Fruit Jar Rambles: Lutted's Cough Drops

from Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Medicine Chest: Gladstone's Celery & Pepsin

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

LUTTED’S COUGH DROPS

It’s not a fruit jar, but it’s a damned nicelooking product jar. The aqua, ground-lip jar in Photo 1 is approximately 11” tall and sports an unmarked, silver-plated metal screw cap. Its shape is appealing, but it suffers in popularity from being embossed with only the letters J. L. on the side, while the reverse (Photo 2) has a large, embossed five-pointed star. The embossed open fivepointed star (Photo 3) is filled with Lutted’s somewhat faded label, featuring a colorful American flag in the center, and above and to the sides it appears to read “Lutted’s Uncle Sam Cough Drops.” The jar’s main identification, however, is carried on the base, which reads JAMES LUTTED BUFFALO, N.Y. U.S.A.

James Oswald Lutted was born in Scotland, and after reportedly working a number of years as a sailor, he settled in Buffalo, New York, where he found work with Henry Hearne, an established candy manufacturer. In 1869, James Lutted was reportedly working with Henry Hearne, but by Sept. 14, 1876, the BUFFALO COURIER was running advertising for “James Lutted & Co. Manufacturers of strictly Pure Confectionery,” at 315 Main Street. This name style continued at least through September 1878, but by October 22, 1883, ads were being run just under the name James Lutted, or Lutted’s Candy Factory.

A series of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” trade cards was copyrighted in 1882, by the Onondaga Lith. Co., of Syracuse, New York, but it’s uncertain just when they were used to promote Lutted’s Cough Drops. Figure A shows one of the cards, with Mary and her lamb entering the school: “All Little Girls and Boys Use Lutted’s S. P. Cough Drops Because They Will Cure Their Colds. For Sale Everywhere.”

We first found mention of Lutted’s cough drops in a Dec. 13, 1884 advertisement

PHOTO 1

PHOTO 3

PHOTO 1: Eleven inch JAMES LUTTED jar. PHOTO 2: Embossed star and paper label. PHOTO 3: Star-shaped flag paper label. FIGURE A: "Mary Had A Little Lamb" trade card.

FIGURE A PHOTO 2

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

in THE EVENING STAR, of Washington, D.C., under the heading “Local Mention.” The blurb reads simply “For sale by druggists generally, Lutted’s S. P. cough drop. Ask for sample.”

The June 24, 1889 BUFFALO EVENING NEWS carried an ad for “The Lutted Candy Co.,” under which name he operated until 1893, when the September 28 ARGUS, of Albany, New York, reported the “Voluntary dissolution of The Lutted Candy Company.” Lutted’s history after this dissolution is sketchy, but it includes his being “arrested in his place of business, corner of Main and Seneca streets...on the charge of embezzlement.” He subsequently moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he died in 1915.

Lutted had also marketed his S. P. cough drops in tins (Photo 4), and it’s the 7” tall, 4 1/4” square, yellow-and-black painted tin on the left that answers the question posed by the glass jar’s S. P. embossing, “What does S. P. actually refer to?” This square tin with a round press-on cap is lettered on the front LUTTED’S SANS PAREIL S P COUGH DROPS. “Sans Pareil” is a French tern meaning “peerless’”or “without equal.”

The rectangular, beveled-corner tin with a corresponding press-on lid on the right of our photo reads, LUTTED’S S. P. COUGH DROPS JAMES LUTTED.

Prominent among the Lutted’s Cough Drop collectibles is a log cabin covereddish with lift-off roof, originally made by the Central Glass Co. of Wheeling, W.Va., which introduced the pattern in 1875 (Photo 5). The glass roof lid is embossed LUTTED’S S. P. COUGH DROPS. GENUINE HAS ‘J. L’ STAMPED ON EACH DROP, with the base of the cabin bottom embossed JAS. LUTTED BUFFALO. N.Y. U.S.A.

PHOTO 4: Two LUTTED'S COUGH DROP tins with press-on lids.

PHOTO 5: LUTTED'S S. P. COUGH DROPS log cabin.

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

Figure B shows a depiction of this covered-dish that appeared in a Jan. 6, 1886 ad in the BUFFALO (New York) EVENING NEWS; the log cabin has “Lutted’s S. P. Cough Drops”on the lift-off roof, with “For Sale Everywhere” below the cabin.

A later ad found for Lutted’s cough drops was in THE LENOIR TOPIC, of Lenoir, North Carolina, on Dec.12, 1888. “A convenient and pleasant cough medicine will be found in Lutted’s S. P. cough drops, price 5c. Respectfully, PENROSE BALDWIN. For sale at Baldwin’s Drug Store.”

Our last dated reference to Lutted’s Cough Drops appeared in a billhead reading, “Buffalo, N.Y. Jan. 30, 1893 The Lutted Candy Co., Incorporated Manufacturing Confectioners By Steam Factory and Salesroom 27 and 29 Ellicott Street Specialties: Cough Drops, Penny Goods, Fine Chocolates, Show Cases.” Figure C shows an earlier example of the same billhead dated Feb. 2, 1892.

Original Lutted log cabins are usually found in clear, with vaseline, blue, and amber reported. However, reproductions were being made in clear, amber, pink, green, and cobalt blue; reproduction lids are embossed only LUTTED’S S. P. COUGH DROPS, while the cabin bases bear only a planked wood grain design without the JAS. LUTTED lettering. In February 1999, the ANTIQUE & COLLECTORS REPRODUCTION NEWS reported that “Reproductions of the Lutted log cabin have been made since about 1991. New pieces wholesale for $10-12 each. New colors most often seen are clear, amber and blue.” And as long as the molds for the repro cabins exist, it’s possible that still more color variations may be produced.

A December 1992 Yield House catalog ad, of North Conway, New Hampshire, for the repro Lutted cabins is shown in Figure D, describing them as “New! Cobalt Collectibles. Our authentic antique reproductions are true cobalt glass. ‘Lutteds (sic) Cough Drops’ cabin: 7”h x 8 1/2”w... $29.90” And in Fall 2001, a NorthStyle catalog, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, offered the “Lutted’s S. P. Cough Drops” log cabin in cobalt glass for $24.95.

HUNTS FOR STILL; DIGS UP TREASURE

“AMERICUS, Ga. Sept. 16. — Digging into the ground on the Miller plantation, near Preston, in search of an illicit still, Sheriff C. M. Christian of Webster county recently unearthed a sealed glass fruit jar containing silver dollars, halves, quarters, dimes and nickels totaling $284.25. Nearby the sheriff found a stilling outfit, including a copper worm. A negro living in a house on the plantation where a small quantity of liquor was found was arrested and taken to Preston, but as yet no one has claimed the jar containing the buried money.”

–– Los Angeles [California] Herald, Volume XIV, Number 274, 16 September 1920.