Posted 6 years ago
SpiritBear
(813 items)
On eBay not long ago I was looking through mostly disinteresting (to me) and over-priced (even to the seller) labeled bottles, trying to find something good at a price I like. While I already have two labeled Hoyt's Colognes and a 1880s trade-card for them, the Dr. D. B. Hand's Remedies for Children stood out in this lot.
I knew of the bottle from almost bidding (it soared way above what I was willing to pay) on one before. While not rare, with intact label the pre-FDA (pre-1906) ones are of fair value, selling for what I paid for this lot and then some.
They pretty much all look the same. I've seen only one other label on the older ones. It looks like D.B. Hand's Remedies for Children started in 1885. The newest ad for the company I saw in Google Books was 1915.
Word-for-word, the words on my label match an 1894 ad. Around 1906-1907, I assume 'Colic Cure' would have changed to 'Colic Remedy' on the label, as 'cure' vanished from 95% of bottles when the Food and Drug Act took effect and enforced its regulations by the late 00s. (I've seen only 2 1910s-1920s bottles that promise to cure certain diseases).
As for the other bottles, a Pitcher's (not Fletcher's) Castoria Oil, a Bay
Rum cologne from Larkin soap Co., an 1880s-1890s Hoyt's German Cologne, and a Madden's Drug Store from Bristol, Connecticut, in early 1907. All were in the lot.
As another note, it appears a few of these were full until recent times. If you have still-full antique bottles, don't empty them. Glue around the cork and ship with a balloon over the top (if there is no neck-label) to prevent leakage. Some of us want the product still in them!
As for the labels, don't wrap them in plastic. Put clean paper-towel around the label and then wrap in plastic for shipping/storage, but not too tightly. Old paper is fragile and plastic is harsh.
The graphics on the Hand's bottle are fantastic. Never seen that one before.
Thanks for sharing!
Bottle-Bud, I'll agree; they had a very nice pictorial. There was one that sold on eBay recently still in its original green wrapper. Can you imagine opening that up, seeing the colours and pristine label after 110-120 years? I always open the wrappers, and I like to think that no one has seen the likes in decades.
There's an even simpler cure for children. Don't have any ! They are too immature anyway ! LOL !!
Blunderbuss, LOL. Wrong cure.
I don't know. They may be as mature as they're supposed to be at their corresponding ages. You're just viewing from a different lense, a different place in life.
Further, age is just a number. Some people never grow up, just as some children seem very grown-up and 'wise beyond [their] years.'
OK, I'll concede your points. How about, I don't like the competition ! LOL !
Fair Trade and Competition in America. ;)
Competition, yes. Fair trade, no. LOL !
My mom goes about yelling, "Free child! Free child!" when my nephew and niece are with her. She used to do the same when I was young. LOL.
I've given a number of mothers & their children away in my time. Decided it's cheaper to rent. LOL. Think it was W.C. Fields who said, "I had a kid once, but it was too well done".
Or you can eat them, I suppose. Look at the book of Jeremiah, if I correctly recall. That book of the Bible tells of parents eating their own children due to famine!