Rare Boston Poisons

[Jim]

Here are two of my new favorites! I have been after these for a while, and am very pleased to have them. First is a 1-oz CHESTER A. BAKER/ BOSTON. The Chester Baker is a rare enough bottle in its own right, but they are almost always a bright cobalt color. This one is a deep sapphire blue, one of only two that I know of in this color. The other is a MELVIN & BADGER/ APOTHECARIES/ BOSTON, MASS. These can be found in the 4 and sometimes the 8-oz size without much trouble, but this 3-oz example is quite rare. Here is the pair. Check out the color contrast! Any opinions on the color of the Baker? Sapphire blue is my best guess. ~Jim

 

[Jim]

Chester A. Baker. This pharmacy was located on Longwood Ave. in Boston.

 

[Jim]

Melvin and Badger. James S. Melvin and John S. Badger started this successful apothecary business at 43 Temple Place, Boston. They had many different bottle types, these poisons are the most sought-after. Enjoy! ~Jim

 

[ukpoisonman]

Fantastic bottles..... Thanks for sharing

 

[Jim]

Thanks, Rob. Good to hear from you! ~Jim

 

[bearswede]

Hey, Jim...

Those are some nice bottles... There was a Melvin & Badger I had my eye on that sold recently on ebay... Don't think it was you that won that one tho... Probably a different size, too...

Ron

 

[Jim]

Thanks, Ron. I love 'em! Now I gotta decide what's next on the list [].

The M&B that just sold was a 4-ounce. I already had that one. It sold for a little over $100, which was a pretty fair deal. I have seen them lately going for $100-150, even $200. A year or two ago, they were $50-60! There seems to be a lot of new interest in the irregular hexagon series. ~Jim

 

[JOETHECROW]

After reading an interesting article about unusual color variants in of all things, BROMO bottles, I proceeded to go thru a bushel of them I'd dug over the years and found one just that odd blue same as your baker...They refered to it as a "smoke" blue in the article...
Joe

 

[Jim]

Smoke blue sounds like a pretty good description for this color. It's almost like blue, purple and gray all thrown together in a blender [].

I wonder if these odd color variations were from impurities in the cobalt coloring agent, or maybe from some leftover glass in the furnace of a different color from a previous batch. Either way, they make for some interesting and beautiful bottles. Thanks for the info! ~Jim

 

[JOETHECROW]

It IS beautiful,...one of my favorite color variations....[]