Object Lesson | Emerson Drug Company, Medicine Bottle

Porch Nook's "Object Lessons" is a series of short articles sharing my vintage and antique finds over the years, containing just enough information to make you dangerous at the local flea market. Happy hunting!

Antique Cobalt Blue Glass Apothecary Medicine Bottle, Made By EMERSON DRUG CO

Value as of 2/21/2020, $4-$20*. While digging in an old TNT storage crate buried in a dark and forgotten corner of a Wisconsin barn sale, I couldn't ignore this little blue gem. 

Manufactured in the 1920s, this antique** cobalt blue glass apothecary medicine bottle was made by the Emerson Drug Company of Baltimore, Maryland. Made to contain Bromo-Seltzer, a brand of antacid to relieve pain occurring together with heartburn, upset stomach, or acid indigestion. The first of its kind was produced by inventor Isaac E. Emerson’s Drug Company in 1888.

Antique Cobalt Blue Glass Apothecary Medicine Bottle, Made By EMERSON DRUG CO

With a cork style top, this bottle is embossed with, “BROMO-SELTZER EMERSON DRUG CO BALTIMORE”. Dimensions: 2-1/2” T, 1-1/8” diameter.

Although these bottles are usually found in cobalt blue glass in a variety of sizes. If you're lucky, you may come across a rare aqua glass. The earlier bottles were hand-blown with a tooled lip, where later machine-made examples have a threaded lip for a screw on cap.

For more detailed history, I highly recommend visiting glassbottlemarks.com.

Disclaimers:

*For the sake of transparency, Porch Nook in not an antiquities dealer, nor do we specialize in antiques. However, for many years we've gained experience acquiring and selling old stuff, and hung around a lot of people who also like to acquire and sell old stuff. We gotta tell'ya, they're our kind of people...smart, creative, not shy and will tell you what's what. 
**The term "ANTIQUE" should be reserved only for items greater than 100 years old. Outside of the practice of buying and selling items, however, use of the word "ANTIQUE" can be understood to attach no specific age to an item. However, some hold to an 80 year marker. The 80 year marker considers the heritage of the item in that it reflects the span of two generations, with one generation traditionally considered to be the length of 40 years.  Click here to learn more about the differences between "ANTIQUE" and "VINTAGE".

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