This article gives an overview of the evolution of Daffy's Elixir bottles during the long lifetime of the medicine, from the 17th century to the 20th. Subsequent posts will take a more detailed look at the huge range of embossed Daffy’s bottles, used between around 1770 and 1920.
In the beginning: Free-blown apothecary bottles.
Newspaper adverts of the time show that, until the mid-18th century, Daffy’s Elixir was generally sold in plain, free-blown (1) phials with long necks and globular bodies (figure 1a). These illustrations have been interpreted by some as showing 'distinctive' Daffy’s Elixir bottles, but they were in fact a type of bottle widely used by apothecaries and druggists of the period. Although some may have been ‘black’ glass, and so very similar in appearance to wine bottles of the day, most would have been blown in the paler shades of green or blue-green glass commonly used for small bottles and phials (figure 1b).
Fig 1(a). Illustrations from newspaper advertisements of the 1720s – 1740s (2), showing shaft-and-globe and onion-shaped apothecary bottles (redrawn by J.Kemp from the originals). Contrast these with the illustration of a rectangular mould-blown bottle shown in figure 3, below. Fig 1(b). A free-blown apothecary bottle of the kind illustrated in the woodcuts, this one dating to about 1720. Although the form evolved slightly over time, this general shape was commonly used for Daffy’s Elixir until the adoption of mould-blown bottles in the third quarter of the 18th century. Height of bottle 125mm (private collection).
When did the transition from free-blown to moulded Daffy’s Elixir bottles happen?
In the summer of 1734 John Rogers of Stamford, a market town in Lincolnshire, advertised that his Oleum Arthriticum, Or, Specific Oil for the Gout, was sold in "four Square Flint Bottles with Glafs Stoppers to preferve their Virtue, and Safety of Carriage" (3). Although these "four-square" bottles were probably blown in dip moulds rather than 2-piece open-and-shut moulds, and were almost certainly unembossed, this is the earliest reference I've so far found to mould-blown proprietary or patent medicine bottles.
Embossed bottles, with words or other designs 'blown in the glass' from the use of engraved moulds, are first known to have been used as retail containers in the mid-1740s, for Turlingtons Balsam of Life. Others were close behind. The number of patent medicines and other products sold in embossed bottles increased steadily between 1750 and the 1780s and, as will be discussed in a forthcoming post, by the beginning of the 1790s their use for British patent medicines, including Daffy's Elixir, can be described with some confidence as being widespread verging on commonplace.
1770s: Embossed Daffy’s bottles may have been in use by the early 1770s. A mould for small, round, decanter-shaped bottles embossed “C. Dicey & Co // London” must have been made before Cluer Dicey’s death in October 1775. I’ve recorded two bottles from this mould, although both were blown after an unsuccessful attempt had been made to remove Cluer’s initial, so probably after his death. One of the two bottles (figure 3) was made before the altered mould showed any signs of wear, so probably during the 1770s. The second was blown some time later, when the mould was noticeably worn.
Fig 2. A bottle probably blown circa 1775-1780, in a mould originally made for Cluer Dicey. The mould was altered, presumably after his 1775 death in an unsuccessful attempt to remove his initial, still visible to the left of "Dicey & Co".
These decanter-shaped Dicey bottles were probably for Stoughton’s Elixir (4) rather than Daffy’s (5), but they demonstrate that Dicey was using embossed bottles by 1775. Throughout the mid-18th century Dicey & Co advertised their Daffy’s much more heavily than Stoughton’s, and so it seems likely that early investment in engraved moulds for Dicey's Daffy's Elixir would have been at least as high a priority as for their other medicines.
1780s: Conclusive evidence for embossed Daffy’s bottles first turns up in the mid-1780s, by which time we can be confident that at least three different types of embossed Daffy’s bottles were in use:
1. In May 1786 the glassmakers Simpson & Co paid for a bottle mould to be engraved with the two words “Daffy’s Elixir” by the Beilby and Bewick workshop in Newcastle upon Tyne (6), although there’s no mention of the shape of the mould.
2. In June 1786 Dicey & Co warned in their advertising that some other makers of Daffy’s Elixir had managed to “procure Moulds, and have Bottles made in imitation [of Dicey & Co’s bottles], and even with the Names of Dicey & Co on them” (7), indicating that embossed Dicey’s Daffy’s Elixir bottles were by this time familiar enough to be copied by imitators. Again, there's no mention here of bottle shape, only embossing.
3. In 1787 Thomas Jackson of 95 Fleet Market in London, advertised that “to prevent counterfeits” his Daffy’s Elixir was sold “in round moulded bottles, with the name of Mr Jackson, London, on them.” (8)
At some point in the last quarter of the 18th century, probably in the 1770s or 1780s, a short-necked, squat, 'flat octagon' bottle shape (9) came into use for Daffy's Elixir. It's unknown who first used the form, but it quickly became strongly associated with the medicine and remained in use, with minor variations, for the next 150 years.
Fig 3. A stamp from a late 18th century advertising pamphlet for Daffy’s Elixir, showing a crude engraving of a moulded rectangular bottle, in place of the earlier globular bottles. Redrawn from the original by J. Kemp.
Fig 4. A Daffy's bottle of the flat octagonal shape (9) that became, at some point in the later 18th century, almost universally used for the medicine and that remained in use for 150 years. This example dates to the early 19th century (private collection)
As usual, there's at least one exception to every rule.
At least one Daffy's maker continued to use round bottles well into the 19th century, long after most others were using flat octagons. Figure 5 shows, on the right, an embossed, mould blown Daffy's Elixir bottle used by Hugh Dixon of Clerkenwell in London. This example dates to around 1780 - 1810, but the form appears to have continued in use until the 1830s or later. Alongside on the left is a mid-to-late 18th century freeblown apothecary phial of very similar form. The similarity of the two shapes is unlikely to be a complete coincidence. The larger of the two bottles is 123mm (4.8") tall.
Fig 5. An unusual semi-globular Daffy's Elixir bottle used by Hugh Dixon (right) alongside an unembossed, free-blown, 18th century apothecary bottle of very similar form.
Two sizes of Daffy's Elixir bottles were commonly advertised. There were more.
Many Daffy's advertisements throughout the 19th century referred to two different sizes of bottles. Some makers sold the Elixir in as many as four different sizes, quarter pints, half pints, pints, and quarts, although no surviving undamaged pints or quarts have yet been recorded. The most commonly found sizes range from 4 to 8 fl.ozs capacity (figure 6).
Fig 6. Two flat octagonal Daffy's Elixir bottles from Dicey & Co, both dating circa 1810 - 1820. The larger bottle holds just under 8 fl.oz., the smaller one just over 4 fl.oz. (Private collection).
A long-lived design.
As already mentioned, the flat octagonal bottle shape remained in use for Daffy's Elixir for around 150 years. Here are two bottles from either end of that long time-line:
Fig 6. Very early and very late embossed Daffy's Elixir bottles. Both for Dicey & Co's Daffy's Elixir, the bottle on the probably right dates to 1780-90 and is, possibly, one of the earliest moulded, embossed Daffy's bottles. The colourless example on the left dates to around 1920 and is, currently, the latest known (10) example (private collection).
Some additional notes:
To date all recorded (10) Daffy's bottles can be confidently attributed to the British glass industry. There is documentary evidence that Daffy's bottles were manufactured in the United States in the early 19th century (11), but no American made examples are yet recorded. There's also a possibility that German, and other mainland European, Daffy's bottles exist.
Although the Dicey 'decanter' shaped bottle (fig. 2) bears some resemblance to Hugh Dixon's semi-globular bottles (on the right in figure 5) they are sufficiently different in shape to be easily distinguished, as shown in the figure below. More on Dixon's bottles follows in an upcoming post:
Daffy's Elixir on the left, NOT Daffy's Elixir on the right.
Coming soon:
An illustrated catalogue of known Daffy's Elixir bottles (in two parts).
Notes and References.
1. Free-blown (or freeblown): blown and shaped without the use of a mould.
2. Newcastle Courant, 5th October 1723; Stamford Mercury, 7th August 1735; Newcastle Courant, 26th September 1741.
3. Newcastle Courant, 24th August 1734.
4. My suggestion that the decanter shape may have been used for Stoughton's Elixir is based on circumstantial evidence including, amongst other things, observations made by Griffenhagen & Bogard (1999, A History of Drug Containers and Their Labels, pp72-73), a knowledge of Dicey & Co's other medicines and known bottle types, and a process of elimination.
5. When I first realised the importance of the ‘C’ initial on the decanter-shaped bottles I thought they might be Dicey’s earliest type of Daffy’s bottle, used before the familiar flat octagonal shape came into use. This was disproved when a much later example of the Dicey 'decanter' bottle, blown in a different mould and with no sign of Cluer’s initial, turned up, indicating that the shape had a lifespan extending into the 1820s or 1830s, and that it must have been used for a different Dicey medicine sold alongside their Daffy’s Elixir for several decades, c.1770s-1830s.
6. Margaret Ellison (1975) The Tyne Glasshouses and Beilby and Bewick Workshop. Archaeologia Aeliana, Fifth Series: 3: 143-193).
7. For example The Derby Mercury, 7th June 1786.
8. I haven’t yet recorded any bottles matching this description (and ‘round’ in this case may mean cylindrical, or globular, or anything in between including oval). The bottles referred to in the advertisement may have continued in use for many years and, if the words ‘Daffy’s Elixir’ weren’t included alongside Jackson’s name, these bottles may have been used for more than one of Jackson's products. Without a medicine name, examples may also have turned up but not been thought interesting enough by their finders to record or discuss.
9. Flat octagon. A common glass bottle shape from the 18th century onwards was the flat octagon: A roughly rectangular cross-section with the narrow ends consisting of three panels of roughly equal width. Almost all Daffy's bottles are this general shape, although the end panels on some are concave.
10. "Recorded" here means known to me: There are no comprehensive published catalogues or lists of known historical British medicine bottles, or any other major type of moulded embossed British bottles, so "known" or "recorded" here (and anywhere else on this website) means known to me, whether first-hand or through the archaeological literature, collectors' books and other publications, or reputable online sources.
11. An 1820s price list for products of Thomas Dyott's Kensington Glassworks, in Philadelphia, lists bottles for a number of patent medicines of British origin including Daffy's (McKearin & Wilson 1978, p82).
Revisions:
16th November 2024, added reference to John Rogers' 1734 use of "four-square" medicine bottles.
© Jeremy Kemp, 2024.
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