Bottles with the single word 'Cabburn' embossed down the front once contained Cabburn's Anti-Doloric Oil or, after 1853, Cabburn's Balsam of Herbs. This is an example of the way that, even as late as the mid-19th century, widely marketed and (in contrast to those of Hezekiah Bowling and the Kellys) mainstream patent medicines could be, and often were, made and sold by people with no background or training in any medical trade or profession, whether doctor, surgeon, druggist, apothecary, or any other related field.
John Francis Bricknell Cabburn was born in Suffolk in 1800. He made a living as a hardware merchant in that county before moving to London in the late 1830s, where he became a publican and wine and spirit merchant. In 1840 he invented, or perhaps acquired, a recipe for a medicine for the cure of aches, pains, sprains and injuries of all types which he marketed, while continuing his wines and spirits and pub businesses, as 'Cabburn's Anti-Doloric Oil'.
After bankruptcy proceedings in 1853 Cabburn seems to have ended his other businesses and concentrated on making and selling his medicine, the name of which was changed to ‘Cabburn’s Balsam of Herbs, or Anti-Doloric Oil’, for the treatment of "excruciating agony or pains of any kind”. He sold his medicine business to Clift, a chemist in Dorking, Surrey, in 1864 and died in London in 1866.
The medicine survived under the ownership of Clift and successors until at least 1919.
Bottles.
All types recorded to date are tall narrow bottles of oval cross-section with short necks and either sheared and fire polished or applied finishes. They are known in very pale aqua, dark olive green, and cobalt blue glass, which seem to indicate different dates.
As is almost always the case it's impossible to precisely date changes in colour, embossing or style of the bottles, but the approximate dating sequence is probably:
1840s: Pale aqua / colourless, pontilled.
Late 1840s - 1850s: Dark olive glass, hinge mould, smooth base.
Mid or late 1850s – mid 1860s: Cobalt, hinge mould, smooth base.
1860s – 1920: Cobalt, cup mould, smooth base.
All recorded aqua and blue bottles have sheared and tooled / fire polished lips. All olive-green examples have more or less v-shaped, applied, single-collar lips.
Three pre-1860s bottles used by J. F. B. Cabburn. All are hinge mould but smooth base (without pontil scars). The largest is 143mm (5 5/8") tall. Capacities are 58ml, 110ml and 57ml to the bottom of the neck. The blue bottle is identical in general appearance to Cabburn bottles used into the 20th century:
A blue hinge moulded Cabburn bottle on the left, blown in heavy lead glass, alongside a later, and much more lightweight, example blown in a cup mould, and so lacking the seam across the middle of the base. All blue and olive green examples recorded have serif lettering. The single, earlier, pontilled example seen (only in a photograph and so not recorded in detail) has sans-serif embossing that gives it a misleadingly late appearance.
Bases of three Cabburn bottles dating roughly 1845 - 1865, showing the mould seam across the middle of the base that indicates the use of a 2-piece open-and-shut mould (1), referred to by collectors as a 'hinge mould'. This type of mould became obsolete over the course of the 1850s and 60s, being replaced with moulds where the base is moulded by a separate section of the mould, so the seams go around the edge of the base instead of crossing the middle.
Types recorded to date:
Type 1. CABBURN // - //
Colour: Colourless or very pale aqua.
Lip: Sheared & fire polished.
Base: Hinge, flat, solid with glass tipped pontil.
Total Height (TH): approx 148mm.
Shoulder Height 1 (SH1): approx. 110mm.
Base Width (BW): approx. 45 x 35mm.
Date: c. 1840-50.
Type 2a. CABBURN // - //
Colour: Dark olive green.
Lip: Applied narrow collar, v-section.
Base: Hinge, flat. No pontil.
TH: 121mm
SH1: 90mm
BW: 42 x 28mm.
Date: c. 1850-1860
Type 2b. CABBURN // - //
Colour: Dark olive green.
Lip: Applied narrow collar, v-section.
Base: Hinge, oval central recess. No pontil.
TH: 143mm
SH1: c.109mm
BW: 47 x 35mm.
Date: c. 1850-1860
Type 3. CABBURN // - //
Colour: Cobalt blue.
Lip: Sheared & fire polished.
Base: Hinge, flat. No pontil.
TH: 123mm
SH1: 91mm
BW: 41 x 25mm
Date: c. 1855-1865.
Type 4. CABBURN // - //
Colour: Cobalt blue.
Lip: Sheared & fire polished.
Base: Cup mould with central recess. No pontil.
TH: 126mm
SH1: 92mm
BW: 42 x 25mm
Date: c. 1865 - 1920.
History:
c. 1800. John Francis Bricknell Cabburn born in Suffolk.
1819. J. F. B.Cabburn married Martha Tompson of Bury St Edmonds. They were still married at the time of John’s death in July 1866.
1835. John Francis B. Cabburn, hardwareman of the parish of St Margaret, Ipswich, Suffolk.
1840. J. F. B. Cabburn, wine & spirit merchant, and landlord of the White Hart public house, No 6 King’s Cross Market, London.
Cabburn first acquired or invented the recipe for his Anti-Doloric Oil in 1840 (2), and the first advertisements appeared during the second half of that year, claiming it as a remedy for: “rheumatism, gout, sprains, bruises, spinal affection, lumbago, pain in the kidney’s, groin, and joints, swellings, acute pains in the flesh as tic doloreaux, internal injuries produced by falls, straining, over exertion, loss of strength, weakness, stiffness, distortion, cramp of the limbs, &c, &c.” (3) To be had of the proprietor, No 6 King’s Cross, and of Barclay, Edwards, Butler, Hannay, Sutton, etc. (4) In bottles “at 2s.9d., 4s.6d., 11s. and 22s.” These prices, for four different sizes of bottle, appear to have remained unchanged until at least 1870.
Cabburn's Anti-Doloric Oil was probably an embrocation or lotion, for external use. It quickly became successful, possibly because of an agreement Cabburn entered into with Dietrichsen & Co. of 63 Oxford Street (5), by which Dietrichsen would act as principal wholesaler and advertiser, so taking advantage of that company’s extensive existing distribution and advertising network.
1843. The London Post Office Directory gives the address of John Francis Cabburn, Anti-Doloric Oil manufacturer, as Chichester Place, and the White Hart at No 6 King’s Cross occupied by James B. Cabburn.
c. 1844 – 1851/2. Cabburn’s Dispensary, or Patent Medicine Warehouse, No 1 King’s Cross, London. Cabburn also occasionally appears in advertising as a retailer of other items, most frequently for Foyle's "Celebrious and Inimitable Polishing Powders, Pastes and Liquids" (6).
1846. Cabburn started advertising pills, as well as his Oil. In this same year he lost a court case (1) brought against him by Dietrichsen for breach of contract. The 1840 agreement between the two stated that Dietrichsen & Co would pay for all advertising in return for a 40% discount on the sale price of the medicine. Cabburn was to be free to sell direct to other wholesalers, but for a maximum 25% discount. Cabburn breached this agreement by offering discounts of over 25% to other wholesalers, and Dietrichsen sued for compensation.
Whatever the outcome in the short term, by the early 1850s Dietrichsen & Co were once again agents for Cabburn’s Oil.
1853. June. J.F.B. Cabburn of the White Hart public House, who was also proprietor of a “gout medicine”, bankrupt. The return of Cabburn to the White Hart (if, that is, he ever actually left) is unexplained, and the identity of James Cabburn, who was listed as the landlord there for several years in the 1840s and early 1850s, is uncertain. As is often the case, newspaper reports of the bankruptcy proceedings gave wonderful insights into the medicine and its proprietor. Apparently, in the 3½ years prior to mid-1853 Cabburn's profits from all of his businesses had been £3,625, which included £393 (equivalent to about £42,000 in 2019, figures from measuringworth.com)“from the sale of a preparation which the bankrupt advertised as a gout medicine”. Cabburn had at that time “carried on business at the White Hart for fourteen years” and “it was certainly an odd mixture of trades for a publican to sell a medicine for gout.” (7).
By October 1853 Cabburn was back in business at a new address, No 11 Edward Terrace, Caledonian Road, but this time solely as a patent medicine maker, advertising ‘Cabburn’s Balsam of Herbs, or Anti-Doloric Oil’, “for excruciating agony or pains of any kind” (8). His address changed several times over the following few years before settling down as 25 Pentonville Road, where he remained for the rest of his life.
The change of the medicine name to Balsam of Herbs (although until the 1890s it was still occasionally referred to in advertisements as ‘Cabburn’s Oil’) and the new address are possibly related to the bankruptcy. This may also have been the time that the dark green bottles were replaced with cobalt blue ones, blue remaining the colour until c.1920.
A post-1864 'Clift & Co' bottle complete with original label for "Cabburn's Balsam of Herbs, or Anti-Doloric Oil", as well as original closure and contents. The list of ailments cured on the label is even longer than those in many newspaper advertisements.
1864. Cabburn sold the rights to his medicines to Clift, a chemist in Dorking. The bottles remained unchanged.
Advertising for the medicine dropped off markedly during the 1860s and 1870s, but the bottles remain moderately common in rubbish dumps throughout England, and possibly further afield, until at least the early 1900s. From the late 1880s onwards only two sizes of bottles were advertised.
1866. July. John F. B. Cabburn, of No 25 Pentonville Road in London, died.
1919. The latest advertisements for Cabburn’s Balsam appeared in early 1919 (9), when two sizes of bottle were available, at 3s and 5s.
Bottles described in advertising or elsewhere but not yet recorded:
Four sizes of bottles were advertised extensively from 1840 until the 1870s, but only two have been recorded to date, probably the two smallest (2s.9d. and 4s.6d., probably the same sizes as the 3 shilling and 5 shilling bottles of the 1919 advertisements).
To date a single pontilled example has been recorded, in very pale aqua glass, approximately 148mm tall. This corresponds to the larger of the two known sizes of olive green bottle, probably the 4s.6d. size, meaning that the smallest (2s.9d.) and two largest sizes (11s. and 22s.) from this period are not yet recorded. It's likely that at least the earlier, pre-1845, versions of the largest of the pontilled bottles were blown in mid or dark green glass rather than colourless or aqua glass.
Olive-green smooth base bottles are known in two sizes, probably 2s.9d. and 4s.6d., meaning that the 11s. and 22s. sizes remain to be found.
Blue examples are only known to date in the smallest size (around 120mm tall), meaning that all three larger sizes of this type remain to be recorded (4s.6d., 11s. and 22s., although the 11s. and 22s. sizes may have been discontinued during the 1880s).
Capacities of the bottles were not, so far as I've been able to discover, ever specified in advertising. The two sizes already recorded hold approximately 1/10th of a pint and 1/5th of a pint and (taking known and advertised capacities of other advertised medicines of the period into account) this suggests the two largest sizes were probably half pint and 1 pint sizes.
The two recorded sizes of Cabburn bottles alongside a standard Dalby's Carminative to provide a size comparison.
Notes and References.
1. Illustration of a two-part mould for a retangular bottle, where the mould opens across the middle of the base in a way that leaves a visible mould 'seam' across the middle of the base of any bottle blown in the mould. From Apsley Pellatt, Curiosities of Glass Making (1849).
2. Reports of Cases in Chancery, Decided by Lord Cottenham; commencing 7th July 1846. Vol. 1. Stevens and Norton, London, 1846. Dietrichsen v. Cabburn, pp 72 - 83. 3. The Morning Chronicle, 26th September 1840. From britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, accessed 31st December 2018.
4. The names in this list (Barclay, Edwards, Butler, Hannay, Sutton) are all of London-based, large, patent medicine dealers and wholesale businesses. All of them crop up repeatedly in tales of British patent medicines of the 18th and 19th centuries. As well as acting as agents for medicines manufactured by others they frequently manufactured and sold numerous patent medicines of their own.
5. Dietrichsen & Hannay (also known, at other times, as Hannay & Co, and Hannay & Dietrichsen) owned a 'patent medicine warehouse' and perfumery shop at No 63 Oxford Street, but were probably more widely known at the time, and maybe even now, as the publishers of an annual almanac which had a circulation of, apparently, over 100,000. This almanac, which included extensive advertising for the medicines sold at the patent medicine warehouse, was one of their principal means of advertising the medicines they sold. The company sold at least some of their own products in bottles embossed with their own name.
6. The Hereford Times, 20th September 1845. From britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Accessed 23rd October 2020.
7. The Suffolk Chronicle, 18th June 1853. From britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Accessed 31st December 2018.
8. Lloyds Weekly Newspaper. 13th October 1853. From britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Accessed 22nd February 2019.
9. The East Kent Gazette. 15th February 1919. From britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Accessed 22nd February 2019.
© Jeremy Kemp, 2020.
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