LETTERS
to the Editor
A Clairvoyant Discovery Editor’s note: The letter below was received by AB&GC Medicine Chest columnist Joe Widman. Hello, Joe, I enjoyed your article in the recent issue of the magazine. I, too, like odd names in medicines, but I have not really collected them. The two that I have are rather odd, as they both deal with clairvoyance. One is a square, aqua 5 1/2 inches tall bottle embossed on three sides: DR. FITZGERALD’S / CLAIRVOYANT DISCOVERY / DEXTER MAINE. It’s early, maybe about 1880. I haven’t researched it much, so I can’t give you any info about it. This one I’ll sell. I just bought it a few years ago because of the word Clairvoyant on it. The second I am much more familiar with because I researched the woman heavily and even put together a Powerpoint program about her. Her clear bottles are usually embossed: MRS. J. H. R. MATTESON CLAIRVOYANT REMEDIES / BUFFALO, N.Y. There are variant embossings. Some say PSYCHIC REMEDIES on the side, also with her daughter’s name, NELLIE WHITCOMB, who sold the meds after her mother died. These are usually bimal bottles, later ABM ones. Mrs. M sold the meds at Lily Dale, N.Y., the “World’s Center for the Study of Spiritualism.” Lily Dale is about twelve miles from my home in Chautauqua Co., N.Y. She would go into trance and commune with her Indian spirit guides who would help her with the proper ingredients. The woman was brilliant and awarded for helping the homeless and destitute in Buffalo. She was a very giving person, and a published author, too.
2
Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
I have about twelve different Clairvoyant Remedies bottles, four with labels showing Mrs. M’s photograph. The bottles are kind of scarce and highly collectible. I gave three different duplicates I had to the Lily Dale Museum. I think I have two or three more duplicates. I look for them everywhere I go to see how many variants there are. I also have her business card. I’ll attach a picture of the bottles (at right and below). I didn’t take a pic of the Fitzgerald bottle yet, but I can send you one if you’d like to see it. Mainly I collect New York State redware and stoneware. If you get the bottle mag, you’ll see me on the cover of the January, 2017 issue with the second half of that article in the February issue. Look at those and you’ll see what I have collected for fifty years. I was on the cover of the November, 2019 issue with my son, and I was holding a Pike’s Peak flask on top of Pike’s Peak. That was FUN! Vince Martonis Gerry, New York
