Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Vick's Va-tro-nol Nose Drops: Cobalt Blue Glass Medicine Bottle


In 1931, Vick Chemical Company (founded in the 1890s by pharmacist Lunsford Richardson), introduced Vicks Va-tro-nol Nose Drops, a medication that acts much like Sudafed or Claritin does today.  

Allegedly, old cobalt blue glass Vicks Va-tro-nol medicine bottles are super easy to find, yet I've never  had the fortune to come across one...until today!



This small 2.50" x 1.25" bottle is made of cobalt blue glass and has no distinct markings on the body.  The finish of the neck can be classified as "small mouth external thread," more specifically, a continuous external thread finish


The base (hard to see here) has the word "VICKS" embossed along the top, a triangle shape embossed in the middle (under the word "VICKS") with a small dot embossed below the triangle and a diagonal dash marked left of the triangle.  Along the bottom is the text "VA-TRO-NOL".

This bottle was likely manufactured in the very early 1930s given that:  the vertical side seams go up to the rim, the top surface of the finish appears to be ground down, the base is a typical cup-bottom mold (upper-edge of the heel: mold seam running the circumference of the bottle, side seams branch from this mold seam perpendicularly), and the neck of the bottle has a "collared ring" (the ring below the threads).  Cup-bottom molds were typically seen from the 1880s-1910s, and the collared ring style was produced from the 1910s to as late as 1925.  

15 comments:

  1. Hello my name is Melinda my bf was checking out where the river was low in the thames river chatham ontario Canada and found a vick Va-tro-nol bottle with the dropper still inside the cap is rusted on tight but is intact

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  2. Real Kill, cited at 1975 timeframe, however Time Life Magazine advertisements are found from 1957. Doubting the accuracy of the article.

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  3. I found one of these bottles while I was out detecting. Mine is brown though with the VICKS symbol on the bottom in the glass.

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  4. If you were going to do that, you'd need to be very sure that you sanded down the edges really well. (The whole idea really kind of freaks me out, so I'm not going to try it anytime soon.) ........750 ml bottles wholesale,http://rsglassbottle.com/product-detail/750ml-empty-glass-bottles/........

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  5. About the empty 1 liter bottles, we can make the bottle with round shape, square shape, ball shape, flat shape and other custom shape. 1000ml glass bottles

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  6. I found a Vicks Vatro Not with what appears to three Vs embossed on the bottom

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  7. I found one yesterday. When I was cleaning it, it dropped and cracked!!!! Grr!!!! Still looks cool tho!!

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  8. j en ai trouvé ds la rivière st francois au Québec à la hauteur de Richmond je sautais de joie pour moi les bouteilles de verres ou les plaques d immatriculation d auto sont de vrai petit trésor !

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  9. Found one today in mint condition

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  10. I found one today. No dropper but the bottle is still intact. Texas and it's brown.

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  11. I was just given one of these. Has the screw on lid, no dropper. Along with this one was a tiny Vicks drops bottle, 1 small Vicks vaporub and also a larger one. A genuine Phillips made in the USA and a bromo seltzer bottle. All cobalt blue in good condition. 3 have the lids, 2 lids are missing. I enjoy researching them. Interesting

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