T. W. Dyott, His first paper labeled medicine bottle 1798-1805

[cowseatmaize]

Sorry, I was writing as you were posting. I can't delete mine but you can ask a moderator to.
I'd love to here back on more. I'm learning and will never stop.

 

[GuntherHess]

My experience with 18th century labelled medicines is certainly very limited.
THe book...
History of drug containers and their labels By George B. Griffenhagen, George Griffen Hagen, Mary Bogard.
Discusses the Dyott bottles briefly.

THey note the early bottles were flint glass rather than green glass. THey were square as you indicate. They were supposely embossed with Dyotts signature on the wrapper (did they have wrappers and labels, bottles of the period were often just paper wrapped rather than boxed).
I dont know where the authors got this information so I dont know how valid it is.
Just more of the puzzle.


I think tHis would be the green flat bottle they mention with the same embossing.
I cant recall ever seeing a square flint bottle with this embossing.

 

[cowseatmaize]

An interesting factoid, at least in my opinion.
According to Bottles, Flasks and Dr Dyott- Mckearin 1970 is that:
The lettered bottles for Dr. Robertson's medicine...Heck

I wonder what happened to the lost bottle?

 

[Steve/sewell]

I am home from work now and I have a little more information.I also took some quick pictures of the back side of the label looking through the bottle.The one point I cant stress enough is that this glass looks sounds and feels like flint glass.When I tap it with a known flint cordial glass it rings like a charm loudly for a couple of seconds

In all of my advertisements of Dyott ranging in year from 1807 to 1828 in Philadelphia based Newspapers he either advertised on the front or back very rarely the pages 2 and 3.If you are familiar with advertising even today it costs a lot more to be on the last page then a middle section for obvious reasons and Dyotts thinking was of the same.Through some of my own detective work on the label I have provided a couple of more pictures to show the inside back edge of the label.You will note on the picture of the side edge of the label it is thicker and tearing away from itself
on the back edge. The tiny black dots you see on the pictures above on the bottom of the label do indeed look like print from the tops of missing letters.This area could have broken off .I have called Jim who I received the bottle from to check in his display case for a small missing piece of the label. Chuck you say it looks clipped from a Newspaper it does doesn't it?,however newspapers are double sided and you should have print on the back side of the label if it was a newspaper clipping which it is void of.In any given area of the old newspapers if there is print on one side you can bet there will be print on the other and obviously that still holds true today.I believe this now rules out the newspaper theory.It also appears that the top edge of the border artwork has doubled under itself on the back edge.In my visit to the Corning glass museum a couple of weeks ago medicine bottles from the late 17 and early 1800s did have paper labels affixed to them.

From our own Library of Congress the following:
Until the mid-1800's, newspapers in the United States were published on paper made using cotton rag fiber. Our libraries and archives hold many fine examples of newspapers dating from the early eighteenth century that have survived in excellent condition and will, if properly handled and cared for, survive for generations to come. Production of rag paper was (and remains) and expensive process, however; and as the 19th century progressed, technology and increased literacy combined to encourage cheaper production of paper. The boom in publishing in the latter half of the 19th century was made possible in great part by the invention of cheap paper.

By the 1880's most mass market publications were being published on paper that replaced the more expensive rag content with untreated ground wood fibers, and additional substances to prevent discoloration and decrease porosity. Paper made using this process carries within itself reactive agents that will speed its deterioration. Excessive moisture will speed the production of acids that weaken the paper. Excessive heat and dryness will embrittle the paper. The cheapest and least stable form of this paper is newsprint. In addition to its obvious fragility, today's newsprint is especially susceptible to damage caused by heat, light, dampness, and airborne pollutants.

In summary news print and broadsides printed through out the 1700s and up to the early 1800s are in much better shape then print that came after 1845.I know this to be factual as I own a rather large inventory of old newspapers dating between 1630 from England to the 1870s.All of the older print is in much better shape and can be handled quite easily verses the newer papers which crack and chip when you try to open them.
With the bottle on it's side and you are reading the lettering left to right the border which has folded under itself is about a quarter of an inch in width,the missing area on the bottom has about the same amount of area left making the label cover one side of the bottle corner to corner.There is enough room for any of Dyotts medicine names to fit under Edinburgh,at the bottom of the label.This has been a good discussion on this bottle

 

[Steve/sewell]

The back side of the label looking through the bottle.There is no print like a newspaper would have on it

 

[Road Dog]

I have no doubt about the bottle's age and the label's age. I just have concern about the sharp edge on the label on one side. Maybe it was fraying abit and someone trimmed it up a long time ago?

 

[Steve/sewell]

This shows the area which would be at the bottom of the label (the missing text) from the back side of the label.A layer of paper has pealed away from the main body but is being held in place by a couple of threads and the label itself.

 

[Steve/sewell]

A view looking under the label across the front,this is as close as I could get without distorting the picture.You can see how this area has pulled away from the main label.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Road Dog The edge itself is not as straight as it appears and the more you study it it looks as though it just cracked and broke away.

 

[blobbottlebob]

Hey Steve,
The pontil sure is weird. What is a diagonal pontil scar? I sure hope that you have one of the first known examples of a labelled american medicine.