Letters to the Editor

to the Editor

Joe, We Miss You!

Dear Editor,

I was saddened to hear of Joe Widman’s passing. I miss his knowledge of antique medicines and glass and his articles on what he called “neat bottles.”

I like all the articles in The Medicine Chest from all the authors, from Dr. Cannon on. Joe wrote in your magazine in September 2021 that it would be his last article. Who would ever know of the medicine bottles out there, like “Works Like A Charm,” and “Common Sense Colic Cure,” without Joe Widman.

Joe was very helpful in my collecting of Michigan medicines. He once found for me a special bottle, a very rare Mixer’s Scrofula Syrup, hinge mold, 1870s, no ‘Cancer’ on the bottle from Hastings, Mich. (The bottle is always embossed with the word, “Cancer.”)

We would talk on the phone and at shows. Joe was at all the National shows.

Joe, you will be missed all over the country and especially here in Michigan. Thank you, Joe, for the keeping the fun in bottle collecting.

Gordon Hubenet Michigan Medicine Collector

PS: I will be starting a new company “Widman’s Best” — The Common Sense Covid Cure.

Editor’s note: Joe Widman served as coauthor of the Medicine Chest column from January, 2019 through September, 2021. He was an avid collector of early medicine bottles ranging from common to very rare. Joe had a particular affinity towards those ebottles embossed with unusual, absurd, or unique sayings. He will be greatly missed.

The Bird Takes Flight

Hi, John,

I enjoyed Robert Strickhart’s article on Bird Bitters in the November issue. My brain started churning and I recognized the address on the bird bitters bottle (400 N 3rd St. Philadelphia).

I knew I had a Mishler’s Herb Bitters with the same address (top), which I thought was from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The other bottle I dug up was a Mexican Medicine Co. (above) with the same address. I don’t know much about this 400 N 3rd St. company. Maybe it was called the Mexican Medicine Co.

I thought it was odd that this company sold all three of these bottles.

Mike Lehman Dillsburg, Pennsylvania

Dr. Mauro: Unique?

Hi, John,

I’m sending you an email with attached photographs (next page, top) of a bottle Tom and I found on a permission dig at a construction site in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The digging area was all primarily from the 1880s to early 1890s.

This bottle is teal green, shaped similarly to a Dr. Harter’s Wild Cherry Bitters, but has a very unique pedestal-style base. It is embossed on both sides, “DR. MAURO’S - HERB TONIC.” It has an applied top, an awesome color, and no chips or cracks. It does have some minor spotty content haze inside and some overall areas of lighter irridescence.

Both of us have done some research and believe this bottle is from Chicago. I’m set up with Newspapers.com and there

to the Editor

are several documented stories about Dr. Mauro, who was an “Italian Physician, Doctor from Chicago.”

Just wondering if you are familiar with this bottle?

Brad Cuyler Negaunee, Michigan

How’s This for Openers?

Hi, John,

I really enjoyed looking at that wacky photo of “The Bottle People” (page 3, September Letters to the Editor). How very clever.

More than 40 years ago, I purchased a group of hand-carved figurines from an antiques store near Augusta, Georgia. They represented musicians and friends. They also lose their heads! (bottom left)

Lift off the head of the short and stubby figure on the right and a cork is revealed. The middle singer’s head cleverly conceals a corkscrew. And the singer on the left sports a bottle opener below his neck.

Bill Baab Augusta, Georgia

How to Blot a Blob

Hello, John,

When I purchased this stoneware advertising jug (left), I noticed it was very heavy. I discovered what I assume is a big hunk of dried ink. I have been trying to dissolve the blob by pouring boiling water into the jug over and over.

This is a long process, and I wondered if you or any readers know better ways to dissolve the old ink.

Linda J. Conner Fountaintown, Indiana