Here is a classic early 19th century medicine bottle with unusual serifed embossed text. Marked “Dr. McMunn’s Elixir of Opium” What a great photograph!
View Dr. McMunn’s bottle at auction on ebay
Update:
Another plain, smooth based Dr. McMunns Elixir of Opium bottle sold on ebay for a surprising price. The auction closed at $54 on 01/24/10
Here is the picture for that auction – clear and crisp. Quite the above average price for an average specimin! That’s the nature of auctions – some times the prices are average, some things die at auction and every once in a while two or more bidders drive a price up to unusually high numbers.
The Addicted
Caroline Rance tells the story of McMunn’s Elixir and some who did not survive strong doses.
what are these bottles really worth?
According to the books $150.00 I dug one up in NH,
That’s probably a bit over-optimistic, but occasionally they do soar above $100 at auction, esp. if they have the original paper wrapper and tax stamp.
I have a bottle Dr. Munns like a prescription,would be signed on the paper wrapping,with writing looks very old address it has a stamp (postal),still has cork and residual brown substance inside can anyone help ,I’m wanting to sell its been in family for years,I was told it was my grandmothers ,mother that handed down ??? That would make this a very very old bottle.
The story I heard was my dads grandfather was in the civil war I don’t know if this bottle could that old but if it is it’s got to be worth something to a collector/s
I just sent an email to Mr. Norman Heckler- from a link on your site- as we live in RI.
I have what appears to be a more than unusual bottle, as it is wrapped in thick brown paper with (2) signatures, one that appears to be “John B. and then assumed to be “McMunn”- It is Dr. McMunn’s elixir of opium and the paper appears to be the instructions on usage. The other signature isn’t readily legible. It is also stamped “E. Ferret, Agt.-[?agent] 32 Pearl St. It still has the cork in it. -Will try to send photos to you
Intriguing, yes. However, they are fairly common. Several caches of these have been found in walls of buildings in the past 20 years. I am aware of 3 such finds, each of which yielded hundreds of bottles.
admin :that is so strange – I used to go bottle digging when I was a kid, and found many dumps behind old foundations in NW Connecticut – but never heard of bottles being found inside walls – why would the bottles be stashed in the walls of these old buildings? were the users of this opiated medicine stashing them like alchoholics stash bottles all over the house to conceal their addictions?
We found a bottle of Dr. McMums opium elixir in the walls of our 150 year-old house. How old could this bottle be? We are trying to determine how old the bottle is. When was the last date that it was sold?
Please post a question with photo at my discussion forum – http://forum.antiquebottles-glass.com
Glad to help.
i have a dr. mcmunns elixr of opium bottle…great condition…would love to sell it!
I have a pontilled example, with a hinge mold. Anyone interested in this one? Mint condition, some light interior stain. on reverse side. Flared medicine lip. Light blue aqua. 4 3/16″ high. Check out my website for more.
I’ve been diving a dump here on the east coast about the length of two football fields and so far have pulled up about 370 of these vials, all smooth base. I got bored picking them up so I stopped for a while but have started again. Want to break the 500 mark if I can. Neat to hear of other large caches found. I thought perhaps the drug was outlawed and the bottles discarded into the river by pharmacies or the authorities. I call the spot Opium Alley.
This would be the forth cache that I am aware of – I do not think it is the last one.
I offer an alternate theory – this product’s success owes it all to the addictive qualities of opium. What you are seeing is the opium habit, played out vial by vial.
I belong to a group that does living history as civilians 1840-80+/-. Just bought one of the bottles with a rough pontil mark (US$25 for the record). How many years was this in production using the same bottle? I am displaying it with a small opium pipe and a copy of an 1863 do-it-yourself recipe for laudnum. My thanks, Ira~
I have one of these bottles with the paper that originally came with the bottle which wraps around the bottle about 10 or 12 times saying all good things about it. I never unwrapped mine, but I have unwrapped others to see what it says. Each bottle is signed in ink by Dr, McMunn himself. My friend found 100’s of them when pulling down a wall in an old Victorian house in Providence, RI. In the last box in the cork was a gold cork screw with a big ruby on top. I can imagine some lady hiding her addiction and the bottles in the wall. Has anyone seen them all scrolled up with the paper.
I am aware of several caches of McMunn bottles that have been found over the years. What with opium being addictive, it is not surprising.
The condition of the paper wrappings varies widely. You will see many that have the top quarter peeled off but very few that are mostly intact.
Have one bottle wrapped tax stamp still has brown substance and cork …
I have a bottle with a wax seal that seems to still have liquid in it