Findlay Bottle Show

Great Antiques Bottles Info on Collectors Weekly

Collector's Weekly, the informative reference and ebay listings-tracker site has a super BOTTLES section, with articles and resource links, and best of all, it's a one-stop place to see the MOST WATCHED bottles on ebay, so you don't miss any. They also give you the recent CLOSED prices. All on one page, w/thumbnail pix, and links to the items. It will save you hours of ebay surfing. And it's FREE! Here's the link CW BOTTLES Overview . It's a great site. Be sure to bookmark it, and check out all of their bottle collecting categories - milks, jars, bitters, and so many more.

Fruit Jar Round Up Comes Around Again - Summer Muncie

2011 SUMMER FRUIT JAR ROUND-UP

There are only 2 events each year devoted just to FRUIT JARS: January's Get-Together put on by the MAFJBC, and the SUMMER FRUIT JAR ROUND-UP, put on by the fruit jar collectors themselves, coordinated by Jerry McCann and Marianne Dow. Last summer we had a super turn out, and a lot of fun!

Save The Date

Better make your room reservations now. The hotel is blocking off rooms for us at a special discount rate, for this JULY 6-10, 2011 EVENT.

Fruit jar nuts will start arriving in Muncie on Wednesday the 6th, and the room-hop-shopping scene is happening on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the 7,8,9th. Sunday the 10th will be the farewell breakfast for those die-hards who stay over Saturday night.

Enjoy complimentary hotel-breakfasts every morning, as well as sandwiches, snacks, and cold drinks in the Hospitality Room upstairs Thursday and Friday afternoons, and into the night.

Greg Spurgeon will have his famous "Bargain Cave'o'Jar Deals" in the Hospitality Room, too. Anyone who wants to bring jars to sell without getting a hotel room may also set up upstairs, no charge.

In addition to the excitement of the room-hop-shopping, which is what these Muncie fruit jar events are famous for, and the good visiting with friends (which would be enough, wouldn't it?!), there are also some scheduled talks and moderated group discussions.

Jerry McCann will give another of his fun educational talks, illustrated with rare jars that make his audiences "ooh" and "ahh".

This summer we are adding some themed Show'n'Tell discussions, where those interested bring in items that illustrate the theme. Or come and participate in the discussion, and see what the others bring. Or just lurk and learn, that's okay too.

Suggested themes are "Swirlys", "Non-Ball Indiana Jars", "Unusual Go Withs". Please email with your theme suggestions. We will need someone to volunteer to moderate each group too, just to keep it on track, but it'll be very casual.

Anyone wanting to give a more formal talk, long or short, is welcome.

On Saturday we will have the Jelly Jammers meeting, and the MAFJBClub's meeting. The meetings are open to everyone.

Afterwards will be the fun fee-free auction. There are always some rarities, and some bargains there. And there's nothing like the excitement and entertainment of an auction. You never know who will be dukin' it out for that must-have treasure.

Don't miss this fun 4-day collectors event with room-hop-shopping and activities at the Signature Inn, 3400 N Chadam Ln Muncie IN 47304-5272 (phone for room reservations: 765-284-4200).

For more info, contact Marianne Dow at finbotclub@gmail.com or 419-455-1112.

Aside from hotel room costs, events at the hotel are free and open to all fruit jar enthusiasts.

Read about last summer's Fruit Jar Round Up here -- with pix and videos.

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

Cocaine and Opium Common In Early Quack Medicines

These fun bits came in as one of those email forward/forward/forwards, but love the old bottles and advertising - glad I didn't "auto-delete".

Subject: Fw: WHY OUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS WERE HAPPIER THAN WE ARE

A bottle of Bayer's 'Heroin.'

Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was also used to treat children suffering with a strong cough.

Metcalf's Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time. Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time. He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.

Produced by the Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York. It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal. Children should only take half a glass.

A paperweight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne (Mannheim, Germany.) They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.

At 40% alcohol plus 3 grams of opium per tablet, it didn't cure you, but you didn't care!

Cocaine Tablets (1900)

All stage actors, singers, teachers, and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to 'smooth' the voice.

Very popular for children in 1885. Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children very happy!

Opium for newborns... also 46% alcohol!

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

Fruit Jar Collector Phil Smith - A 'Legends of the Jar' Star

Phil Smith has an exquisite fruit jar collection. Read another in Bruce Schank's wonderful chronicling of fruit jar collecting history series, The Legends Of The Jar. Take a peek at Phil's display, and read his story of how he developed his collection.

Click: Phil Smith - Legend of the Jar - by Bruce Schank (pdf will open)

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

If Only I Had A Time Machine

Wouldn't you love to see what's in this box of old bottles?

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

St Louis Bottle Show Report -- Breweriana

Received this in our InBox, from Mike Elling via Bottle Ed -

All Bottlers -- Despite the highest gasoline prices in the history of the show, $3.50 per gallon in the St. Louis area, both the exhibit area and the dealer area were filled to capacity. The Sunday show, traditionally the third Sunday in March, still had a normal attendance figure, just below 400 (?).

An astonishing array of local Anheuser Bush pattern bottles were brought in and shown by soda dealer, Jack Roberson. Some of the bottles were made of solid glass, but most were made of modern acrylic plastic. “They were made as concepts prior to production release. Both the shape and the glass color were being tried. Some of the bottles include new labeling ideas as well,” Jack revealed.

His dealer table was mobbed by many customers who are brewery collectors surprised by this amazing estate discovery!

A very rare label-under-glass grape soda bottle was offered from the turn of the last century. It is from California for a product called GRAPINE, which was produced from about 1905 to 1910, according to dealer Henry Tanhausley, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. At that time you could buy soda syrup in glass bottles and use it for medicinal purposes from a pharmacy. The sparkling mint bottle went unclaimed at $525.00.

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

Amazon books:
Here's to Beers: Blob Top Beer Bottles 1880-1910

Back bar breweriana: A guide to advertising beer statues and beer shelf signs with 1992 price guide

The Beer Book: An Illustrated Guide to American Breweriana

Beers, Breweries & Breweriana

Dr. Drake's Remedy and Trademark Law -- Findlay Ohio Items Show'n'Tell

By Marianne Dow

Bottle embossed Dr. Drakes German Croup Remedy.

This is the box for a later product from the same company, the Glessner Medicine Co. of Findlay, Ohio.

Other Glessco products (Photo by Thomas Glessner Weaver)

The bottle at the top of the pix once held Dr. Drakes German Cough and Croup Remedy. It was sold by the Glessner Medicine Co., which has a long history in Findlay. One that includes a landmark Ohio State Supreme Court case that set trademark law precedent.

According to "A History of Northwest Ohio", published in 1917, the Glessner family owned the Findlay Daily Courier. In 1887, while still working for the family newspaper, Leonard Glessner started the Glessner Medicine Co. with a recipe for what he sold as Dr. Drake's German Cough and Croup Remedy. He worked out of his home, and soon left the newspaper business to work on the medicine company full time.

The publication "The Pharmaceutical Era" (Feb. 1904) reported that in 1904 the business had a fire. The business was relocated, and in 1905 Leonard Glessner put together a stock offering, got some investors, and reorganized as the Glessner Medicine Company.

This company stayed in business until 1972, and one of their products is still sold (see below, in the heir's note).

An interesting side note is that there was real live Dr. Drake living and practicing Findlay at the time. Glessner had gotten the rights to his Dr. Drake's recipe from a real Dr. Drake of Iowa. The Dr. Drake of Findlay felt he was losing out on money, and also that Glessner didn't have the right to use his name. So the Findlay Dr. Drake started selling a compeitive product, similarly named and marketed, in Findlay with the Dr. Drake name.

Naturally, Glessner and the Findlay Dr. Drake sued each other. In a nutshell, Drake lost, since he was not the original Dr Drake, and Glessner had the rights to the original Dr. Drake name, and that one cannot trade mark a person's name, and that the Findlay Dr. Drake was guilty of fraud as he had purposely intended to decieve his customers.

The case is covered at great length in "The Ohio Law Reporter / "Generic Geographic and Personal Names in Trademarks / Ohio State Supreme Court case / 1903". The court report explains it all, and is kind of convoluted, and written in "legalese", but I think it makes for interesting reading.

Photo of the Glessner Medicine Co. building

Also interesting reading is the website of a Glessner decendant, Thomas Glessner Weaver, who writes about his ancestors on his blog. He tells us that the company was closed in 1962. Apparently another company bought some of the formulas, and the Glessner family heirs still gets some income from the products.

Excerpts:

... the family business, founded by Leonard Cowles Glessner (b 3/17/1853 Delaware OH d July 27, 1929), my great grand father who began making Dr Drakes German Croup Remedy out of his Findlay home in 1889 and who founded the Glessner Medicine Company in 1905 as a stock company. In 1912 the word German was removed prior to the WW I antipathy toward German people and the language in America. He built this brick factory on E Sandusky Ave in Findlay that I visited in the 1950's when they were still bottling product at this location. ...

... Pain a Lay, developed by Harry Chappelear Glessner, son of Len, from a formula used by dentists in St Louis, still has a following and sales, that I and my family receive residual income from even after the company was sold in 1962, when operations ceased in Findlay after 73 years of production....
...Pain a Lay is still marketed through Roberts Proprietaries in New York, New Jersey, and amazingly our family still receives royality checks some 40 years after Harry C Glessner sold the business...

That about wraps up the Glessco / Glessner Medicine Co. story.

This is an image of an antique postcard from a great book about Findlay that is illustrated with tons of old postcards -- Findlay in Vintage Postcards, written by Eric Van Renterghem -- click on the book's title to go and see "Inside the Book" on googlebooks. You will see a lot of neat old Findlay postcards.

The book is published by Arcadia Publishing, which produces a huge line of local history books illustrated with antique postcards and photos.

The Tupo Vaporizer to which the postcard refers is a mystery to me. The only thing that comes up when you google it, is the self-same book reference. If anyone knows more, please share!
_______________________
Update 4-17-11:

Mystery Solved -- Findlay Bottle Club member Joe Frey solved the mystery. At our last meeting, he brought in tons of TURPO Vaporizer items -- solving the mystery of why I couldn't find anything on TUPO Vaporizers. The antique postcard above misspelled it without the R!

__________________________

Update - 4/08/11: The aforementioned Glessner heir left a comment and I am adding it here to the post.

HI, Thomas Glessner Weaver here, Thanks for crediting me with the photo of the Glessner Products. Fun to see you have collected some of the bottles that came out of the plant at 230 E. Sandusky in Findlay I visited as a kid. Lewis Glessner owned the Hancock Co Courier from the 1860's and his son, Leonard Cowles Glessner built the factory in downtown Findlay. Today at a conference in Minneapolis I ran into Jonah Agner from Bluffton who works at the Revolver Restaurant /www.revolverrestaurant.net / a block away from the old Glessner Co that is part of a church. I will link your site with mine just for fun.
Cheers Tom Weaver

The FinBotClub Blog is published by the Findlay Antique Bottle Club of Ohio

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