Posted 8 years ago
SpiritBear
(813 items)
This one is from a druggist in one of the two cities named Shelby here in Michigan.
The bottle I had picked up from an antique store at a decent price, later bringing it as "Best Acquired" to the Bottle Club. As a group of us were driving to the Club, the topic fell onto druggists and I mentioned that I had picked up a Beef Iron and Wine from a Shelby druggist.
Suddenly, one of the men asked if it had a cow on it.
So I looked at him and verified that, beginning to wonder if the bottle I could not find anything about the druggist on it-- let alone another of this bottle-- wasn't so rare after all.
But he went further:
"Is the label green?"
"Yeah, have you seen one before?"
"Is the label chewed up on the right?"
And it clicked to us both.
"You got my bottle." He grinned.
As it turned out, he was the owner of the booth I picked it up from. Go figure.
The medicine was a common one back in the day, one to give strength, essentially, to the weak and malnourished (common, interestingly, back then.)
The bottle has the Food and Drug Act statement on it, so it's after 1905.
The Club decided that it's a rare one from this unknown druggist as no one else but myself and the man had seen one before, each also having owned the same exact bottle.
This style is known as a strap-side flask, due to the "strap"-like band on the sides. Typical of whiskies and some medicine bottles.
It now displays a bit better (I fixed up its tattered edges and worn spots to look better) than it is photographed as.
Great looking bottle, and a cool story =)
Thanks. :)