"Medicinal" whiskey

[gdog68]

Hi got a nice amber whiskey I believe is from the prohibition Era. Embossing reads "box this bottle only in the tin top safety carton" cool spider and web design with wheat grains. Pat pending owens Illinois glass company makers mark

 

[willong]

Hi got a nice amber whiskey I believe is from the prohibition Era. Embossing reads "box this bottle only in the tin top safety carton" cool spider and web design with wheat grains. Pat pending owens Illinois glass company makers mark

Cool.

Looks like it featured a cap that doubled as a dosage measure (otherwise known as a shot glass in preceding and subsequent less-prohibitive eras )

 

[gdog68]

I wonder if it was hard to get a doctors prescription for liquor, bet they didn't follow the recommended dosage

 

[CanadianBottles]

I wonder if it was hard to get a doctors prescription for liquor, bet they didn't follow the recommended dosage

I don't think it was that hard if you knew the right doctor. Probably similar to getting a cannabis prescription for your anxiety or insomnia in more recent times. Here in Canada during our brief experiment with prohibition it was so easy to get prescriptions for whiskey that bootlegging never took off in any serious way like it did in the US.

 

[gdog68]

Thanks for the info. I will have to do more research on prohibition in Canada, thought it was mainly in the U.S.

 

[hemihampton]

What makes you think it's from the prohibition era?

 

[gdog68]

I looked it up found some information on the brand or at least an image of the bottle with the actual label. It's identical to mine minus the label and tin shot cap.

Antique Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey Bottle Amber Spider web | #524027626

Up for auction is this rare dark amber glass whiskey bottle with raised/embossed spiderwebs and spider after a fly from Frankfort Distillery in Kentucky. Distilled Prior to 1917 a medicinal product

www.worthpoint.com

 

[gdog68]

Also the bottle doesn't have federal law prohibits sale or reuse of this bottle embossed on it. There is a 2 year gap before this was required on liquor bottles 1933 to 35

 

[hemihampton]

hmmm, Interesting, I've seen prohibition medicinal use labels before but none on a liquor bottle that was 100 proof. usually see on other items that contained alcohol. The Owens Illinois mark on bottom like that one I think started in 1929. So maybe this bottle dates from 1929 to early 1933. LEON.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Thanks for the info. I will have to do more research on prohibition in Canada, thought it was mainly in the U.S.

It was mostly a US thing, it was never popular here and national prohibition only lasted for two years. Otherwise it was a province-by-province decision. Unlike the US, criminal law in Canada is exclusively the domain of the federal government, so you can't be criminally charged for violating a provincial restriction. One province kept prohibition in place for almost fifty years but there was little punishment for just taking the ferry to the next province over and stocking up. The worst that the government could do would be to fine you.