When was the last time you saw a photograph of a (now) antique bottle taken in the 1840s? I can’t imagine there are many such images in existence.
Right now on ebay is a “dag” of a man holding a bottle of WARE’S LOTION. The bottle appears to be an oval aqua bottle with flared lip and a wrap-around label. You cannot tell if it is embossed or not. Surely it would be pontiled if from this time period. I made a quick check in the Greer catalog of pontiled medicines and find another bottle (Lot 1720) which is embossed WARE’S LOTION OR PAIN EXTRACTOR. The bottle is rectangular and has a tapered lip and is 6-1/2″ tall. It’s listed in the catalog as extremely rare. It brought $170 in the auction in 1989.
It’s an incredibly cool historical piece for the antique bottle collector. I’m tempted to bid on it myself. We’ll see.
With 3 days to go in the auction, the bidding is currently at $320 and the auction has not yet made reserve.
View this Daguerreotype auction
