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The online auction
house, eBay, has been an outlet for the sale and
purchase of all types of bottles including several
unlisted Rhode Island examples.
The most recent
RI bottle to show up is an aqua, smooth base Davis'
Vegetable Pain Killer. So what, you may ask? Well,
this previously unknown example is one of the
largest blown in mold Davis' reported, measuring
in at 8 5/8" tall. Not only is the height unusual
but there is an embossing addition that I've never
seen before on any Davis bottle. On the front
is a sunken panel where the famous DAVIS
is embossed and right below that in the same sunken
panel is an embossed number 4. I have yet
to determine the significance of the number but
when I do I will pass along the information.
The final price?
Including shipping and handling the total came
to $8.75, a deal in my book. I don't think people
realized how uncommon this bottle is because if
they did I feel it would have gone for much more.
The condition of the bottle is pretty good with
some light staining (which will probably come
out without much difficulty) and a very small
1/8" chip on the right front corner at the heel
(barely noticeable).
Another bottle to
come from eBay is a medicine from Providence.
However, this is not your typical medicine although
you might not give it much of a look if you saw
it at a show unless someone pointed it out. A
clear, 6" tall, rectangular bottle with sunken
panels on all four sides, unimpressive until you
read the embossing:
- PIERCE &
CO. / INDIAN LINIMENT (front)
- THE GREAT
(right side)
- RHEUMATIC
/ REMEDY (reverse)
- PROVIDENCE,
R.I. (left side)
The bottle is very
crude, circa 1880's, strongly embossed, and has
a tiny 1/16" sliver missing from the edge of the
hand tooled collar. Other than that it was in
mint condition and evidently this bottle was not
lost on collectors.
There were several
things going for it, one being the word INDIAN.
Indian bottles are highly sought after and have
been commanding pretty good prices over the past
couple of years. Being a LINIMENT as well as a
REMEDY also caused some of the draw but I have
a feeling I was one of the very few interested
in it because of it's geographical connection.
The bidding was
hot right up to the end with the hammer falling
at $69.90 not including fees or shipping. My high
bid was $53.00 and was passed in the final hour
of the auction.
After the auction
ended I emailed the seller and asked for the height
since it was not listed. He told me he was pleasantly
surprised at the final price and didn't think
it would have gone for that much but wished he
had another. Me too.
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