McMurray’s Extract

[Pocopear]

Hi y’all. I’ve had this bottle for several years that is embossed with ‘MCMURRAYS EXTRACT ARE BEST AND GO FARTHEST’. I haven’t been able to find this same bottle and I’m wondering if anyone else has seen one or maybe someone has some history of the company. I’ve found other bottles that are similar McMurrays Honest and possibly a company from St Paul Minnesota. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Sitcoms]

Hi Pocopear,

From everything I can find the McMurray's Honest bottles are the same company as yours, likely based out of St. Paul, MN as you said. It took a little searching on Newspapers.com, but I believe this company went by either the "William McMurray Flavoring Extracts Company" (what a mouthful):

(The St. Paul Globe, Wed. July 23, 1902)
or simply William McMurray & Co., which I found a few more hits with, mostly related to fires and fines the business was required to pay - nothing much substantial.

I could find relatively little else about the company, except that they sold coffee, teas, spices, and flavoring extracts. Some of their spice tins and other bottles (like the McMurray's Honest) have also found their way to eBay over the years, but there don't appear to be too many floating around. After the 1910s the only traces of the company I can find are mentions from local groceries about the prices for their products:

(The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Wed. July 18, 1917) (Bozeman, MT).

I'm not sure when the company went out of business, but I can find references to them into the early 1920s.

 

[Pocopear]

Hi Pocopear,

From everything I can find the McMurray's Honest bottles are the same company as yours, likely based out of St. Paul, MN as you said. It took a little searching on Newspapers.com, but I believe this company went by either the "William McMurray Flavoring Extracts Company" (what a mouthful):
View attachment 253482 (The St. Paul Globe, Wed. July 23, 1902)
or simply William McMurray & Co., which I found a few more hits with, mostly related to fires and fines the business was required to pay - nothing much substantial.

I could find relatively little else about the company, except that they sold coffee, teas, spices, and flavoring extracts. Some of their spice tins and other bottles (like the McMurray's Honest) have also found their way to eBay over the years, but there don't appear to be too many floating around. After the 1910s the only traces of the company I can find are mentions from local groceries about the prices for their products:
View attachment 253483 (The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Wed. July 18, 1917) (Bozeman, MT).

I'm not sure when the company went out of business, but I can find references to them into the early 1920s.

Wow that is a ton more info than I was able to find. Thank you. I need to get Newspapers.com. They seem to be a great reference for people.

 

[Sitcoms]

Wow that is a ton more info than I was able to find. Thank you. I need to get Newspapers.com. They seem to be a great reference for people.

Not a problem. I love to look into the history of things and researching my own ancestry, so it's a no-brainer for me (even though, like Ancestry, it's not the cheapest service).

 

[Pocopear]

Not a problem. I love to look into the history of things and researching my own ancestry, so it's a no-brainer for me (even though, like Ancestry, it's not the cheapest service).

I have ancestry too and also love to research but I’ve never had newspaper. I’m gonna get it now though because I know I’m missing a lot of info on a ton of topics!

 

[Toma777]

Not a problem. I love to look into the history of things and researching my own ancestry, so it's a no-brainer for me (even though, like Ancestry, it's not the cheapest service).

I wait for the promotional sales with such sites, and get 15% to 25% off the subscription price. With most online products you can find coupons, and another good source for discount codes is Youtube. I look for review videos where they sponsor the produce and give discount codes.

To save money on Ebay antiques I put items in my watch list, and when they know you are watching they offer discounts. You can also make offers (if available), like 30% off the asking price to start with.

 

[Pocopear]

I wait for the promotional sales with such sites, and get 15% to 25% off the subscription price. With most online products you can find coupons, and another good source for discount codes is Youtube. I look for review videos where they sponsor the produce and give discount codes.

To save money on Ebay antiques I put items in my watch list, and when they know you are watching they offer discounts. You can also make offers (if available), like 30% off the asking price to start with.

Thanks. Great to know. Where can I go/look for a possible price for some of my more tricky bottles? I’ve never sold any but I like to have as much info in my records.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Thanks. Great to know. Where can I go/look for a possible price for some of my more tricky bottles? I’ve never sold any but I like to have as much info in my records.

Completed Ebay listings and talking to collectors local to the area. That's really the only way to do it. Even then you're only going to get a really rough estimate, bottle prices fluctuate wildly depending on which collectors happen to be looking at the time. Sometimes you can get a general sense of price based on what type of bottle it is, a lot of categories of bottles (such as flavouring extracts) don't really have completionist collectors focusing on them which means the bottles never get very valuable. For others, like local sodas or druggist bottles, you can really only know by talking to local collectors because it's all about rarity and you can't get any sense of price just from looking at the bottle.