Small PD&Co (Parke Davis?) bottle found at 1880s miner's supply store site - help to identify use?
Hi,
We are currently excavating to build a new house in Newcastle, Australia. We recently learned that in the 1880s a miner's supply/ general store was located at our site. We are not sure how long it traded although by the 1940s it was gone. The builder found this small bottle today and we'd love to learn what its contents would have been, and to have it roughly dated.
It is very small, only 5cm high, amber coloured glass and on the bottom embossed with:
PD & Co
201
Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Jess
Comments
Hi, we have just bought a home that is approx 100 yrs old and today while digging a hole for a new fence I found one I f these exact bottles , did you find out any information as ours is identical to your. Kind regards Jodi
@jodi This is a Parke-Davis bottle. Info on this multinational company can be found on its Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parke-Davis
It is unlikely P-D made its own bottles but it was large enough to have its identifying mark added to the bottom of bottles made for them. According to "Bottle Makers and Their Marks", the PD & Co marking is first seen in 1875. The bottle pictured above appears to be of manufacture prior to automated production so is likely to date before about 1915.
This was a huge company that made many products so all you can say, without the presence of a label, is that it contained a medicine or chemical of some kind.