1. A classic 19th century English medicine: a pontilled Dicey & Co Daffy's Elixir, probably from the 1820s, 30s, or 40s.

Daffy's Elixir was probably the longest lived of all English patent medicines. First sold in the years just after the English civil war in the mid 17th century, it was still being sold as late as 1924, and some accounts suggest it was marketed even as late as the early 1950s. This shape of Daffy's Elixir bottle was used from the late 18th century up to at least 1900, and probably right through to the 1920s or 30s.

2. Warners Safe Cure. English pint and half pint bottles, dating to about 1910 - 1915. H. H. Warner was originally an American company and this 'medicine' was very successful on at least 3 continents. These British bottles are found in both green and various shades of amber (amber being slightly earlier than green), and in a very rare aqua variation. Relatively common late examples (see number 10 below) are in aqua and colourless glass, and are embossed 'Remedy' or 'Medicine' because of the introduction of laws designed to combat the more blatant forms of quackery.

3. An English example of a Radams Microbe Killer bottle, dating to the 1890s or early 1900s. Embossed "GERM, BACTERIA OR FUNGUS DESTROYER / [tm of man beating a skeleton with a club] / CURES ALL DISEASES". Radams so-called medicine was in fact dilute hydrochloric and sulphuric acids coloured with a little red wine. This bottle holds more than a pint, and large stoneware bottles holding a gallon are quite common. Recommended doses were large, and to be continued over long periods. The medicine had no therapeutic value, and in the large doses recommended was actually poisonous. This is just one of many 'patent' medicines that were probably directly responsible for large numbers of deaths in the years before regulation. Radam became very wealthy on the proceeds.

4. Three English examples of Turlingtons Balsam of Life bottles spanning approximately 150 years. The example on the left is the earliest (probably 1760s - 1800) followed by the one on the right (approx. 1790s - 1830s). The middle example is much later, probably dating to about 1890 - 1910. The two earlier bottles are pontilled. In spite of the wide age range all carry the date 1754, which was the year in which this bottle shape was first used for the balsam.

Turlingtons Balsam was first marketed in the early to mid 1740s, was granted a Royal Patent in 1744, and was one of the early medicines which had genuine medicinal properties. It was sold under the Turlingtons name until at least the 1940s in the USA (and maybe in the UK), and in a modified form is still in the British pharmacopea.

5. Four Dalby's Carminative bottles, all used by different proprietors. From left to right: 1. Generic bottle embossed 'DALBY'S / CARMINATIVE'; 2. 'GELL'S / DALBY'S / CARMINATIVE'; 3. 'DALBY'S / CARMINATIVE / prepared by / James Dalby'; 4. EVE'S / DALBY'S CARMINATIVE'. All are pontilled, and from the styles of the bottles can be dated approximately to 1830s-50s; 1810s - 30s; 1840s - 60s; 1850s. The Eve's bottle seems to be the only example known (so far) and I have not been able to find any reference to this brand or proprietor until now. I'd be grateful for any information anyone might have about this bottle.

6. Five different Dalby's Carminatives in Darren's collection. Four of these (all except the one on the right) are pontilled. The bottle on the far left is an unusual and very early example of a James Dalby bottle, taller than other types, and in aqua rather then the more usual (for James Dalby bottles) clear glass. The bottle second from the right is English made, but has a type of pontil that some collectors would think of as being American.

8. C. MANLY / PATENT / LONDON. Three bottles all blown in the same mould, and all found at the same site, but with very different patinas. So far nothing is known about Manly and his or her patent. These bottles were found with a large number of medicine bottles dating to approximately 1800 - 1840 including Balm of Gilead bottles (see number 1 above) and are in a style that suggests they are also medicines.

If anyone has any information about Manly, or the original contents of these bottles, I'd be very pleased to hear from them.

9. Four American made medicine bottles, all pontilled, and all of which have British conterparts. The Turlingtons and Dalby's (second and fourth from the right) are both copies of originally English designs (compare them with the English examples in pictures 4 & 5 above). The tallest bottle is embossed 'BUCHAN'S / HUNGARIAN / BALSAM / OF LIFE', which was a medicine originally invented in England. Unlike the Turlingtons and Dalby's which are known to have become generic medicines (rather as aspirin is today), it is unclear if Buchans Balsam was pirated in the US, or whether it was imported in bulk and rebottled in US-made bottles. It's quite likely that both happened at various times.

The fourth bottle in this group is for 'LIQUID OPODELDOC', a liniment said to have been invented by Paracelsus. There are (very uncommon) British pontilled medicines also embossed for opodeldoc, but they are, so far as I have been able to find out, never embossed with the word 'Liquid'. 'Liquid opodeldoc' seems to have been an American innovation that may not have made it back across the Atlantic.

10. A Warners Safe Remedies bottle with original label. This bottle dates to after 1914, when American law required that medicine bottles have their capacity clearly marked on them. Earlier examples (before the 1906 US Food & Drugs Act) claimed that this medicine would cure all kinds of diseases. The 1906 act eventually forced those kinds of wild claims to be dropped.

Britain lagged significantly behind the US in that respect. Although there were various laws passed in the early years of the 20th century and in the 1920s that had some relevance (and laudanum had by law to be labelled as a poison as early as the 1860s), it wasn't until the 1940s that legislation in the UK finally addressed the issues of dangerous and fraudulent medicines adequately. This is why Warners medicine continued to be sold as 'Safe Cure' until about 1920 (and possibly even later) in Britain, but was renamed as a 'Remedy' in the US at least 10 years earlier (see #2 above, and 'Historically important?' in the Articles section).

11. A small pontilled medicine, probably dating to about 1820, for DR NORRIS'S DROPS FOR FEVERS. Examples of Norris's bottles are not particularly rare, but this is the only example I've seen so far that has the name of E (Evan) Edwards, of St Paul's in London, added. This medicine was widely advertised as early as the 1770s and continued in use until at least the mid 19th century. It was a purgative containing the poisonous metal antimony. Guaranteed to purge you, probably from both ends. Like bleeding, purging was one of the very long-lived eccentricities in the 'heroic' tradition of medicine, from medieval times right up until the mid 19th century. This was just one of many 'purgative' patent medicines of the period. Others included the equally long-lived and probably even more commercially successful 'Dr James' Fevers Powders', which will feature in a brief article on this website in the future.

This bottle has a beautiful iridescent patina on one side, and is one of my favourites.