Thought everybody might like a bit of history on a grouping og bottles that have always fascinated me-Lyons powder's and similar insect powder bottles.
Its hard to find alot of evidence about Emanuel Lyon whos it seems started out in business sometime in the late 1840's in New York City,New York. I can tell you his business address was #424 Broadway,New York.The B &P probably stands for Barnes &Park who were also known for many pontiled medicines of that time and were located at 21 Park Row,N.Y. His magnetic powder as it was called was used for destroying a variety of insects,including garden worms! and also was said to be for rats and other "vermin". His small size flask,as he called it was sold for25 cents but bottles were also prepared in a large ,economy size that sold for .50 and these are rare and hard to find.
Many more of these Lyons powders would have survived if it had not been for the fact that the maker urged buyers to grip the "flask" by the bottom and throw it which created a dust and supposedly killed the insects.It must have been some stuff.Lyons powders came in a kaliedoscope of colors .One theory behind this is that being for a common ,utilitarian purpose they had to be produced cheaply and the makers saw to this by making arrangements with various glass houses to use anything that was left over in the pots or end-of-day so to speak.This I believe ,is the reason behind all the colors that range from aqua to cobalt(1 known) to puce ,amthyst,yellow ,green and variations of two colors striated together.
Lyons had many imitators-Reynards,Costars,John Henry,Kyles persian powder,pooles,isaccsens to name a few! Most were not as successful as Lyons powder and some are known from only one example such as Meyers destroyer in emerald green O.P. These insect bottles had about a 40-50 year run and must have sold well in their day.You can see the progression of them from pontil to snapcase to smooth base with square band lip which are the newest bottles. Generally speaking most are found on the east and to a lesser extent on the west coast. They traveled,butnot too commonly. I feel very lucky to have dug so many striking examples in my digging career. Hope this information is interesting to someone! Kev
Its hard to find alot of evidence about Emanuel Lyon whos it seems started out in business sometime in the late 1840's in New York City,New York. I can tell you his business address was #424 Broadway,New York.The B &P probably stands for Barnes &Park who were also known for many pontiled medicines of that time and were located at 21 Park Row,N.Y. His magnetic powder as it was called was used for destroying a variety of insects,including garden worms! and also was said to be for rats and other "vermin". His small size flask,as he called it was sold for25 cents but bottles were also prepared in a large ,economy size that sold for .50 and these are rare and hard to find.
Many more of these Lyons powders would have survived if it had not been for the fact that the maker urged buyers to grip the "flask" by the bottom and throw it which created a dust and supposedly killed the insects.It must have been some stuff.Lyons powders came in a kaliedoscope of colors .One theory behind this is that being for a common ,utilitarian purpose they had to be produced cheaply and the makers saw to this by making arrangements with various glass houses to use anything that was left over in the pots or end-of-day so to speak.This I believe ,is the reason behind all the colors that range from aqua to cobalt(1 known) to puce ,amthyst,yellow ,green and variations of two colors striated together.
Lyons had many imitators-Reynards,Costars,John Henry,Kyles persian powder,pooles,isaccsens to name a few! Most were not as successful as Lyons powder and some are known from only one example such as Meyers destroyer in emerald green O.P. These insect bottles had about a 40-50 year run and must have sold well in their day.You can see the progression of them from pontil to snapcase to smooth base with square band lip which are the newest bottles. Generally speaking most are found on the east and to a lesser extent on the west coast. They traveled,butnot too commonly. I feel very lucky to have dug so many striking examples in my digging career. Hope this information is interesting to someone! Kev
