Poison Collection

[ukpoisonman]

Jim.... Thank you for sharing your photos, over here in the UK many of these poisons are not seen. however i have started to collect bottles from the US and other countries. I especially like the flattened hexagonal shape bottles with the horizontal warning ribs like in your first photo. So far i have two green 6oz and a blue 2oz sizes. I know of larger and smaller ones but are there any more colours ? Like aqua/clear or brown/amber ?


When my collection of English poison bottles is unwrapped for display soon i shall post some pictures....



Rob...

 

[Jim]

Hello Rob. Those are some nice irregular hexes! The olive green one is tough in the 6-oz size, they are usually seen in 8. Mine is also a 6. There is one other shade of blue, a brilliant turquoise. They are tough to find, but not extremely rare. There is one type known in clear glass, it is marked "Chawgo's Drugs" in a fancy script. These are one of the rarest of the type, and would likely command $1500+ in mint, IF you could find one! No ambers or aquas are known to have been made. I personally like the ones with a company name on them. I have one from The Sun Drug Co. and one from Melvin and Badger of Boston. The Melvin and Badgers are nice and can be had for well under $100. I would love to see your collection when you get time to post it. I have a few English poisons, but they are common ones. Welcome to the forum, and welcome to U.S. poison collecting. Good luck in your search, there are lots of unusual poisons from this side of the Atlantic. Jim

 

[Miles]

Absolutely beautiful spiked small poison in the front. Your collection is so colorful, and although I'm into inks, I could easily see getting into poisons. Keep updating that collection, and if you have any space, I would spread out those bottles on a wide shelf, so that people can see every one. Very nice Owl poisons too.

 

[Jim]

Thanks, Miles. I am going to have to get a bigger cabinet at some point. It is getting hard to display all of my poisons, there are some that can't even be seen in the pictures because they are behind other ones. The spiked one in the front is one of my favorites. It has a few scratches and two repaired chips, but still looks pretty good. It is a KO-2, and is embossed on the base Davis and Geck, Brooklyn NY. It is a very hard poison to find. The Owls are also a favorite. I like inks as well, especially the Carter's cones with color. So far, I have aqua, amber, emerald green and an 1897 in cobalt. I also have the Ma and Pa figurals, but Ma's head is missing! If you ever decide to get into poisons, I'm sure you will love them. I know I'm hooked! Jim

 

[Miles]

Did you see this Owl with a label?

Owl Poison.

 

[Jim]

I hadn't seen that one yet. There was one just like it a week or two ago that sold for over $400. Same bottle, just a different product label. I would like to start working on the larger Owls some day. Right now I am working on irregular hexagons, and I just made a deal to acquire a rare Wyoming poison, so I guess I'll get to those big Owls at some point! I'll be sure to watch the auction, it should be an interesting one. I might even think about a bid. Thanks for the tip. Jim

 

[Miles]

That bottle above ends in 6 hours.

It's already up to over 500$!

 

[littlebit56]

RE: Poison Collection/Miles

Hey Miles. I'm new to this and also enjoy getting answers to my questions. I just happen to have run across a bottle (probably not that old) that has something about "Dr. Miles" on it. I have been cleaning and repacking them wrapped in paper towels so not sure but i think it says "Dr. Miles New Heart Cure". Have you ever seen one like that? Perhaps you're related in some way to that doctor...Do you have a cure for the heart?...lol Just thought it an odd coincidence that i ran across someone (on this forum) with the same name. Don't you?

littlebit56

 

[Miles]

Well actually I'm not related to him []. It'd be neat, but the thing is Dr. Miles is actually Franklin Miles.
Dr Miles bottles are my some of my favorites because of my name, and that they put out funny advertisements.
"Dr. Miles Heart Cure" I have seen go for 10.00 on ebay a month or so. They appear every so often, and although common, are not as common as say a Dr. Miles Restorative Nervine, or Dr. Miles Medical Co bottle. Dr. Miles company was very successful because of all the advertising they had, making the bottles common.

Dr. Miles Medical Co. is now Miles Laboratories, Miles Labs created Alka Seltzer. Pretty neat eh?

(I know you're new, but next time private message questions like this to someone. This thread is only meant to be about Jim's Poison collection. )[]

 

[Jim]

That Owl sold for $729! Ebay can be a crazy place, as that is about $300 more than an identical bottle had sold for within the last two weeks. The next time I'm able to spend that amount on a bottle, it will definitely be an irregular hexagon. I'll admit, it's been hard to resist some of the ones I've seen lately, but I'm very strict on paying all my bills on time and I don't believe in credit cards. Consequently, my poison buying gets put on hold sometimes. I thought about offering up some of my other poisons to trade for irregular hexes, but I can't bring myself to do it[] Even the common ones, they all kind of grow on me! Jim