Poison_Us
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Well, I see many people have dug/found poisons lately and don't know what they have, "is it a poison?", "what's it's number/value?" and so on. So I thought I would post this as a beginners intro to the wonderful world of Poisons. Fist, a direct quote from our website in the Poison Impostors page.
First, lets cover the characteristics of most poison bottles.
1) It’s embossed with words like: Poison, Poisonous, Not To Be Taken, For External Use Only...etc
2) It’s embossed with a skull and crossbones.
3) The bottle is of an odd shape (Coffin, Triangular, Diamond, 5 to 8 sided or Figural).
4) It’s textured (Ribs, Flutes, Hobnails, Diamonds, Stars, Lattice, Bumps or Scallops) on the face and/or edges.
Poisons can have only 1 or any combination of the above. Item 3 is where some bottles can be mis-IDed if it’s the only characteristic it has. Then the proof would have to come from the deciding factor of:
5) It has a label stating it’s a poison in some manner.
This is where some bottles fall short. They have the shape, but no label. Also, color has nothing to do with the contents. Just because it’s Cobalt or Amber, does not make it a poison by any means.
Ok, now that we know what to look for in poison bottle characteristics, let examine the Kuhn's numbering system.
Firstly, it will always begin with a 'K' for Kuhn, obviously. The next digit will be a letter describing it's shape or category (list below). Then followed by a '-' and a number. This is just the order it was entered in the books and has no baring on it's value or rarity. Let's take a look at the shapes/category list.
C = Cylindrical
D = Diamond
E = Octagon
H = Hexagon
I = Irregular Hexagon
J = Jug
O = Oval
R= Rectangular
S = Square
T = Triangle
U = Unusual Shape ( usually your figural bottles)
V = Triangular round back
X = Bug Poisons (usually regardless of shape)
Z = Embalming Fluids (regardless of shape)
The 'U' category is a kind of Catch All, when it doesn't fit in any of the other categories. Like there are a very small amount of 5 sided poisons, but there is no 'P' category (for Pentagonal) as of yet. So they fall in the 'U' slot. You can see a few of these on Rob's site here: http://www.collectiques.org/rob.htm.
Hope you enjoyed our little lesson today. Maybe someone will do the same for Flasks as well some day as that system is confusing to those who are not in the field as many are not in ours.
Class dismissed. [&:]
First, lets cover the characteristics of most poison bottles.
1) It’s embossed with words like: Poison, Poisonous, Not To Be Taken, For External Use Only...etc
2) It’s embossed with a skull and crossbones.
3) The bottle is of an odd shape (Coffin, Triangular, Diamond, 5 to 8 sided or Figural).
4) It’s textured (Ribs, Flutes, Hobnails, Diamonds, Stars, Lattice, Bumps or Scallops) on the face and/or edges.
Poisons can have only 1 or any combination of the above. Item 3 is where some bottles can be mis-IDed if it’s the only characteristic it has. Then the proof would have to come from the deciding factor of:
5) It has a label stating it’s a poison in some manner.
This is where some bottles fall short. They have the shape, but no label. Also, color has nothing to do with the contents. Just because it’s Cobalt or Amber, does not make it a poison by any means.
Ok, now that we know what to look for in poison bottle characteristics, let examine the Kuhn's numbering system.
Firstly, it will always begin with a 'K' for Kuhn, obviously. The next digit will be a letter describing it's shape or category (list below). Then followed by a '-' and a number. This is just the order it was entered in the books and has no baring on it's value or rarity. Let's take a look at the shapes/category list.
C = Cylindrical
D = Diamond
E = Octagon
H = Hexagon
I = Irregular Hexagon
J = Jug
O = Oval
R= Rectangular
S = Square
T = Triangle
U = Unusual Shape ( usually your figural bottles)
V = Triangular round back
X = Bug Poisons (usually regardless of shape)
Z = Embalming Fluids (regardless of shape)
The 'U' category is a kind of Catch All, when it doesn't fit in any of the other categories. Like there are a very small amount of 5 sided poisons, but there is no 'P' category (for Pentagonal) as of yet. So they fall in the 'U' slot. You can see a few of these on Rob's site here: http://www.collectiques.org/rob.htm.
Hope you enjoyed our little lesson today. Maybe someone will do the same for Flasks as well some day as that system is confusing to those who are not in the field as many are not in ours.
Class dismissed. [&:]
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