Vintage Pharmacy. A one page PDF file detailing the history is available at the following link: Wm.