Medicine Revenue Experts -- What Have We Here?

Here are vintage and modern bottles of Lanman & Kemp Florida Water with the facsimile labels. I would guess the vintage to be early 1900s. I bought the modern about 10 years ago.

Here are examples of the facsimile label

Some more Kemp facsimiles.

Jim

Here is a link to a site that has some information about New York Pharmacal Association

http://www.rdhinstl.com/mm/rs187.htm

Thank you, telchar! That's a very educational website!

That's a website created by Bob Hohertz (he's the "rdh"), president of the American Revenue Association.

Bob is a really nice man, I have spoken with him at a number of shows over the last few years.

Oddly enough, I picked up a similar item over the weekend. This is an American Bank Note specimen for some sort of medicine(?) bottle. There's no date indicated, but I would guess 1870s. This would have been affixed to bottles of H.G. Hotchkiss' "International Prize Medal Essential Oils" (and large bottles at that, since this is about 11 inches long).

Would this qualify as a facsimile label? Anyone have some background on Hotchkiss?

I agree that this is a highly collectable piece. But let's explore the meaning of facsimile.

A great number of firms ordered private die stamps. Their motivation in most cases was to use these stamps to guard against others who wished to profit from their product. There were individuals who looked for the distinctive bottles in the land fills of the day, reproduced the contents and sold them, particularly in rural areas. The problem persists today. Asian firms imitate the products of Johnson & Johnson using J&J's Red Cross symbol to fool us, the consumers. I have spoken recently with a lawyer that worked with J&J to protect from those who were stealing their trademark Red Cross (which has been used since the nineteenth century when J&J signed an agreement with Clara Barton to use the Red Cross symbol). In the same way the private die stamps contained trademark symbols of the firms who ordered these special designs.The private die stamps functioned as the guarantee that the product was genuine. If someone wished to counterfeit the government stamps, they were not only violating the company's trademark, they were in violation of the law. The companies benefited from the efforts of the government fighting the counterfeiters. After the proprietary tax was rescinded in 1883, many of the companies created a near look alike to the private die proprietary tax stamps, a facsimile of the tax stamp.

Now to the case at hand. Hotchkiss did not have a private die stamp. So there is nothing to make a facsimile of. So these are not facsimiles.

However, these labels functioned as a means to protect their trademarked product. So such labels and bottle seals are certainly related to the facsimile labels in function. They just do not have a tax stamp that they are imitating (a facsimile).

Excellent explanation -- thank you. So companies used bank note engravings on labels for the same reasons as the government: to thwart counterfeiting.

This appears to be yet another variation of the Lanman and Kemp "eagle" vignette. In this case, the stamp doesn't look like it was trimmed from the ends of a larger label, but is a new type altogether.

I can't find any reference to "eacles best" anywhere on the Internet, other than as a misspelling for "eagles."

Or is the similarity of the design just a coincidence?

Jim

Hi James -
there were a number of companies that manufactured products that tried to imitate Lanman & Kemp's Florida Water. I have not seen that label, but my guess is that one of the imitators produced that label to imitate Lanman and Kemp's facsimile label.

Hi

So... this is a facsimile of a facsimile then?



Jim

That is my guess - I have no proof. I tried a quick google search and did not find anything.

I have never seen this one before either.