Tuesday 7 May 2013

A little find in the garden

We were at J's mums house this weekend, working in the garden - a good bank holiday weekend job, especially as the weather was gorgeous! Anyway, just checking the garden and putting the tools away, I saw some glass glinting and went to pick it up, so we or the dog didn't cut ourselves - but it was actually a tiny bottle - still intact. On closer inspection it was a bottle of 'Crosby's Balsamic Cough Elixir', the name was clearly on the side.

It actually looked like a little bottle from Alice in Wonderland, and just needed a 'drink me' tag hanging from it. It's only about 4" long.

I was quite intrigued, so decided to have a little look on the web to see if I could find out a little about the Elixir. It seems it could potentially be quite old, as I found an advert here, which was dated 1876, but there is no indication which magazine the advert was in.  I found another reference in the Queen Mary, University of London archives  in the Palace Journal, dated September 17th 1890. The bottles apparently are collectable - but there are lots around. There is even a bottle digging organisation!

2 comments:

  1. I love old bottles. They are all so interesting. They are often found where there used to be rubbish heaps as everything else rots away except the glass. xx

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    1. Yes, we were digging out a tree stump, so when we put all the earth back I will have a good look to see if I can find anymore gems

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