PICTURE DRUGGISTS! From anywhere wanted, except for pestle & mortar.

[botlguy]

I do have to retract the offer as a trader, took a closer look and the other one is a JOHN T. RAY, PROP. variant rather than RAY & OSMERS. Sorry for the false alarm. I'll see if I can help locate one or both for you.Those last two are terrific also. I like the way the pictures often match the name. Jim

 

[bottlerocket]

Just out of Curiosity, why not pestle & mortar?I have a local I dug from 1890's "pure drug" with a pestle & mortar.I value that bottle because it has my hometown embossed on it and the drug store is long gone.Does the pestle & mortar effect the value?

 

[stephengray]

Just out of Curiosity, why not pestle & mortar?I have a local I dug from 1890's "pure drug" with a pestle & mortar.I value that bottle because it has my hometown embossed on it and the drug store is long gone.Does the pestle & mortar effect the value?

I do not collect the druggists with a pestle & mortar picture because it is by far the most common picture available on them. It does not affect the price that much unless it is known to be a scarce variant that local collectors would want. For instance, my Waukegan collection of drugstore bottles numbers about 45 but I have only dug one with a pestle & mortar and it and it has a lip chip. I would give more for it than for the 'plain' ones if somebody had one. If I collected all known drug bottles with pestle & mortars on them......well, there are probably easily more than a hundreds of them from the U.S. Oklahoma has a scarcity of bottles compared to eastern states, due to it being a territory so long, but it probably has 30-50. Large eastern states such as PA, or NY probaby have several times that. So, it was just to keep me going crazy and spending too much money on eBay or bottle shows when they all look the same. Granted some look like beakers, are very large with all of the embossing inside, and I would pick those up. Thanks for the question. Stephen

 

[bottlerocket]

Nice Answer, Thank you. If I can ask another...ever since I found my local Med, how can I find out not necessarily its value but it's rareness? I know the company was established here in 1862 and went out of business in the 20s. There is hardly no information on the company other than old business registries, let alone how many bottles they sold to customers and how many artifacts are left out there. I have the only one so far that I have seen as a local. I know it is worth what someone will give BUT I would never sell it. It would be nice to know its rarity though. The company is F. S. Heath & Co.

 

[Bottleworm]

That kind of sounds like my problem. Last year this time I dug an unlisted dairy bottle from my hometown and had lots of people look at it but never any info. I found out where his dairy was but that was it but I am just happy with being able to find it. My only bottle from my hometown that I will never sell. I just think that it is so rare that there is no info on it. That's my theory anyway! []

 

[stephengray]

Nice Answer, Thank you. If I can ask another...ever since I found my local Med, how can I find out not necessarily its value but it's rareness? I know the company was established here in 1862 and went out of business in the 20s. There is hardly no information on the company other than old business registries, let alone how many bottles they sold to customers and how many artifacts are left out there. I have the only one so far that I have seen as a local. I know it is worth what someone will give BUT I would never sell it. It would be nice to know its rarity though. The company is F. S. Heath & Co.

A drug bottle is usually always worth more to a 'local' collector unless it has something going for it such as color, rare picture, pontiled, or something along those lines. I was born and raised in McAlester, Okla. and a few years ago I gave 50 bucks for a druggist that out-of-towners would probably give 15-20 for. Your town is not very large so I'm betting there are not a lot of them out there. Even so, if you were to put it for sale on eBay for example, you might get anywhere from 10-20 for it. Unless, two local collectors get into a bidding war over it. I recently bought a McAlester, Indian Territory druggist off of eBay for 70 and I would not let it go for less than 400-500. It is an unlisted variant in the Oklahoma bottle book so it is rare. I checked online and could never find any info about a bottle from that company so it might be fairly rare, which is weird seeing how they were in business so long. Your best bet would be to find another local collector.

 

[cowseatmaize]

Nice Answer, Thank you. If I can ask another...ever since I found my local Med, how can I find out not necessarily its value but it's rareness? I know the company was established here in 1862 and went out of business in the 20s. There is hardly no information on the company other than old business registries, let alone how many bottles they sold to customers and how many artifacts are left out there. I have the only one so far that I have seen as a local. I know it is worth what someone will give BUT I would never sell it. It would be nice to know its rarity though. The company is F. S. Heath & Co.

Good 'ole Fred and his brother Teddy, nice guys.SEESee also

The company bought a printing press about 1862 +/- so there may not be a lot of embossed bottles. FROM

 

[sparrow75]

Nice KY druggists, really like that Bedford bottle. If you have anymore KY druggists I'd be interested in seeing some pictures. Thanks

 

[CanadianBottles]

Those picture druggists are great, I only have one and it's the Wilkenson bottle from Keokuk Iowa with the eagle on it. Don't have any from Canada, though I know of at least one from BC that I would like to get one day with a camel on it, since the pharmacist's name was Campbell. The ones where the picture relates to the name are my favourites, I really love that A. Fly bottle.

 

[stephengray]

Nice KY druggists, really like that Bedford bottle. If you have anymore KY druggists I'd be interested in seeing some pictures. Thanks

Thanks, here is one other from Covington.