Vintage Poison Bottles
One of the more interesting types of vintage bottles collectors love are antique poison bottles. These collectible bottles typically date somewhere between the 1860s and the 1930s. Because the literacy rate was so low during that time period, many people accidentally consumed poison and fell ill or died. As a result, the US government passed legislation to require better labeling on bottles containing poison.
As a result of these new laws, manufacturers gave their poison bottles dramatic and unique looks to differentiate them from other bottled products. Bottle textures were made to be different with diamonds, dots, raised ridges, and/or ribbing embossed into the glass. Embossed lettering on the glass poison bottles warned, "DEATH", "NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY", or "POISON".
Unique colors were also used to differentiate these old poison bottles from their harmless counterparts. Commonly used colors on these vintage poison bottles included honey amber, emerald, black, blue, and several varying shades of green.
Several collectible poison bottles dating back to the mid-late 1800s feature a skull and crossbones on their labels. In the later part of the century, manufacturers starting embossing the skull and crossbones into the bottle's glass. In 1894, Carlton Lewe created probably the most infamous poison bottle which was shaped in the form of a skull. These antique poison bottles are highly desirable to collectors, but are often damaged particularly on the nose area which typically has the thinnest glass.
Early on, manufacturers didn't design a unique bottle for each product. Instead, they simply designed a different label to the bottle to identify the contained poison. Old poison bottles with original labels that are in excellent condition are the most desirable.
Here is a small selection of vintage poison bottles available for sale now:
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