American Glass Gallery’s upcoming Auction #31 will feature a rare aqua pontil medicine “Dr. J. Doughty’s Celebrated Grave Robber” along with other select bitters and medicine bottles. A total of 280 lots will be offered. Bidding begins on March 22nd and will end Wednesday evening, March 30th.
The Grave Robber bottle is known to collectors as an extremely rare item. The same Dr. Doughty sold a medication in a smaller bottle marked simply “J.D. Doughty / Cincinnati”
The words “grave robber” may be unique to this bottle – a remedy for death is an odd twist on the 18th century practice of surgeons who sought out fresh bodies for dissections. See the fascinating and gruesome book, “The Knife Man” by Wendy Moore.
More information on this auction can be found on the auctioneer’s website at https://www.americanglassgallery.com
