Antique Medicine Bottles Dr Cannon's Medicine Chest

ANOTHER "PATENT MEDICINE ARTICLE" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

antique bottles THE MEDICINE CHEST --- BY DR. RICHARD CANNON old bottles

As we search for collectible items, we are likely to encounter the names Bishop and Boot. I find three bimal bottles on my shelves embossed Bishop, two of which add the magic word "cure", all in cornflower blue. Headaches Cured // Bishop's / Granular Citrate / Of Caffeine // Headaches Cured, rectangular, 6 1/8 and 4 3/4 inches tall are the "cures". The other is embossed A over B in a circle with Bishop below, oval and 3 3/8 inches tall. My only Boot bottle is embossed within a slug plated area Boots (in script) The / Chemists, bimal, green, oval and 4 1/2 inches tall, but I also find an off-white round pottery jar 2 5/8 inches tall stenciled within a fancy rectangular lined space Compound Extract Of / Sarsaparilla / A Valuable Spring, Summer / And Autumn Medicine / Boots (script) Cash / Chemists. On my wall there's a photograph of a small baby being weighed on a Boots / Infant / Weight Machine or baby scale.


Bishop’s with monogram.	Bishop’s Headache Cures.	Boots the Chemists.

Alfred Bishop & Sons [LTD] of London, England, patented Bishop's Granular Effervescent Citrate of Magnesia along with their monogram with the U.S. Patent Office in November, 1897. The preparation had been produced since 1857. They were listed as Chemists, Exporters and Agents in 1873 and 1893.

Whether Bishop's Celebrated Balsam advertised in the Freeman Journal, Cooperstown, N.Y., January 9, 1852, was their product or not, I do not know. The "cure" bottles are from Australia according to Bill Agee's friend in the "continent down under". Some of these were probably produced by the Wood's Bottle Works, Portobello, Scotland, 1900-1920. A Bishop's Granulated Citrate of Magnesia in a light cobalt blue bottle 6 1/4 inches tall and a Bishop's Reliable Cough Cure were produced by the Bishop Remedy Company of San Francisco, California about 1900. The Citrate of Magnesia was advertised in 1876, by W.H. Schieffelin & Co., N.Y., and in 1915, by San Francisco & Pacific Druggist, S.F. The Headache Cure was listed by Peter Van Schaack & Sons, Chicago, as early as 1889.

Jesse Boot, Nottingham, England, inherited a combined herbalist and grocer's shop and was calling himself a druggist in 1877 and a "Cash Chemist" in 1880. He had ten shops by 1883. There is a round white pottery jar 3 1/4 inches tall, stenciled in green Confection / Of Senna / Dose-One Teaspoon or More as / Occasion May Require / Boots [script] / Cash Chemist // picture of a senna plant // Copyright in Great Britain and U.S.A. by Jesse Boot. There must have been other pottery jars of this type with varying kinds of medicines. Boot also put out amber square, smooth-lipped jars about 5 3/4 inches tall embossed Boots [script] / Cash / Chemists and Boots [script] / The / Chemists. Their medicinals and related products were packed in marked bottles, tins, cardboard, pottery and jars. It appears that one could assemble quite a collection of Boots items. Boots moved into the Canadian market at some time, and Boots products continued to be produced into the 1890s.
I like the "or as the occasion may require" on the Senna jar. Senna is used as a laxative.....

Boots Infant Weight Medicine.

References:

1. Agee, B.: Collecting All Cures, 1973
2. Baldwin, J.: Patent and Proprietary Medicine
Bottles, 1973.
3. 3. Caniff, T.: Antique Bottle and Glass
Collector, July, 1999.
4. Denver, K.: At the Sign of the Mortar, 1970.
5. Denver, K.: Patent Medicine Picture, 1968.
6. Fike, R: The Bottle Book, 1987.
7. McGuire, E.: Bottles Products and The U.S.
Patent Office, 1991.

Did you enjoy this article? Every month Antique Bottle and Glass Collector magazine gives you neat articles like this one.