Catalog: Vintage Arts: Instruments and Implements: Medical (77)

An unused, "New Old Stock", Pharmacy or Drug Store display from the 1940-1950's era, complete with 10 full rolls of "FOXES" Throat Soothing Horehound Drops!

This diminutive size display measures 4.25" x 3.25" closed and is in very nice condition. The top lifts up to facilitate advertisement of the product and would have been placed on the counter top of a pharmacy in this fashion. A neat find!

Offered are 2 very scarce, circa 1940's, glass, hospital signs acquired many years ago out of a New Jersey hospital that was undergoing modernization and renovation.

These glass SPINAL CORRECTION signs once hung near the entryway of the physical therapy department and are ready for display in your collection!

The first sign measures 13 inches long x 3 inches high and is of thick, heavy plate glass construction. The second sign has the same description but has about and inch missing in length. The signs sport gold-toned, applied lettering and are finished off in black paint, such as in the style seen in reverse-painted glass objects. There is some paint loss and lifting which is commensurate with older painted glass.

This is a very nice example of a Lowell, Massachusetts, patent medicine complete with box.

The 8.5 inch bottle is in fine condition and sports a label only on the side panel because it is embossed on the remaining three sides. The bottle label is almost complete with modest staining from content leakage.

This medicine retains its original, very decorative box which notes a 1915 date-- apparently when this "new" box was first introduced to the public in August of that year. The box is complete and in good condition noting modest content stain, mostly on the left panel.

Ayer's Sarsaparilla was actually a quack medicine first introduced in the mid 19th century, with no real evidence of therapeutic value, and in that regard, quite similar to many other medicines of that era. Sarsaparilla, J.C. Ayer's most popular product, was cited as a real blessing to humanity in that it purified the blood, stimulated the vital functions, restored and preserved health, and infused new life and vigor throughout the whole system!! Sarsaparilla was also recommended for jaundice, dyspepsia, pimples, boils, ringworm, female weaknesses and ‘lassitude and debility peculiar to the Spring.'

Offered is a very nice, vintage, drug store, BROMO SELTZER Dispenser with a patent date of 1930.

This popular and very recognizable, pharmacy collectible is constructed of a cobalt blue glass base with an aluminum stand that sports an old bottle of Bromo Seltzer retaining a label dating to 1987. The stand measures just over 15 inches high including the bottle.

The condition is commensurate with a used pharmacy device. The base shows wear with various scratches, and the metal is tarnished. The dispenser mechanism rotates and functions properly. The piece was in storage for many years and retains its original, "as-found" patina. A very nice find!

Some history:
The Bromo Seltzer product takes its name from a component of the original formula, sodium bromide. Bromides are a class of tranquilizers that were withdrawn from the U.S. market in 1975 due to their toxicity. Their sedative effect probably accounted for Bromo-Seltzer's vast popularity back in the day as THE go-to remedy for hangovers!

Offered is a C1900, artistically-executed, hand-painted and hand-stenciled, wooden veterinary medicine advertising sign entitled "TRY VARNUM'S SPAVIN CURE".

The term Bone Spavin refers to the development of arthritic or degenerative changes that create bony growths effecting the lower joints of a horse and often resulting in lameness.

This very unusual sign measures 42" L x 6"W and is in very good condition. The wood demonstrates a few faint hairline, length-wise splits that do not go through the wood, and thus, do not effect sign integrity. Two hooks on the top of the sign facilitate hanging.