Letters to the Editor

to the Editor

Setting the Record Straight

Hello, my name is Peter McQuade. In your February issue, there was an article about Addiction Cure bottles. The last bottle, Grant Goldcura for Liquor and Drug Habits shows a picture of the Collins Opium Habit Cure, not the Grants. Enclosed (above) is a photo of a Grants I dug 42 years ago.

Excellent article Joe Widman. Hope this is of some help to you.

Peter McQuade Concord, Vermont

A Little Help in Locating a Family Bottle

Hi, AB&GC Readers,

My name is Kelly Smith and I live in Naples, Florida, formerly from Port Huron, Michigan. I’m a member of Antique Bottle Collector’s on Facebook. Members there suggested that I get in contact with you.

I posted my great-grandfather Edward R. O’Neil’s pharmacy bottle. He owned and operated his pharmacy for fifty years in Port Huron on Railroad St. from1912 to roughly 1964. He received an award in 1964 for 50 years in service and passed away in 1965. He graduated from Ferris State College in 1911.

My cousin sent a photo of the family bottle (bottom right). It is embossed “The Tunnel Drug Store / E.R. O’Neil / Port Huron, Mich” (and has an image of the tunnel). My grandmother Dorothy, his daughter, passed it down to her daughter, then to her daughter, my cousin.

I am looking for another bottle, or any bottle that is embossed from his drug store to pass down to my son. Although I don’t know if there are any others. Any help would be much appreciated in finding one. Thank you kindly for your time.

Sincerely,

Kelly Smith Naples, Florida (239) 228-9453

Addiction Bottles Become Very Addicting

A reply to AB&GC Medicine Chest columnist Joe Widman regarding February’s article, “Medicines to Cure Addiction”

Dear Joe,

Here are some local Memphis bottles I have. The ones in the case (top right) are Ti Elixir Remedy bottles and the one to the right is from James Sanatorium. It is embossed “James Sanatorium Co / Memphis, Tenn.” They are curved on the back.

Both companies had two locations with large buildings. I included a link showing the James Sanatorium, at https:// www.flickr.com/photos/26066943@ N06/39093681764/in/photostream/ There were a lot of drunk people, I guess.

Ronnie Pevahouse Memphis, Tennessee

to the Editor

From AB&GC Columnist Joe Widman

Hi, John,

AB&GC subscriber Robert Thorne, of Seneca, Kansas, read the “Addiction Cure” article in— your magazine (February Medicine Chest column). He noticed that many of them mentioned “GOLD.” I’m sure he is correct that this bottle was for addictions, too. Robert had called me and I requested an image of the bottle (above).

Joe Widman Portage, Michigan

Business Names on Bottles

Hi, John,

Your January magazine was exceptionally good. I particularly was taken with Joe Widman’s article about “business name” bottles and was stimulated to write a letter on two points.

Joe seems to be denigrating the interesting group of cure/remedy bottles he owns and shows in his article, wondering if anyone really collects “embossed businesses.” Like Ferd Meyer, I believe there is a story behind every (or almost every) bottle. Both of us — Ferd on bitters, for me, whiskeys — have found lots of good stories lurking behind a single bottle. The bottles Joe displays in his article are a treasure trove. They cry out for someone to research their origins. Did those nostrums come from pure frauds or from individuals who, rightly or wrongly, thought they could cure disease?

What were their lives like? Their families? Their resting places? There are many questions to answer that would help bring these bottles to life.

My second point relates to Joe’s final comment that all the bottles he featured are “rare to ‘one of a kind.’” Rare certainly, but no businessman ever had an embossed bottle made but ordered only a few. Plain bottles and paper labels sufficed for small lots. The originator of an embossed bottle must have had some certainty that he could sell sufficient product to warrant the additional expense of having his local glasshouse make a personalized mold. Orders likely were in the magnitude of at least a hundred or more. Because of attrition down through the years, an embossed bottle might be rare but my experience tells me “one of a kind” is unlikely. Somewhere in a privy as yet unearthed or a cellar long abandoned may reside an unbroken half-dozen or more of the presumed singularity.

Sincerely,

Jack Sullivan Alexandria, Virginia

Rare Warner’s

To the Editor,

The article on foreign Warner’s bottles was very interesting. I have one of the German bottles, embossed: Warner’s / “Safe” Cure / (safe) / Frankfurt A/M. The A/M are in upper case but smaller font. The bottle is amber, applied blob top, with lots of nice “whittle marks.” There is no glassworks mark, and the basal kick-up is round. The bottle is crude looking and I think is older than the green examples, based largely on the appearance and number of green ones I have seen.

A digging buddy had ten green ones, all from the same attic. There were three identifiable mold varieties. His wife is a German girl, which gave him a definite advantage. I dug in Germany for three years during an Army tour, 1971 to 1974. Never dug a Warner’s or even a piece of one. (I bought mine from a shop in, of all places, Frankfurt.) I agree with the opinion about age of the European Warner’s. The Germans continued to use moldblown bottles up to the mid-twenties or later, based on my digging experience and the mix of bottles and other material found. If you want to use this info with any other new stuff on Warner’s feel free to do so. I don’t know if Mr. Seeliger has this info or not. I would contact him directly but don’t have his email address. Perhaps you could forward it to him.

Boyd Beccue Montecello, Minnesota

Good News on UK Dealer - and a Bit of Egg on our Face

Hi, John,

The Warner’s article by John Savastio was very informative. Only, the LATE Rob Goodacre, well-known dealer from the UK, is still alive, which he informed me of yesterday. According to Rob he would like to hang around a little bit longer. Keep up the good work.

Regards,

Horst Klusmeier Dusseldorf, Germany

Editor’s note: Dear Horst, thank you for the update. We apologize to you, and especially to Mr. Goodacre, for this error in our last issue. We are thrilled to hear that Rob is still with us and chasing bottles!