evolution of Phillips' Milk of Magnesia?

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GuntherHess

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Phillips milk of magnesia was apparently made over quite a long period. Does anyone know what the earliest bottles looked like. The one I have pictured here seems to be the earliest one I have. It is very light blue with a fairly large tooled lip. It is embossed PHILLIPS' MILK OF (trade mark) MAGNESIA. Below magnesia there is a word that is peened out of the mold. I think it originally read REGISTERED but is peened out pretty well.

Anyone found any Phillips that seem older than this one?

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GuntherHess

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According to some info on the web ...
Phillips invented milk of magnesia in 1873
Phillips started selling it in 1880
The Phillips company was incorporated in 1885
They were aquired by Sterling Drug in 1923
Phillips' Milk of Magnesia was bottled up until 1976

A 100 year product run is pretty amazing...
 

madman

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hello gh, this is a great post for people to post there milk of magnesia bottles, your bottle is the oldest ive seen, my bottles read pat aug 21 1906, your bottle is from 1906? heres some newer and old mike

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madman

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this one is bim

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madman

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newer

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GuntherHess

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I'm guessing the earliest ones just said REGISTERED or PAT APPLIED FOR at the bottom. The one I posted was possibly when they got the patent and they peened out the registered, still using the old mold. Then they re-designed the mold in 1906 to show the patent info.
 

Ye Olde Prospector

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Hi Matt,

Here's the earliest Phillips I have dug. Strap sided, aqua BIM with tooled lip, 6 1/8 in tall..Embossed C.H. PHILLIPS / NEW YORK PATENTED / APRIL 29th & JULY 22nd / 1873 That's the info peened out on the one you have, Still don't know if it would be worth cleaning though. Base is plain.

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mabel

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This is great!! You are talking about my area of interest. I collect Phillips Milk of Magnesia bottles. I am probably the only person to be interested in these common bottles. I have tried to find the oldest examples that were made.
I have 3 bottles with a date of 1873. One clear bottle and one light blue bottle, both about 7 inches tall:"CH Phillips New York patented April 29 and July 22 1873". An ice blue bottle "Phillips Milk of Magnesia patented April 29 and July 22 1873". I will post photos of my collection later tonight.
I have about 90 Phillips bottles, ranging from 3 inches to 14 inches. The oldest ones are clear or light blue and say "New York." More recent bottles say "Glenbrook Connecticut" and are darker cobalt blue. I have 2 bottles from New Zealand with odd metal flip-top lids.
I have several printed in Spanish.
There are amber brown bottles that say "Phillips cod liver oil NewYork" but I am not sure if this is the same company.
Thank you for letting me ramble on. I rarely have a chance to talk about my bottles. Mabel
 

GuntherHess

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That's definately an early bottle from Phillips. I would guess its milk of magnesia even though it does say it. It looks like it lists the original patent date for milk of magnesia. Mine is a totally different mold since it does say Milk of Magnesia. Mine has one line of text peened out. It either said PATENTED or REGISTERED.
I think yours is the earliest I have seen so far.

Hi Mabel, I figured SOMEBODY out there collected these durn things.
Do you know what the peened out embossing on the one I posted originally read?
From what I can tell Phillips cod liver oil was made by the same company and competed with Scotts emulsion.
 

Mike O

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Here is a small and a medium one that I have found. They both have the same inscription "Rec'd in US Pat. Office AUG 21 1906 but are very different colors. The small one has been cleaned and is deep colbolt, The bigger one is as found in a barn, Note the original cork still on it. I think if I were to clean it it would fall somewhere between aqua and clear

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