Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream [A. S. Hinds Company]

A Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream postcard.

1890 Photo of H. H. Hay Apothecary.

HISTORY/TIMELINE


1862 - Aurelius Stone (A. S.) Hinds moves to Portland, Maine to work as a clerk for H. H. Hays & Co.'s apothecary store, and then as a drug clerk at Thomas G. Loring's drug store.[4]

1920 Illustration of the Preble House building.

1870 - A. S. Hinds purchases a drug store in downtown Portland under the Preble House hotel on Congress Steet.  He creates and perfects his "Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream" formula during this time.[2][3]








 
1875 - The A. S. Hinds Company is established by A. S. Hinds.[1]

1922 "Hinds Honey and Almond Cream" ad.

1880 - Hinds moves from his downtown drug store from under the Preble House to a new location in the residential part of Portland on the corner of Pine and Brackett streets.[2][3]

1903 Corner of Clark and Pine St.

1889 - Hinds sells the store on Pine and Brackett, and moves to a new location for his laboratory on the corner of Pine and Clark streets.  This was the first laboratory devoted exclusively to the preparation of Hinds' Cream.[3] 

1903 Corner of Clark and Pine St.

 

1891 - An additional two and a half story addition is added to the laboratory.[3]

1903 Corner of Clark and Pine St.

1903 Corner of Clark and Pine St.

1905 18-20-22 West Street building.

1904 - A 15,200 sqft, three-story updated laboratory is built on the Pine and Clark site, seen at 20 West Street.  This new site was completely equipped with special appliances for preparing, bottling, and labeling Hinds' Honey Almond Cream.[3][5][7]

1917 Hinds Honey and Almond Cream ad.

1907 - Lehn & Fink, Inc. acquires the A. S. Hinds Co.  However, the company continues to operate independently and produce their Honey and Almond Cream product until 1948.[1]

1920 331-337 Forest Ave. building.

1920 - A. S. Hinds relocates the company's laboratory to 331-337 Forest Ave.  The new building is 60,181 sqft and is four stories tall.[2][6]











1925 - Lehn & Fink Products merges Lehn & Fink, Inc. with A. S. Hinds Co.




BOTTLE IDENTIFICATION
 

I discovered the Hinds Honey and Almond Cream bottle pictured here a while ago in the river.  It measures 4.0" x 1.0" x 1.0".  The glass is clear, colorless, and quite thick.  Due to the thickness of the glass, the bottle is fairly heavy for its small size.

The front rectangular panel is indented into the bottle--likely with a cast iron plate mold/ slug plate[8]--and embossed with the following text:

HINDS /
HONEY AND ALMOND /
CREAM /
A. S. HINDS CO /
BLOOMFIELD /
N.J. U.S.A.







This bottle has a small mouth continuous external thread finish with a ground rim.


















The base is also indented, and is embossed with the following text:



A. S. HINDS CO /
IC4-1A H 32

1922 Illustration of Lehn & Fink, Inc.'s Bloomfield, NJ plant.

Because this bottle was manufactured in Bloomfield, New Jersey (per its front panel embossment), we know that it must have been made following the Lehn & Fink, Inc. acquisition of A. S. Hinds Co. in 1907.  Lehn & Fink expanded company operations to Bloomfield, N.J. in the early-1920s, which is therefore the earliest this particular bottle could have been made.





HINDS' POSTER STAMPS

In the early 1900s, A. S. Hinds Co. produced a series of twenty-four colorful lithographed poster stamps to market their "Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream" product.  Hinds supplied one hundred sets of these stamps, with six stamps per set, to druggists throughout the United States free of charge, which the druggists would then sell to consumers for two cents a set or five cents for four sets.

In return, A. S. Hinds Co. required that the druggists allow them to use their mailing lists so that the company could dispense Hinds Honey and Almond Cream to customers.

I've compiled twenty-three of the twenty-four poster stamp images here:

REFERENCES

[1]  A.S. Hinds Company.  Friends Of Hinds.  August 7, 2011.  <http://friendsofhinds.org/william/company/company.stm>.

[2] Charles B. Hinds Collection.  Northeast Historic Film.  <http://oldfilm.org/collection/index.php/Detail/Collection/Show/collection_id/368>.

[3] "A Preparation of International Fame."  Portland Board of Trade Journal: Volume 16.  May 1903.  Pg. 287.  <http://books.google.com/books?id=1AVQAAAAYAAJ&dq=a%20s%20hinds%20company%20honey%20almond%20cream&pg=PA287#v=onepage&q=a%20s%20hinds%20company%20honey%20almond%20cream&f=true>.

[4] Gillespie, C. Bancroft.  Portland Past and Present: Issued under the endorsement of the Portland Board of Trade and city government.  Evening Express Publishing Company; Greater Portland, Maine.  1899.  Pgs. 170-172.  <http://books.google.com/books?id=ergMAAAAYAAJ&dq=a%20s%20hinds%20company%20honey%20almond%20cream&pg=PA172#v=onepage&q&f=true>.

[5]  "Hinds Honey and Almond Cream".  Portland Board of Trade Journal: Volume 19.  May 1906.  Pg. 494. <http://books.google.com/books?id=PhU-AQAAMAAJ&dq=hinds%20honey%20almond%20cream&pg=PA494#v=onepage&q=hinds%20honey%20almond%20cream&f=true>.

[6]  The American Perfumer and Essential Oil Review, Volume 16.  1922.  Pg. 259.  <http://books.google.com/books?id=vfM1AQAAMAAJ&dq=a%20s%20hinds%20company%20laboratory&pg=PA259#v=onepage&q=a%20s%20hinds%20company%20laboratory&f=false>.

[7] "The New Home of Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream."  Portland Board of Trade Journal, Volume 18.  1905.  Pgs. 162-165.  <http://books.google.com/books?id=4f9PAAAAYAAJ&dq=hinds%20honey%20almond%20cream%20bottle&pg=PA165#v=onepage&q=hinds%20honey%20almond%20cream%20bottle&f=true>.

[8]  Lindsey, Bill.  "Plates & plate molds".  Society for Historical Archaeology: Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information.   1 Jan 2014.  <http://www.sha.org/bottle/body.htm#Plate>