Ely's Cream Balm

[robertk]

Bottle Vitals​

Embossing	Date	Color	Shape	Size (Height x Diameter)	Value*
Ely's Cream Balm Ely Bros Owego NY	1870	Brown	Rectangular, short neck	1.25" x 2.5" x 1"	$25.00

Bottle Views (click to enlarge):

Front	Back	Side	Side	Bottom
Ely's Cream Balm Ely Bros Owego NY		Hay Fever	Catarrh

Ely's Cream Balm was produced by Ely Brothers in Owego, New York, beginning in the 1860's. The concoction was similar to the modern day Vicks Vapo-Rub, and was intended as a cure for hay fever, catarrh, and other respiratory ailments. There are a few different variations of this bottle available, and this looks to be one of the earlier ones. It had a plain neck and full lettering, where later bottles had a rolled lip and no longer had Owego NY on them, probably because the company moved to New York City in the early 1890's.

This bottle is an original recovered condition, only rinsed with water and dried.

*Value on this one is a bit tough to tie down. There are different varieties of the lettering and the bottle neck and lip. Some were as low as $10, but some were as high as $45. It seems like most of them fell around $25, so that's what I wrote down.

 

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[Limitool]

Great job again.... Were there several of those in the collection?

 

[robertk]

Great job again.... Were there several of those in the collection?

Yes. Some slight color variations, but all brown. Most need cleaning, this one did not. One of them even still has the cork in it.

 

[Limitool]

Yes. Some slight color variations, but all brown. Most need cleaning, this one did not. One of them even still has the cork in it.

Good... than that one bottle moved a few to one side. Any of the first 4 have any duplicates or were they all loners? I like the way your presenting them to us. Are you putting a piece of masking tape or something on the ID'ed bottles with a reference number to your now building database...?

 

[robertk]

Any of the first 4 have any duplicates or were they all loners?

Actually so far all have had duplicates, though one only had two (Dr King), and one has some variations in size and minor variations in color (Dr Pierce). But there are definitely a lot of loners still to come.

Are you putting a piece of masking tape or something on the ID'ed bottles with a reference number to your now building database...?

Not yet but I will. I have a little label maker that I use for canning jars, that should work nicely for this purpose (and be way more readable than my pitiful handwriting).

 

[Oldrvrrat57]

I dug alot of bottles back in the 70s and to this day this was my favorite one dug! Pitts Wonderful Black Liniment, embossed with the local legend Piasa Bird. Sold most years ago but i still have Elys