surfaceone
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I'm gonna argue that it is a "Carter The Pill Roller" of Carter's Little Liver Pills fame bottle. Either that or a knock off. One thing that The Carter Co. did and did extremely well and prolifically was advertise. There's more than ample reason for the expressions and cultual references to Carter's Little Liver Pills. They were bottled in glass in a variety of sizes. Here's a little company history:
"The Late 1800s: Carter's Little Liver Pills
Carter-Wallace's roots can be traced back to the 1800s and a modest pill compounded by an Erie, Pennsylvania doctor for folks suffering from digestive distress. 'Carter's Little Liver Pills' first were advertised by a sign placed in Dr. John Samuel Carter's pharmacy window, but the pills' popularity soon spread beyond the capacity of the pharmacy's back room. By 1859 a four-floor plant had been built to produce the liver pills. Dr. Carter also had created other products, but it was the sales of the liver pills that led New York businessman Brent Good to suggest a merger to make a nationwide business. In 1880 Carter Medicine Company was born.
In its first year of business, the company spent a third of its revenues on advertising. Coupled with all the other start-up expenses, plus the move to New York, the first year ended in the red, but belief in the product remained strong. By its second year Carter was exporting to Canada and England and enjoying vigorous sales in the United States. By 1890 the company had already outgrown its new quarters and moved to larger ones. Soon imitators were popping up everywhere and an attorney was retained to battle the counterfeiters. With the loss in 1884 of Samuel Carter--the company's president and the son of the pill's inventor--Carter Medicine Company entered a new era.
The 1890s was a time of uncertainty and financial panic in the United States and Carter Medicine Company suffered along with nearly every other business. It was just recovering when another economic crash rattled the country in 1907. Companies stabilized again just in time for World War I to alter the global economy. What sustained the Carter Medicine Company through these times was the fact that Carter's Little Liver Pills had become such a staple household item. Meanwhile, the company continued to operate like many family-owned corporations. Brent Good passed the presidency on to his son Harry Good; Harry's brother-in-law, Charles Orcutt, later succeeded him. Another new era for the company was ushered in when Harry Hoyt, Sr., who was Orcutt's son-in-law, became managing director in 1929. Hoyt bought controlling interest in the company and instilled Carter-Wallace with his axiom that 'a business cannot stand still.'
Product Diversification Between the Wars
Hoyt's first order of business was to expand beyond the company's one profitable product, the liver pills. Creating new products meant risk and investment. It was difficult at first to convince trustees of his vision. Hoyt wanted to cut dividend payments and spend the money on the development of new products. While this struggle for change was taking place, the government dropped a blow: the Department of Agriculture contested the use of the word 'liver' on the pills' labels, since the pills were not really targeted for liver ailments. This was catastrophic for a product whose brand name had been familiar to households for more than half a century. In light of all the money it had invested in advertising and brand recognition, the company decided to fight to retain its brand name and, eventually, it won.
The Federal Trade Commission brought similar charges against the company in 1943. For 17 years the company battled in the courts to retain its name. The decision came back in 1959: 'liver' had to be dropped from all advertising. The product, whose name was known in every home and painted on the sides of barns across the country, was renamed Carter's Little Pills.
Meanwhile, Hoyt was pioneering research for new products even through the hardships of the 1930s. With so many Americans living hand-to-mouth during the Depression, few could afford liver pills, and sales sank. This only fueled Hoyt's determination to diversify. Research pointed to deodorants and antiperspirants. At the time there were two dominant brands in the United States, and each had a weakness: one was a stainless dry cream that was a deodorant only; the other a liquid antiperspirant that often stained clothes and irritated skin. The challenge became how to find a dry, stainless cream that could stop perspiration while deodorizing, yet not irritate the skin. A research chemist from Princeton, John H. Wallace, was tapped for the task. In 1935 the company launched the product that would soon outstrip its liver pills in sales and brand name recognition: Arrid.
Between an ad campaign that saturated the public and a product that really did meet consumer needs, Arrid became the largest selling deodorant in the United States. These two characteristics of the Arrid product became Carter-Wallace trademarks: the effective use of advertising, combined with a product that was developed instead of copied. To keep ahead of its many imitators and competitors, Arrid was constantly improved. The success of the deodorant soon led to the construction of a new plant in New Brunswick. Carter's sales topped the $1 million mark for the first time in 1935. To reflect its new direction, the company's name was changed to Carter Products, Inc., in 1937. For ten years, the original formula of Arrid was a top-seller. After that, various improvements were used to further boost sales." from here.
The bottle photograph that bama1 put up appears to me to have a "reinforced extract" finish (with a tip of the hat to Bill Lindsey's finish ID pages.) I have also heard this referred to as a "reinforced pharmacist" finish. I'm sure there are other names as well. I associate this style with later or more modern druggist bottles.
Carter was a one product company until the introduction of Arrid in 1935.
I postulate that this was a Little Liver Pills bottle with a clever advertising slogan embossed on it's face. I think the bottle form was simply an effective medium for the advertising slogan.
Wilkie, what does the copy on your little bottle say?
I've seen a number of different ads from Carter's. Different copy, different graphics, all pushing the pills.
"The Late 1800s: Carter's Little Liver Pills
Carter-Wallace's roots can be traced back to the 1800s and a modest pill compounded by an Erie, Pennsylvania doctor for folks suffering from digestive distress. 'Carter's Little Liver Pills' first were advertised by a sign placed in Dr. John Samuel Carter's pharmacy window, but the pills' popularity soon spread beyond the capacity of the pharmacy's back room. By 1859 a four-floor plant had been built to produce the liver pills. Dr. Carter also had created other products, but it was the sales of the liver pills that led New York businessman Brent Good to suggest a merger to make a nationwide business. In 1880 Carter Medicine Company was born.
In its first year of business, the company spent a third of its revenues on advertising. Coupled with all the other start-up expenses, plus the move to New York, the first year ended in the red, but belief in the product remained strong. By its second year Carter was exporting to Canada and England and enjoying vigorous sales in the United States. By 1890 the company had already outgrown its new quarters and moved to larger ones. Soon imitators were popping up everywhere and an attorney was retained to battle the counterfeiters. With the loss in 1884 of Samuel Carter--the company's president and the son of the pill's inventor--Carter Medicine Company entered a new era.
The 1890s was a time of uncertainty and financial panic in the United States and Carter Medicine Company suffered along with nearly every other business. It was just recovering when another economic crash rattled the country in 1907. Companies stabilized again just in time for World War I to alter the global economy. What sustained the Carter Medicine Company through these times was the fact that Carter's Little Liver Pills had become such a staple household item. Meanwhile, the company continued to operate like many family-owned corporations. Brent Good passed the presidency on to his son Harry Good; Harry's brother-in-law, Charles Orcutt, later succeeded him. Another new era for the company was ushered in when Harry Hoyt, Sr., who was Orcutt's son-in-law, became managing director in 1929. Hoyt bought controlling interest in the company and instilled Carter-Wallace with his axiom that 'a business cannot stand still.'
Product Diversification Between the Wars
Hoyt's first order of business was to expand beyond the company's one profitable product, the liver pills. Creating new products meant risk and investment. It was difficult at first to convince trustees of his vision. Hoyt wanted to cut dividend payments and spend the money on the development of new products. While this struggle for change was taking place, the government dropped a blow: the Department of Agriculture contested the use of the word 'liver' on the pills' labels, since the pills were not really targeted for liver ailments. This was catastrophic for a product whose brand name had been familiar to households for more than half a century. In light of all the money it had invested in advertising and brand recognition, the company decided to fight to retain its brand name and, eventually, it won.
The Federal Trade Commission brought similar charges against the company in 1943. For 17 years the company battled in the courts to retain its name. The decision came back in 1959: 'liver' had to be dropped from all advertising. The product, whose name was known in every home and painted on the sides of barns across the country, was renamed Carter's Little Pills.
Meanwhile, Hoyt was pioneering research for new products even through the hardships of the 1930s. With so many Americans living hand-to-mouth during the Depression, few could afford liver pills, and sales sank. This only fueled Hoyt's determination to diversify. Research pointed to deodorants and antiperspirants. At the time there were two dominant brands in the United States, and each had a weakness: one was a stainless dry cream that was a deodorant only; the other a liquid antiperspirant that often stained clothes and irritated skin. The challenge became how to find a dry, stainless cream that could stop perspiration while deodorizing, yet not irritate the skin. A research chemist from Princeton, John H. Wallace, was tapped for the task. In 1935 the company launched the product that would soon outstrip its liver pills in sales and brand name recognition: Arrid.
Between an ad campaign that saturated the public and a product that really did meet consumer needs, Arrid became the largest selling deodorant in the United States. These two characteristics of the Arrid product became Carter-Wallace trademarks: the effective use of advertising, combined with a product that was developed instead of copied. To keep ahead of its many imitators and competitors, Arrid was constantly improved. The success of the deodorant soon led to the construction of a new plant in New Brunswick. Carter's sales topped the $1 million mark for the first time in 1935. To reflect its new direction, the company's name was changed to Carter Products, Inc., in 1937. For ten years, the original formula of Arrid was a top-seller. After that, various improvements were used to further boost sales." from here.
The bottle photograph that bama1 put up appears to me to have a "reinforced extract" finish (with a tip of the hat to Bill Lindsey's finish ID pages.) I have also heard this referred to as a "reinforced pharmacist" finish. I'm sure there are other names as well. I associate this style with later or more modern druggist bottles.
Carter was a one product company until the introduction of Arrid in 1935.
I postulate that this was a Little Liver Pills bottle with a clever advertising slogan embossed on it's face. I think the bottle form was simply an effective medium for the advertising slogan.
Wilkie, what does the copy on your little bottle say?
I've seen a number of different ads from Carter's. Different copy, different graphics, all pushing the pills.
