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!
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.
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.
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