Tips on Old Medicines

I am no expert on the collectible I'm going to share with you today, but I don't know anybody that is. So what I've learned in my research may be helpful to other collectors of bottles and what they call "go-withs" — the non-bottle items that were produced to help sell the bottled product.

Tip trays are also called change trays. They are usually made of metal (I've read it is aluminum, certainly very light weight) and most are round, running about 5"-6" in diameter; small oval trays and rectangular ones with rounded corners complete the shape possibilities. Larger trays with colorful advertising are serving trays, designed to carry drinks or dishes of food to the table. I've read that their ancestors were silver trays called salvers, that were used to transport the food and drink to kings and the other wealthy elite of the seventeenth century. The beautiful silver salver was not only something that was only affordable by royalty, but its use also signified that the food and drink served on it wasn't poisoned - it had been sampled by one of the servants who was relieved to not become sickened or dead from carrying out the odd and unsettling duty.

Tip trays were most heavily used in the first third of the 20th century, but started showing up primarily in American restaurants, bars, and saloons, during the last quarter of the 19th century. This was known as the Gilded Age, when a small but very visible portion of the population were becoming ostentatiously wealthy from their investments in industry, railroads, and oil. It was the time when Newport's mansions were built, social balls and the latest fashions were a must, and travel abroad implied sophistication. Wealthy Americans returned from abroad with a penchant for tipping serving staff (which they had observed was being done by their European society counterparts) to emphasize their affluence and "superior" social status. Businesses were quick to get their name in front of those who could tip, so tip trays were mass-produced with advertisements for all sorts of businesses and products.

Based on a review of the 535 tip trays listed in the completed auctions on Morford's Antique Advertising Auctions fabulous website (https://live.antiqueadvertising.com/), I have assembled the top ten categories of tip trays, sorted by the frequency of tip trays each category. Alcoholic beverage tip trays are far and away the largest category, probably being used in saloons and bars all over the country before Prohibition. There were also many sodas promoted on tip trays; I've listed the ones most recognizable today, but there are many other brands featured that no longer exist.

Although medicine was the largest product category featured in 19th century newspaper, periodical and trade card advertising, there were relatively few medicines appearing on the largely 20th century tip trays; this reflects the impact of state and federal laws clamping down on the curative claims of medicines. None that appear on tip trays were advertising products that were promising to cure cancer, tuberculosis, or other life-threatening diseases; instead, they focused on more mundane ailments: relieving constipation, lessening aches and pain, soothing coughs, and the like. I have listed all of the medicines found on Morford's long list: there were only 13 medicine tip trays - just two percent of the entire list. By comparison, there were probably over five dozen different brands in the Alcohol category.

1.  Alcohol: beer (ex: Anheuser-Busch; Schlitz); whiskey; champagne; saloons; brewing companies

2.  Soda: (ex: Coca Cola, Moxie, Pepsi Cola, Dr. Pepper)

3.  Tobacco: cigars; cigarettes; tobacco

4.  Miscellaneous products: lumber; furniture; bookcases; gasoline; paints; metal ceiling; metal polish; furnaces; fountain pens; watches

5.  Machines: New Home Sewing Machines; De Laval Cream Separator; Evinrude outboard motors; Red Cross Stoves & Ranges; manure spreader; gramophones; automobiles

6.  Food: flour; bread; candy; flavorings; spices; Cottolene shortening; chocolate; cocoa; evaporated cream; milk; malted milk; ice cream; sherbet; coffee; tea; mineral waters; table waters (ex: White Rock)

7.  Medicine: Royal Purple Grape Juice; Z-M-O Pain-Relieving Healing Oil; Resinol Soap & Ointment; Red Raven Splits; Heptol Splits; Hick’s Capudine; Laxol; Ricinol Grape Castor Oil; Eye-Fix; Bromo Seltzer; Po-Ca-Ta-Lo, The Indian Medicine Man; Dr. A. C. Daniels Remedies (for horses, cattle, & dogs); Mrs. Dinsmore's Cough & Croup Balsam

8.  Businesses & products: Sears & Roebuck; newspapers; electric companies; ship lines; banks; loan companies; hotels

9.  Clothing: suspenders; Gypsy Hosiery

10.Toiletries: deodorants; Fairy Soap

Almost all tip trays were creatively designed, full of color and, inevitably, certain ones demand high prices in the collectible market. Coca Cola trays, first made in 1897, are often sold in the hundreds of dollars and some of the rarest pieces go in the thousands, dependent on condition.

If you have been following my blog even a little bit, you've already figured out that my personal interest is in the medicine category, specifically those for medicine products made in Lynn, Massachusetts. There are two I know of and they are very hard to find; it has taken me 40 years to get an example of both!

Bubier's Laxative Salz - I may be biased, but I think it's one of the most attractive tip trays ever made; the colors and design are very pleasing to the eye. Two bottles sit on top of the scrolled banner and between them is a significant coat of arms. It is the heraldic emblem for the Burrill family, the closest to royalty that colonial Lynn had: the 17th century father and his sons were the wealthiest in town and held key positions of honor and responsibility at the local and colony levels. That coat of arms continued to be used by their descendents through the centuries, all the way to its use as the trademarked image on Burrill's Tooth Paste and Burrill's Tooth Powder in the 1920s. Bubier's Laxative Salz was co-owned by William A. Burrill and Nathan G. Bubier, PhG, at least from 1892-1898. It's quite an elegant tip tray that would have been admired even in a Newport mansion ... if it wasn't for the fact that it was advertising a medicine for constipation.

Mrs Dinsmore's Cough & Croup Balsam - It's another beautiful tip tray, although in a very different way. This 1920s tray set out to reassure people with coughs that this quiet, benign-looking lady was so serene and confident because she had been consistently successful at removing coughs for some 50 years. So after you've tipped your waitress and coughed one more time into your napkin, you should go to the corner drugstore and get Mrs. Dinsmore to finally get rid of that annoying and socially embarrassing throat irritation.

Last night, after my wife and I finished a wonderful meal at our favorite Indian restaurant, I was given the bill in a modern, little black plastic tip tray; there was no colorful advertising on it, but it had a clip to securely hold my credit card. When I saw the bill, I found myself wishing I could have seen Mrs. Dinsmore's calm, reassuring face underneath.