Physical description
Tall clear aqua tinted glass bottle, rectangular in section, with rectangular panels impressed on four sides with embossed text in the four panels. A shallow dome impression on the base containing embossed text.
Inscriptions & markings
Side 1 : 'AYER'S'. Side 2 : 'COMPOUND EXT.' Side 3 : 'LOWELL MASS. U.S.A.'. Side 4 : 'SARSAPARILLA'. Base 'C57'.
Subjects
References
- J.C. Ayer & Co. of Lowell, Mass. Makers of Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, Cherry Pectoral, Cathartic Pills, Hair Vigor, and Ague Cure History of J.C.Ayers including illustrations of bottles and advertising. Also the date of first production of Sarsaparilla by Ayers - c.1855-1858. Between July 13, 1857 and January 20, 1858, Ayer ran a very novel advertisement in a Lowell newspaper. This ad offered free medicine to individuals with Scrofula, King's Evil and other diseases and symptoms which his Sarsaparilla would eventually claim to cure. Ayer's ad stated: "We have ... valuable remedies for... which we wish to put on trial with the worst of cases, and with intelligent patients who can report their effects." This in effect was an early clinical trial. Four months after these advertisements ended, the earliest known advertisement for Sarsaparilla began in the Lowell Daily Journal and Courier dated May 3, 1858.
