Rare Genuine, Swaims Panacea Philadelphia Very early tombstone shaped.

[Steve/sewell]

Thats pretty Mike,New England made correct.This ad showing the medicine advertised in 1811 predates all other known information on this bottle and Swaims Panacea by 10 years and puts it with the other first known embossed medicines in this country Dyotts Robertsons family Medicines and Lees from Baltimore and New York. Thanks Joe they are pretty bottles arent they.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Great looking bottle also Mike...I want one like that...[]

 

[Steve/sewell]

I believe this bottle to be quite early because of the treatment to the lip of the bottle.It is a rolled lip just like a Wistar or Stanger Chestnut bottle has.

 

[Steve/sewell]

This particular bottle is the first mold and is shaped somewhat like a tombstone.
There are two variants I am aware of Swaims first bottles.The first is rectangular in shape
and is curved at the top on all sides like a tomb stone.The second mold which came out
a couple of years later looked nearly identical to the first but was straight across at the shoulders of
the bottle.All other parts of the bottle including the embossing are nearly the same but the
apostrophe in SWAIM'S is smaller on the first version.In 1829 Swaim switched to the cylinder shaped
bottle to protect his product from piracy.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Here is a brief history of Swaims beginnings.

When a New York City bookbinder named William Swaim was afflicted with some illness,he
consulted a physician who prescribed a remedy that restored Swaims health.
Swaim attained the formula and moved to Philadelphia to launch a career as a patent
medicine vendor.His concoction that was first marketed in 1820 was called Swaims Panacea
for the cure of scrofula or the Kings evil and Swaim chose the symbol of Hercules slaying the
many headed dragon to advertise his panacea that lived on for more then a century.By 1825
Swaim was packaging his panacea in rectangular shaped green and aqua colored glass bottles
lettered on three sides Genuine, Swaims Panacea,Philadelphia.In 1829 he switched the bottle
to a green cylindrical shaped lettered Swaims ,Panacea ,Philadelphia on three separate vertically
indented sides.

 

[JOETHECROW]

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[Steve/sewell]

I will also show in this post a bottle sold by our friend from the forum Kungfufighter (Jeff )
of one of the most informative and having some of the rarest glass and being one of the
most informative web sites on the Internet www.jeffnholantiquebottles.com
Jeff and Hollys bottle they sold is the same bottle as mine tombstone shaped but definitely aqua in color.

 

[Steve/sewell]

The picture of the straight shouldered version of this same rectangular shaped bottle is brought to
you by Ed and Cathy Gray of http://www.greatantiquebottles.com/ another super informative
great glass web site.The bottle pictured on their web site has the straight horizontal lines
at the top of the bottle not tombstone shaped.The mouth on this bottle is similar though.

 

[JOETHECROW]

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[Steve/sewell]

Anyone wishing to add any information to this post would be welcome as I am a novice on Swaims bottles
but have really fallen head over heels for them. Nice ad Joe the Kings disease cure for sure.