November 16, 2012

5 Victorian (and other eras) Medicine Bottles




I developed a bit of a fascination with old medicine bottles whilst living in England. At car boot sales (a type of flea market, where people might literally sell things out of their car's boot/trunk), there would often be a few tables set up selling these bottles. Sometimes they'd be ridiculously priced, and I'd walk away, but often, late in the day, the vendors were eager to return home with empty trunks, and I'd be able to talk them into giving me a great deal. I'd talk up the colors, and how they catch the light- I made sure not to let on that I'd actually done a bit of research into the real value of these bottles, particularly in the States.  In England, and I'm sure most of Europe, there are mounds of these in buried tips (dumps/trash facilities), and many people, often retired men, "dig for bottles" as a hobby. Some do it for a bit of income, but most of the ones I ran into did it purely out of fun and a love for the adventure of treasure-seeking. They often were selling them mostly to make space for more!  Anyway, between a few car boot sale trips and a lucky snag of a milk-crate full of them at our auction house, I amassed a bit of a collection. I was just setting some of my favorites on a display shelf when the dogs barreled past in their quest for nuisance-ry (they wanted to bark at something in the backyard), and my bottles shook a bit more than I'm comfortable with, so clearly they will need to find a new spot in this house- one more sturdy and less trafficked by paws.
I was enjoying the sun beaming through them, though, so before I nestled them back in their temporary box I decided to take a few pictures.



This weekend we're hoping to do a bit more exploring, a lot more unpacking, and make some plans for next week, specifically picking up Watson (my Honda Element, in case you're not familiar with my brand of crazy)! I'm pretty excited to have him back, and I know the dogs will be as well!!
I hope your weekend's lovely- anything fun on your calendar?

5 comments:

  1. What a wonderful collection of bottles! I love te Boots one, I never really thought of Boots being that old. Car boot sales are the weirdest things.
    Have a great weekend.

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  2. Cool bottle collection! Tonight we're heading to Atlanta so that Randi can meet a facebook friend in person for the first time! And tomorrow morning we're taking Gryffin to the Atlanta Zoo which should be a lot of fun.

    Hope your weekend is wonderful!
    (that's a lot of !'s for one comment)

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  3. those are beautiful, history or no! my grandfather, a doctor, has a collection that was his father's (also a doctor) so I imagine that once upon a time they were really used. very cool :)

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  4. I love the first pic, especially the green one. What a great collection! :)

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I can't wait to read your comment!

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