Canadian LYMAN druggist/pharmacy/medicine bottle ?

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hemihampton

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Anybody have any information about this one ? Say's Lyman Sons & Co. Montreal. Found in a 1880's Michigan Privy recently. Is it tough o P1040808.jpgP1040809.jpgr common? LEON.
 

CanadianBottles

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There's some information on the company in French here http://bouteillesduquebec.ca/publicites/lyman_sons_co.htm They seem to have been a pretty prolific company, but that site doesn't have any examples of bottles from the company. I'm fairly certain it's not common, Montreal pharmacy bottles in general aren't too easy to find because the Montreal dump from that era has never been dug at all and it seems like privy digging isn't as popular in Canada as in the US.
 

hemihampton

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Thanks for the link. Interesting. Says the Lyman & Son's was started in 1879. I figure the bottle from around 1880's since everything else seemed to be from late 1870's to early 1880's (guesstimate) depending on how long they used this privy. I wonder what it's worth? LEON.
 

andy volkerts

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I think this is a related product from maybe later about 1885-90 Northrop and Lymans Dyspeptic cure. 8 3/4" aqua, applied top. very rare cure worth about $145.00.....Andy
 

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hemihampton

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I think this is a related product from maybe later about 1885-90 Northrop and Lymans Dyspeptic cure. 8 3/4" aqua, applied top. very rare cure worth about $145.00.....Andy



Andy, It's a very small bottle, only 3 1/2" tall. Clear in color. LEON.
 

hemihampton

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andy volkerts

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The "cure" bottle that I mentioned resides in my cure collection, and was purchased from a private collector for that price mentioned, I have seen one go for more on flea-bay several yrs ago, I would think your small bottle would be worth about 30 or so dollars, as anything from this co is fairly rare, I have never seen a pharmacy type bottle as yours is for sale anywhere. I would think that some of their bottles actually may be common, due to the long operating time, but they sure don't come up for sale much.......Andy
 

mctaggart67

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Lyman, Sons & Co. (1879-1908) was one firm name in a chain of continuous businesses established by the Lyman family around 1800 (some sources put the founding in 1800, other in the late 1790s and yet others in 1808). Anyhow, the firm name Lyman, Sons & Co. reflects a re-organization of the business a year after the death of company mover and shaker Benjamin Lyman. The company was Canada's foremost wholesale drug firms. The Lymans also operated what was effective a branch of their Montreal business in Toronto. The only connection between Lyman, Sons & Co. and Toronto's Northrop & Lyman (patent medicines) was that both Lymans were very distant cousins through descent from an English settler in the American colonies in the 1600s. The two firms were only connected by an infinitesimal degree of shared genetic material.

As to the OP's bottle, it's a difficult one to find, but quite ironically because of the nature and size of the company. As Canada's largest wholesale druggists who seldom ventured into producing "directly for sale" preparations, the company wasn't much concerned with maintaining a public brand image; it didn't have to. Rather, Lymans focussed on maintaining reputation with the pharmaceutical and related trades by supplying chemicals, drugs, etc. for use in producing retail products. Embossed bottles were an unnecessary extra expense. This translates into lots and lots of paper-label-only bottles from Lymans, making embossed examples harder to find. My best guess is that the OP's bottle was for a one-off type of medicine or chemical compound that was intended for retail sale. I concur with an 1880s attribution. I also imagine that the bottle got to Michigan in the hands of a private individual travelling from Canada (likely Ontario) to that state, as American tariff barriers made it difficult for Lyman, Sons & Co. to export to the U.S.
 

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