Vintage NOS 1920s Two Indiana Pharmacy Glycerin & Turpentine Label Rolls

Description

Angola is in the far northeastern portion of Indiana, near the Michigan and Ohio borders. The former Tri-State College there had a school of pharmacy for many years, so it would have been natural that such a small town would have more than one local pharmacy. These are two NOS rolls of pharmacy labels, one from the Kolb Brothers Pharmacy, “next door to the post office,” which opened around 1916. The labels were for glycerin lotion, an old-fashioned hand lotion. They read “a pleasant and soothing application for Chapped Hands, Sore Lips and Irritated Surfaces.” Based on the beaux art decoration on the label, we’re guessing the 1920s.
The other NOS roll was for turpentine from White’s Drug Store in Angola. There is a 2-digit phone number on the label, which began in the early 1900s and were replaced by 3-, 4- and 5-digit numbers by the 1920s. Strangely, turpentine (you can buy it in hardware stores today) has a long medicinal history, especially in
the era of patent medicines. Turpentine was an addition to several snake oils, such as Hamlen’s Wizard Oil (poster in pictures, not included), and during Prohibition (the time these labels were made) piney-flavored turpentine oil was often used to make fake gin (yum!). Though it does have strong purgative and tapeworm-killing qualities, its toxicity far outweighs any potential benefit.
In fact, the label has skull and crossbones and “Poison” on it plus the anecdote for direct ingestion. Imagine adding something like that to your homemade “hootch” during Prohibition?
The turpentine label roll is 2.5 inches in diameter (6.5 cm). Each label is 2.25 x 1.35 inches (3.5 x 6 cm). It appears it has an adhesive that must be moistened but hopefully can stick to a glass bottle. The glycerin labels are 2.25 inches (6 cm) in diameter, and each label measures about 2.5 x 1.75 inches (5.5 x 3.5 cm). It looks like the adhesive is the same moisten adhesive. Both rolls are sealed with their own labels, probably they way they were printed at the factory. We have no idea how many labels are in each roll. You do the math.
T
hese would be fun to paste on glass bottles, boxes, vases, cans, wine bottles, or whatever else you want to stick them to to create a Vintage display. Or use them in Collage or Mixed Media Art pieces. How about
special mailings and scrapbooking to kids' activities and DIY projects? Shipped free in the US. Check out our other advertising collectibles at
www.ebay.com/str/agitpropshoppe
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