Universal Pain Killer, Pictorial Label, Pontil Bottle

Welcome to our Antique Bottle community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Robby Raccoon

Trash Digger
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
Messages
4,318
Reaction score
225
Points
63
Location
Locō movērī
Well, my laptop died (thus losing the upload-able images), so let's hope these links work:
WR7bZmUQjRprfTA7eTpk-w.jpg
Physician's Sure Relief, or Universal Pain Killer, prepared by one A.B. Hart, M.D. C. 1853-1854.
HBas6UjgVnye3nIGZQpTLg.jpg
A nice pictorial label. Blown into snap-case; held with punty. Unembossed.
https://www.antique-bottles.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=180016&d=1508442489
8FvnQAK7-M-4FD8xMrzShA.jpg
Original newsprint ad.
aRSMeSbhW.X5gIDMmwxLiQ.jpg
It's a very small bottle. At top you see it as compared to a modern Bic pen cap.
 

RCO

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
4,904
Reaction score
2,202
Points
113
Location
Ontario , Canada
it does look really old and paper label appears really fragile , its surprising the labels manage to survive this long ,
I don't really collect a lot of paper label bottles although did pick up a little druggist bottle I have been meaning to post to site
 

Robby Raccoon

Trash Digger
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
Messages
4,318
Reaction score
225
Points
63
Location
Locō movērī
On the contrary, most diggers I know have dug up partially intact labels. Some even seem to fossilise to the glass. The less fortunate ones deteriorate almost as soon as they hit the air and dry, as they had been in a formerly anaerobic burial that preserved them. But in the case of this one, it was likely found in a wall, attic, or crawl-space.
What I don't understand is why certain parts vanish forever, and others remain unless heavily disturbed. Was it missing glue, broken off before being forgotten, chewed up by some organism...? The world may never know.
My main interest is paper-label stuff.
 

andy volkerts

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
2,833
Reaction score
2
Points
0
Location
Sacramento, California
Hi Bear, nice bottles!! I really love the old ones like these. I have figured that most label missing parts, especially the ones not buried, have to have been without sufficient glue on the label backing, and in some cases just fell off because of no glue, and a disturbance of somekind, maybe earthquake like here in the west. anyways there is nothing to compare with what was written on those old long forgotten labels. the bullsh-- claims on them make it real fun collecting them!!
 

Robby Raccoon

Trash Digger
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
Messages
4,318
Reaction score
225
Points
63
Location
Locō movērī
Andy, thank you. Similar had been my thought, but it cannot be proven, I'm afraid, so I hesitated to put it forward. My thought was that there was little adhesive used, so that when the bottle was handled certain portions were damaged and at some point detached due to lack of adhesive. The bottles were not intended to be disposed of, and became forgotten about, but the labels were unimportant and deteriorated and not entirely preserved.
 

Members online

Latest threads

Forum statistics

Threads
83,173
Messages
742,675
Members
24,172
Latest member
Panama Canal digger
Top