is this a repro?

[bottlemania]

A woman told me, "if you suspect a bottle could be worth money, and it's not a lot of money...BUY IT." I found this green coffin shape bottle today, and thats just what I did. It's definitely machine made. I don't have any current books on poisons. In the pic, the black thing near the bottom is the cap of a sharpie laundy marker (for scale). Front of the bottle has a skull and crossbones and has a C in a circle as in, "copyright" and it has a W 71 (I think) H embossed in it. The back has R. I. P. vertically and says, "Use With Care Patented." The bottom has "Wheaton NJ" embossed very vaguely. Is this a repro? Aren't most repro bottles made in Taiwan? The bottle is exactly 3" tall by 1 7/16 at it's widest point. Any info would be much appreciated.

Paul

PS whatever it is, it's totally worth the 4 bucks I paid for it...

 

[Jim]

4 bucks was definitely OK. That is a Wheaton product from the 1970s. They are known as "fantasy bottles", because while loosely based on antique bottle designs, no such real antique bottle of that style ever existed. There are some real antique coffin poisons, but this was never one of them. The Wheaton fantasy "poisons" came in several colors and two different sizes. ~Jim

 

[bottlemania]

Thanks Jim. I found it on e bay. Current bid is 12 bucks. Bottles are a very strange racket. Not only do I find prices on the same bottle that range incredibly, I often see one person that has a Clorox jug for 12 bucks, another is selling a vile containing powdered opium with the label still on the vile and, "Opii Pulv." (latin for powdered Opium) written on it for 7 bucks. There seems to be no reason or rhyme to it. I love scoring on bottles though. Glad that antique dealer didn't speak Latin! One day I bought a pretty generic pre ABM amethyst bottle for 2 bucks. The next shop I went in had a very similar bottle going for 100. I asked the woman, "what makes that bottle worth a hundred bucks?" She said, "the color." Go figure. I saw that green "Not To Be Taken" bottle for 10 and thought I was the one being taken. Hope it's still there when I go back. Thats another place where a couple of SCA generic medicine bottles were going for more than that green poison.

Paul

 

[davidaugspurger]

I have a bottle like that, except its amber/yellow. Got it in a garage sale for 25 cents.

 

[jlandcastle83]

yeah its a wheaton repo as you know already but they tend to do well on ebay