A&DHC Dr. Pierce's

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Was digging this pit yesterday and first bottle was a slick pharm with crude applied top. Got my attention, so was surprized when next out was a Dr. Pierces Favorite Prescription. I dug a couple more and was getting a little baffled as I always associated these with the 90's. The third one was super crude, nice gloppy top, bubbles, fat in the middle,crud in the glass, and a nice A&DHC in the center of what looks like a post mold but actually a key mold as half the circle is quite raised and even has sharp pontil-like glass protruding. (Doesn't like to stand very still either.) I dug 3 Favorites and 4 Golden's. There were 3 different type of A&DHC base markings and 2 of the Goldens had C&Co. in what looks like an early cup mold. They were neater looking and had air venting whereas the other 5 had no air vents and were clearly applied, not tooled tops. So I get home and look up the date for Dr. Pierce and apparently he started in 69 with the catarrh remedy and the Favorite and Golden in '70. I then looked up the dates of the glass companys and find A&DHC ends by 1889, whereas the C&Co. continues on for a decade or so. I figured the C&Co. filled the contract after '89, but the other ones look so much cruder than 80's stuff. So my question is which of the A&DHC's is oldest to newest? My guess by purely observation is that the one with the large tall letters oldest, next the small letters and then the one example with the letters very small running from bottom to top. Just a guess, but considering the rather close proximity of all the bottles, seems unlikely there would be such a vast difference in age. I'm thinking earliest from early-mid seventys, next late seventys, last mid eighty's and then the C&Co. ones in/after 89. That's assuming the C&Co. "filled the order" but could have actually just been ordered earlier, since they were started in '79. So any thoughts? Matt, seen one of these? Your book mentions L&W and a couple others unfamiliar to me but neither of these. Are they comparable in scarcity and value? I'm assuming yes, though hate to assume.......Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

closeup of oldest looking A&DHC base....

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

And closeup of C&Co. base......

 

[AntiqueMeds]

I always liked the early Pierces. They dont have high value but they are cool because they give you a little insight into the glass companies. I have an L&W one and a T W & Co one that use the same exact mold. Pierce was selling so many he must of had everyone in Pittsburgh making bottles for him.[] I guess the only bottle that beats this one for Pittsburgh glass marks is Hostetters bitters.
It can be a bit tough to date them precisely. Things like key molds are a definate earlier indication since they got phased out pretty fast. Details like embossing dont help a lot. I would agree with you that the Cunningham one is probably the latest one being that it has a cup mold, it still may be a bit earlier than you think. Are they all applied lips?

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Thanks Matt, all the A&DHC are definately applied, not so sure about the C&Co.....don't see any concentric tool marks but seam ends slightly before the lip, so my first thought is tooled, but again missing other tooled elements. Here's a closeup pic of one of the tops. Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

here is one of the A&DHC tops....

 

[AntiqueMeds]

A trick for telling if the lip was formed using a lipping tool is to stick you finger into the bottle.
A tooled lip bottle will feel perfectly smooth inside (the lipping tool was inserted in the bottle neck and smoothed it) . An earlier applied lip will usually have a slight fissure you can feel where the two pieces of glass bonded together.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Thanks Matt, knew about the finger in the neck thing, but my fat A-- fingers rarely fit. Usually have to try a wire to find the ridge. Wasn't so sure about this though, as I have some pretty crude or sloppy examples of "tooled" tops with the smooth inner necks. Usually on wide mouth bottles such as shoe polish. Wonder if they just didn't use a seperate tool to smooth the inside of these applied tops? Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Here's a shoe polish example. Looks applied but smooth on inside except right up near the lip on the inside is a slight ridge......

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Here's a pic of the outside.....