Dr Kilmer’s Cough-Cure Consumption Oil Catarrh Specific (Pictorial Lungs) Dr Kilmer & Co. Binghamton NY

Catarrh

Dr Kilmer’s Cough-Cure Consumption Oil Specific

(Pictorial Lungs)

Dr Kilmer & Co.

Binghamton N.Y.

Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer, Binghamton, New York

Rectangular Aquamarine Medicine

Provenance: Bob Jochums Collection

Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer was a homeopathic physician who aggressively advertised and sold his concoctions in bottles that prominently, and to the delight of collectors, depicted the bodily organ to be treated embossed on the glass. Kilmer founded his laboratory and remedy company in the 1870s in Binghamton, New York. Eventually, Dr. Kilmer’s brother Jonas, and Jonas’s son Willis, took over the company and employed mass marketing to make Kilmer’s remedies a nationally known brand. When Willis was asked what his Swamp Root Cure was good for, he answered, “About a million dollars a year!”

Our Dr. Kilmer gallery display includes three of his pictorial medicine bottles. One has debossed lungs, another a debossed liver, and a third a debossed heart. The bottles are typically found in aquamarine glass. Our feature bottle in the trio is a rare “Dr. Kilmer’s Cough-Cure” bottle that is full of information in the form of embossed copy and the pictorial debossed lungs while leaving space for a paper label. Other wording on the bottle includes “Catarrh, Consumption Oil, Specific, Dr. Kilmer & Co., and Binghamton, NY.”

Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer also put out “Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp-Root Kidney Liver & Bladder Remedy” (also a Bladder Cure) and Dr. Kilmer’s Ocean Weed Heart Remedy,” Dr. Kilmers Female Remedy, and Dr. Kilmer’s Indian Cough and Consumption Cure, among others.

This 8 ¾ inches tall, 3 inches wide by 1 ¾ inch-thick aquamarine rectangular bottle has beveled corners, a tooled round collar mouth with a lower bevel, and a smooth base. On the top of the primary face of the bottle is embossed copy reading ‘CATARRH’ in a recessed beveled bow arch. ‘DR KILMER’S COUGH CURE CONSUMPTION OIL’ is embossed inside the prominent debossed lungs in three lines. The “Dr. Kilmers” copy is a concave arch on the top line. “Cough Cure” is centered horizontally. “Consumption Oil” occurs in a convex arc on the third line above the lungs’ bottom point. ‘SPECIFIC’ wording appears in a horizontal line centered beneath. ‘DR. KILMER & Co.’ is embossed on one side panel from shoulder to base. ‘BINGHAMTON, N.Y.’ is embossed on the thin opposite side similarly. All embossed copy is in a sans serif typestyle. This is a rare mold and one of the most desirable Dr. Kilmer bottles.

Primary Image: “Dr. Kilmer’s Cough-Cure Consumption Oil Catarrh Specific (Pictorial Lungs) Dr. Kilmer & Co. Binghamton NY” bottle imaged on location by Alan DeMaison, FOHBC Virtual Museum Midwest Studio.

Support Image: Three Dr. Kilmer pictorial organ medicine bottles – Gary Christensen collection.

Support Image: Catarrh Dr. Kilmer’s Cough Cure Consumption Oil” (Inside debossed lungs) Specific – Dr. Kilmer & Co. – Binghamton, N.Y. – Gary Christensen collection.

Support Image: Auction Lot 218: “CATARRH / DR KILMER’S / COUGH CURE / CONSUMPTION OIL” (inside debossed lungs) / “SPECIFIC – DR. KILMER & Co. – BINGHAMTON, N.Y.”,1890 – 1900. Aquamarine, rectangular with beveled corners, tooled round collar with lower bevel – smooth base, ht. 8 5/8″, near mint; (a paper-thin ¼” open bubble on the beveled corner on the reverse, otherwise perfect). A rare mold and one of the most desirable of all the various Dr. Kilmer bottles. Joe Widman collection. Joe acquired this rare and desirable Dr. Kilmer’s lung bottle more than 30 years ago. A great example, and one that does not come around often. – John Pastor, American Glass Gallery, Auction #31

Support Image: Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root Remedy bottle – Fort Stanwix National Monument Museum Collection, National Park Service photograph

Support Image: Dr. Kilmer’s Standard Herbal Remedies restored poster advertisement – Image from Fourth Cone Restoration Blog

Support Image: S. Andral Kilmer portrait advertisement. – Image from Fort Stanwix National Monument Museum Collection, National Park Service image

Support Image: Dr. Kilmer’s Ocean Weed Heard Remedy and Cough Cure Consumption Oil bottle – Jeff Wichmann, American Bottle Auctions

Support Image: Box and labeled example of Dr. Kilmer’s Indian Cough Cure Consumption Oil – Smithsonian, National Museum of American History, Behring Center

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