Seeking age/identity of product in new bottle

[Lucie813]

Hello, everyone! I just purchased a new (for me), clear bottle labeled only "B&L, The King of All Tonics" this afternoon at an antiques store. I paid $9.00 for it, which seemed reasonable. Can anyone tell me what the "B&L" stands for, and what the "tonic" might have been designed for?

Thank you!

 

[richf]

Hi Lucie,
Would it be possible for you to post a picture of this bottle? Also, was it machine made?
Rich

 

[Lucie813]

Hi, Rich,

The bottle is machine made and has a somewhat curious bottom -at least to me! When looking at the front, you see a wave in the very bottom section, which is slightly uneven. It appears that the "wave" is actually a separate plate of glass, as if it had been pushed up from the bottom, with a space between it and the actual bottom of the bottle. When I turned the bottle upside down, I noticed a roughened circle, as if someone had cut a circle out and then glued it back in. There is also, in the exact middle of the bottom, a small square with a zero in the middle of it. Looking at the bottle from this angle, the "wave" of glass inside it is almost exactly the shape of a dogbone.

Unfortunately I don't have the technology available to post a photo of it, but it is a vertical rectangle of eight inches tall. Also, it is labeled "B-L" rather than B&L, as I said earlier.

Hope this helps! Thank you!!

 

[cc6pack]

Lucie,

About the only thing I can tell you about your bottle is that O in a square is the makers mark for Owens glass, that mark was used untill 1929 when the became Owens Illinois Glass. The bottom you describe is probably the Owens ring (scar) from the ABM.

This is only a guess on my part but a lot of the tonics claimed to cure a lot of ailments of the Blood, Liver, Kidney, Skin, etc. The B-L could stand for Blood- Liver.

Take a look on the link below for an explanation of the Owens scar, scroll down near the bottom,

http://www.blm.gov/historic_bottles/bases.htm

 

[cowseatmaize]

I think I found an embossed version in Fikes book. Blud-Life/The Great/Anti-Toxic/The King/Of Tonics/Made in USA