DOSE GLASS COLLECTOR
For What Its Worth...
by Tracy Gerken, 08/18
I am often asked how much is a particular dose glass is worth. I usually struggle with this question for various reasons that I will try to explain here. But, the short answer to the question is... A dose glass is worth the sum of money that some collector is willing to pay for it at that given moment in time, motivated by their desire to have it in their collection. Prices can range from almost nil, zip, zero, nada (if no collector wants or needs it in their collection) to hundreds of dollars, and sometimes, yet very rarely, into the thousands of dollars. To narrow the range, I would say that most glasses, that actually sell when offered for sale, will sell in the range of $20-$60... some more and others less. I know this is a vague and convoluted answer, but it is such a loaded question and complicated topic. I have never wanted to generalize and say that glasses from a particular state are worth X-XX dollars to every collector. Each glass needs to be assessed on an individual basis to determine its value based on its merits. A collector assigns a value to a glass based on the nature of their collection and on how this glass fits into their collection. Here are some of my thoughts on value, for what it's worth...
The key is having something that some collector is going to want to add to his/her personal collection. A dose glass is more valuable if you find the right collector to purchase it. The "right" collector may be one that is actively seeking that glass at this very moment, one that is from the region/state/town where the dose glass is from, one with a particular interest in the druggist advertised on the glass (may be an ancestor, may own the building/business/home of the druggist advertised on the glass, etc). Collecting is very subjective and, in most cases, values are determined based on the individual collector's particular interest in and attraction to said glass in question. Individual collectors value certain glasses for different reasons. This is why you can't say that a particular glass is worth X dollars to all collectors.
What exactly is embossed on the glass and the type of dose glass may matter. A collector may like the particular wording, layout, advertising, design, style of text, embossed picture or monogram, logo, or motto embossed on the glass. Some collectors pay more if both city and state are mentioned on the glass, and considerably less if no city or state is mentioned on the glass (even though they may know where the glass is from). Some collectors prefer the small size glasses over larger ones. Some collectors pay considerably less for conical glasses or spoons, versus the tumbler/cup style glass. Obviously, it goes without saying, the condition of the glass also is a big factor when determining its value.
SUPPLY and DEMAND will factor greatly into the value of the glass. If fewer of this particular glass are known to have survived the years, then the value will be higher. Your "never before seen/known" dose glass is going to be worth more than an often seen example. There are certain areas of the country where fewer druggists bought into the idea of using dose glasses to advertise their businesses (think Southeastern USA states). At that point in time when these glasses were produced, some areas of the US were less populated and had fewer drug stores in general (think Inter-mountain West USA). These factors may be the reason that glasses from those areas are in short supply.
Again (and I can't say this enough), individual collectors value certain glasses for different reasons. If selling your glass, it is to your advantage if more collectors desire your particular glass. You hope that your glass falls into the "realm of interest" of multiple collectors. That may mean you have a glass that is from an area of the country that many collectors are interest in (one general example is the Western US, Wild West states). Or, you have a glass that crosses into multiple areas of collecting. For example, you find a California pharmacy dose glass with a picture of an Owl sitting on a gold nugget embossed the front (fantasy , of course). That glass would appeal to bottle collectors, dose glass collectors, California collectors, collectors of items from that particular city, drug store collectors, gold rush enthusiasts and collectors interested in owls in general. Also, another thing to consider is that some parts of the country have a bigger pool of avid collectors, which contributes to higher demand for glasses from that specific location.
One thing that does help in determining the value of a glass is past or, more accurately, recent sales of the particular glass in question. Be skeptical of the liberal use of words such as rare or scarce in item descriptions. Do research before making your purchase. Some collectors may also guess at what it might be worth to other collectors (other than themselves) based on their collections and purchase glasses to sell or trade to others. These buyers/dealers/traders may not be as well informed about the value of a glass and simply hope that it will be desirable to another collector.
The market will determine value, not so much the seller. Again, the value is the price someone is willing to pay, not some price someone has randomly assigned to an item. This reminds me of the Beanie Baby listed on eBay for $30,000 that a friend brought to my attention. "You better check your kids' Beanie Babies, 'cause there are some selling on eBay for $30,000," they said. She checked back in a year and guess where that $30,000 Beanie Baby was? In a museum somewhere or in some big-wig's BB collection? No, that beanie baby was still sitting right there on eBay, smiling at the camera. Is it worth $30,000 if nobody is willing to pay that price? No. It that seller trying to manipulate the market on Beanie Baby sales to his/her advantage? Maybe so.
There is a glass on eBay right now, as I write this article. The listing says, "Rare Old 1917 Medicine Glass Drug Dose Cup from Richfield Springs New York N.Y. " It is embossed SOUVENIR / 1917 / NEW YORK STATE / PHARMACEUTICAL / CONVENTION / (W.T.Co logo) / RICHFIELD SPRINGS N.Y. Starting bid is $500.00! You know how long that glass has been up for sale at that price? Forever. You know when someone will actually pay $500 for this particular glass... Probably never. But, it sure makes the unknowing buyer think that this glass is worth $500. It may be a good glass and one that some collector would enjoy having in their collection, but not at that price.
[I am about to go to a dark, scary place in this article so reader beware!]
Buy dose glasses that you like and ones that appeal to you. Don't buy them thinking you are investing in something that is guaranteed to increase in value. I hate to sound pessimistic, but the sad truth, sorry to say, is that my/your kids may not want this stuff when we are finished with it! Look around at your fellow shoppers/bidders/collectors at antique shops (which are now fewer than ever before), auction houses and bottle shows. They are old (like me)! Very few young collectors are in the market right now. An explanation may be found in this short article by Mark C. Grove, Personal Property Appraiser and Author, who expertly sums up the current situation. I quote below his Quarterly Market Report: 1st Qtr 2016 Trends, Tendencies, Demographics, Future Prediction--
"April 20th, 2016 Advisory... Curtains for Retailers of Stuff You Don't Need
The antiques market is not any better now than last year at this time because nothing has changed. If anything, the problem is even worse. The lethargy has spread to retail stuff stores, too (think Pier 1, K-Mart, Sears, etc). Why? Because demand is even weaker and supply is even greater. Why? Because Boomers are continuing to downsize and the trailing generations still don’t want any of it!
A NEW TREND is rapidly building momentum: The Tiny House Movement (THM). Google that phrase if you haven’t heard of it yet. Similar to the THM is a movement to full-timing. Both are part of the “less is more” mindset and lifestyle known as Minimalism. The Greatest Generation were pack-rats and hoarders. The Boomers were too but to a lesser degree. The trailing generations have embraced minimalism with a bear hug because it makes perfect sense to them and it is why your kids don’t want any of your antique junk... ADVICE: stop buying stuff you can’t eat!"
This, to me, is a little depressing and hopefully a doom and gloom viewpoint that may or, hopefully, may not continue to be espoused by the coming generations. The collectibles market has always been like a roller coaster, but the current downhill slide of the antique and collectible market is proven out by a quick Google search for trends in values of antiques and collectibles. In the results, you find headlines such as... "The Future of the Past: Out with the Old," "Why the bottom has dropped out of the antiques market," and "Price of antiques falls as buyers turn their backs on the past."
So the take-away lesson is... buy what you like and for the reason that it makes you happy, not because it's going to be worth an even bigger fortune in the future or that one day you will to leave it to your children or grandchildren as a legacy, or to pay for their college education with the proceeds of its sale. Have fun. Enjoy the hunt. Don't pay too much. Relish owning a piece of history. Share what you know with other people. Help make history interesting to children. Maybe we can turn this thing around and get our kids interested in collecting and prop up the monetary value of these little gems which comprise our dose glass collections.
From Saloon to Drugstore...
by Tracy Gerken, 01/19
The following article appeared in the N.A.R.D. (National Association of Retail Druggists) Journal on May 9, 1918...
"Throughout Indiana, since the state went "dry," former liquor emporiums have been supplanted by modern drug stores. One such instance is reported from Terre Haute, as follows: 'Wade Duncan's [677 Wabash Av.] magnificently appointed cafe and palace of chance is no more. The work of dismantlement began when the booths with their leather cushions and rich mahogany trimmings, the quietly elegant bar fixtures and the rest of the paraphernalia, were carefully removed in sections ready for truckmen to handle. Kid Kizer bought the bar fixtures and the restaurant fixtures at a price, it is said, about 15 percent of the original cost. It was said by an old employe of Duncan's that the "front" of the cafe cost $1,800, and the bar fixtures, booths, etc., more than three time that amount. And when the old place becomes the home of Arthur Baur's drug store, it is figured many more thousands of dollars will have been spent in refitting it. There is to be a new front, new tile flooring and new fixtures. Mr. Baur is leasing the entire building from Louis J. Cox, but will use only the first floor for his own purposes. It will give the drug store much more room, a width of 25 feet instead of 17 feet, and considerable more depth. The property, which is passing from Wade Duncan to Arthur Baur has been used as a distributing place for exhilirating beverages and well cooked and well served food for more than thirty years. Tim Lahey, was the first to conduct it as a saloon.'"
"Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.
"During the nineteenth century, alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption prompted prohibitionists, led by pietistic Protestants, to end the alcoholic beverage trade to cure the ill society and weaken the political opposition. One result was that many communities in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a victory for public morals and health.
Promoted by the "dry" crusaders, the movement was led by pietistic Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic, and Republican parties. It gained a national grass roots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the Catholic and German Lutheran communities. They had funding to fight back, but by 1917–18 the German community had been marginalized by the nation's war against Germany, and the brewing industry was shut down in state after state by the legislatures and finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited."
"Prohibition became highly controversial among medical professionals, because alcohol was widely prescribed by the era's physicians for therapeutic purposes. Congress held hearings on the medicinal value of beer in 1921. Subsequently, physicians across the country lobbied for the repeal of Prohibition as it applied to medicinal liquors. From 1921 to 1930, doctors earned about $40 million for whiskey prescriptions."
"Doctors were able to prescribe medicinal alcohol for their patients. After just six months of prohibition, over fifteen thousand doctors and fifty-seven thousand pharmacists got their license to prescribe medicinal alcohol."
(She don't lie) x 3 = Cocaine...
by Tracy Gerken, 06/20
Consider another more popular concoction-- Coca-Cola. It is purported that early formulations of Coca-Cola contained cocaine. John Pemberton developed Coca-Cola as a nonalcoholic version of Pemberton's French Wine Coca nerve tonic, in response to prohibition legislation that was passed in 1886, in Atlanta, GA. "Pemberton's new [temperance] drink was marketed and sold as a patent medicine, Pemberton claiming it a cure for many diseases, including morphine addiction, indigestion, nerve disorders, headaches and impotence," states Wikipedia.
Snopes.com says that in the past, "it was far from uncommon to use cocaine in patent medicines (which is what Coca-Cola was originally marketed as) and other medical potions." "So, yes, at one time there was cocaine in Coca-Cola." As the Snopes.com website explains, "Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves [which contains an alkaloid that can be used to synthesize cocaine] and kola nuts [a source of caffeine]. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days."
Snopes.com goes on to say that, "when it first became general knowledge that cocaine could be harmful, the backroom chemists who comprised Coca-Cola at the time (long before it became the huge company that we now know) did everything they could with the technology they had available at the time to remove every trace of cocaine from the beverage. What was left behind (until the technology improved enough for it all to be removed) wasn't enough to give a fly a buzz." "We do know that by 1902 it was as little as 1/400 of a grain of cocaine per ounce of syrup... Coca-Cola didn't become completely cocaine-free until 1929."
In an article on Businessinsider.com website entitled What Happened To The Cocaine In Coca-Cola?, it says that "To this day, Coca-Cola needs coca leaves to make its drinks; as a Coke exec told the New York Times, “[i]ngredients from the coca leaf are used, but there is no cocaine in it and it is all tightly overseen by regulatory authorities.”
In what year Diego Gibson stopped selling or re-formulated Pepto Cocaina is not clear. In the United States, federal regulation began in 1906, when the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed. This law included cocaine, morphine, opium, and cannabis (among others) on a list of drugs that were deemed addictive and/or dangerous. The Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914, further limited the use of these drugs by regulating and taxing the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products.
PS- The title of this article is a reference to a song written and performed by J.J. Cale (1975) and covered by Eric Clapton a few years later.
Whitall Tatum drops the "&"...
by Tracy Gerken, 07/20
An important fact for collectors to remember which has also been stated elsewhere on this website, Whitall Tatum drops the "&" in 1901, thus changing the name of the company from Whitall Tatum & Company to Whitall Tatum Company. This fact can be important in dating glassware produced by the company. Please see the two photos presented below. Both are examples of Whitall Tatum's Number 40 Graduated Medicine Spoon, however the first, older spoon sports the W.T. & Co. logo (note how the "&" resides on the first arm of the letter "W" of the W.T. monogram and "Co." resides on the second arm of the letter "W"). In the second photo of the later spoon, the "&" is missing and the letter "C" resides on the first arm of the letter "W" of the W.T. monogram and the letter "O" resides on the second arm of the letter "W," spelling CO (the abbreviation for the word company). A bit of the company's history is quoted here from www.glassbottlemarks.com,
"The first glass factory in Millville was built in 1806 on the banks of the Maurice River by James Lee along with several other men. Thereafter the factory went through a puzzling succession of ownerships, including Gideon Scull (by 1814); Nathaniel Solomon; and Burgin, Wood & Bodine.
"In 1838, at which time the glassworks was then known as the “Phoenix Glass Works”, Captain John M. Whitall entered the business in partnership with G.M.Haverstick and William Scattergood. Shortly afterward, the firm name became Scattergood & Whitall after the retirement of Haverstick. Franklin Whitall, John’s brother, then joined the firm in 1845. In 1848 the name of the firm became “Whitall, Brother & Company” after Edward Tatum became involved. In 1857 the name was again changed to “Whitall Tatum & Company”, and finally in 1901, to “Whitall Tatum Company” which was the name used until 1938 when the works were bought by Armstrong.
"There were two locations used by Whitall Tatum, first the original site (upper works) located in Millville proper, and later the “lower works” in South Millville (formerly known as Schetterville). Eventually the South Millville site would become the center of activity for the glassworks.
"Whitall Tatum produced very large quantities of bottles and fruit jars throughout much of the mid- and late 19th century. Pharmacy, druggist, barber, perfume, chemical and other types of bottles in various colors and styles were produced, and some of them are now avidly sought by antique bottle collectors.
"W-T is especially well-known for the production of tremendous quantities of prescription bottles, blown for hundreds of local druggists/pharmacies across the country, embossed with their names and addresses using interchangeable slug plates inserted into the mold. Most of those types of druggist bottles marked “W.T. & Co.” on the base generally date from approximately 1875 to around 1901, and are most frequently found in a good-quality clear (colorless) glass. Less commonly-seen are examples found in a beautiful rich teal green glass, as well as cobalt blue.
"After the firm name was changed to “Whitall Tatum Company” in 1901, the marking on bottle molds was changed slightly to “W.T.CO.” That marking is estimated to have been in use from about 1901 to approximately 1924, although I am sure there was an overlap of a few years when the new mark was being phased in and the “old” mark was removed/re-tooled on molds already in use.
"Many of their pharmacy bottles have a letter or letters embossed (along with the “W.T.CO”) on the base which were typically mold identification marks (not date codes)."
