Old bottle from the goldfields

Dug an accordion reed, suspender clip, pair of doorknobs and an old bottle at a goldfields site. The bottle is marked ‘Davis Vegetable Painkiller’. The ‘all natural’ concoction was a mixture of opium and ethyl alcohol and was regarded as a ‘wonder drug’ when it was released in 1845.
It could be used ‘internally and externally’ and treated just about everything.

PerryDavis-Joy

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Opium and alcohol: no wonder it was a miracle cure! lol!
And by calling it “vegetable pain killer” even the mums of today would think its good innocent:
A fun find, well done

‘Joy to the world’ :joy: I bet you would feel like you’re flying around with angels after a couple of bottles of that!

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Could do with a bottle of that wonder medicine as i struggle with Influenza A ! I wonder how many people became addicts back in the day ? Always good to find a bottle , bottle hunters , forestry operations and further mining have broken most i find .

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Thanks for the comments guys and it’s pity you’ve got the flu curt. Hope you get back to feeling OK soon. I was told bottle collecting became very popular a few decades ago with people using bulldozers to recover bottles.
The Davis story is here.
He became wealthy when the government took over manufacturing his product during the American Civil War. It worked just as well on horses apparently.
You never know what the hobby turns up do you. For me it’s been nothing lately :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the very interesting link . It’s a great story .


This was a bonus found while digging up a big lump of rusty crap, W T Thrower Launceston ginger beer bottle.

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Ripper ! It’s so hard to find unbroken bottles on old sites and that ones a marble bottle , most of which had the top knocked off for the marble . Great find .

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Here’s one i found the other day , darn kids had beaten me though , probably about 60 years ago !

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The ginger beer bottle is a great find. It sure is a pity they are mostly broken these days. They just don’t make them like that anymore and never will.

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The thrower is a really nice one does it have the Elephant on the back i think it dates from around 1886-1894 and manufactured at an English glassworks

The Crystal is another nice one Lyn8curt you ever see bits from C.S Button factory from Scottsdale

Gday Indi, yeah it’s got the elephant on the back.

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you did very well could be others in that area too

No Indi , but i have heard of it . I think it was around for a short time only ?

yes a few years in the 1880s and are amongst the rarest of Tasmanian marble bottles especially ones made in amber coloured glass

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Always got my eyes open Indi , and live in hope ! Didn’t know about the amber one , thanks .