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A trip to the Southern
Connecticut ABCA show in Stratford on June 20th
yielded two previously unreported RI bottles,
a late 1800's soda and a label only olive oil.
The soda, an aqua
G.
W. & W. W. BOYNTON / PROVIDENCE / R.I.,
was purchased for $15.00. These bottles are usually
squat shape with either the familiar tapered skirt
lip or, on occasion, a blob top. This new example
differs in the shape of the body which is not
a squat. It is narrower and tapers slightly from
the heel to the shoulders, then gently tapers
in and up the neck to the blob. The reverse is
embossed with an outlined B. This bottle is quite
different from the known Boynton bottles and,
while not anything you could sell and retire off
of, is a nice addition to the Rhode Island collection.
The olive oil is
a rarity because of the label and the company
that produced the product. Because it is unembossed
and label only, it will not be included in the
Antique Bottles of Rhode Island reference. It
will be added to the label only list to be published
sometime in the future.
The bottle itself
is a 'pepper sauce' shape, has a fluted style
neck, is aqua, and is unembossed. The label says
IMPORTED
OLIVE OIL from
CHEMICAL INDUSTRIAL CO. PHARMACY.
In smaller lettering underneath is R.
De ANGELIS & CO. PROPS. 139 KNIGHT ST., PROVIDENCE,
R.I. The
label dominates the front of the body and has
nice coloring and design. I passed by this bottle
several times and just happened to catch the word
Providence as I was leaving. This bottle and label
are unusual because Mr. DeAngelis was a pharmacist,
not a grocer or importer of food stuffs. I vaguely
remember reading somewhere that he had also sold
olive oil as a medicinal product, but up until
now I had never seen any proof to that fact.
Raffaele DeAngelis
was a pharmacist who owned and operated one of
the first apothecaries in Rhode Island which was
limited to compounding prescriptions. Of Italian
heritage, he was known as "Don" Raffaele, which
is a title of respect given to Italian men of
great importance. Known for his accomplishments
in the drug and chemical fields, he was also widely
respected for his leadership in serving the community.
Mr. DeAngelis founded
the Chemical Industrial Co. in Providence, RI
and held many patents in the field of medicine.
It is recorded that he compounded one of the first
citrates for antacids in the patent medicine industry.
Besides his citrate he manufactured and sold other
products such as FERRO-CHINA DeANGELIS, a tonic,
DeANGELIS' LINIMENT, DeANGELIS' LIQUID DENTRIFICE,
CICO DIGESTIVE POWDER, and DeANGELIS' MAGNESIUM
CITRATE.
The majority of
the embossed DeAngelis bottles were cylinder shape,
cobalt blue color, and came in several different
sizes. A couple of different clear embossed medicine
type bottles have been reported although the cobalt
ones are the most popular. The earliest DeAngelis
bottles are blown in mold form. The earliest machine
made bottles are very similar in appearance to
the blown in mold variants. The later machine
made bottles are the screw cap variety and are
readily available. Currently, there are eleven
different known variants of embossed DeAngelis
bottles and an unknown amount of label only examples.
Mr. DeAngelis passed
away in July, 1970 at the age of 94.
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