# Another one!



## Jim (Feb 5, 2007)

This beauty arrived safe and sound today. This is an 8-oz Melvin & Badger KI-2 poison with 90% of its original label. Not a rare bottle, but not all that common either. I caught the eBay community sleeping and got this one for about a third of its actual value []. My Melvin & Badger set now has three different sizes. ~Jim


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## Jim (Feb 5, 2007)

Wow, I just realized that I really need to dust the top of my cabinet []. Here is another view. The 8-oz are 6 1/4" high, and considerably wider than the smaller ones.


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## Jim (Feb 5, 2007)

Here is the label. I have seen several different styles of Melvin & Badger labels on these bottles. This appears to be an older one. Thanks and enjoy! ~Jim


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## Tony14 (Feb 5, 2007)

Very nice Jim! Can  i see a pic of the grouping of those guys?


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## Jim (Feb 5, 2007)

Thanks, Tony. I'll add a new group pic for you. ~Jim

 Cool...My 1000th post [].


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## Jim (Feb 5, 2007)

Here they are- 3, 4 and 8-oz. The 4 is fairly common, the 8 less common and the 3 is a rare size for this bottle. ~Jim


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## Tony14 (Feb 5, 2007)

Vey nice!!!


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## capsoda (Feb 5, 2007)

Very Nice set Jim. Love the apothecary lable.


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## bearswede (Feb 6, 2007)

Great group, Jim...

  Are there any other sizes?

  Ron


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## Jim (Feb 6, 2007)

Thanks, guys. The Melvin & Badger KI-2 is known to exist in nine of the ten sizes for these bottles. There are 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 oz sizes. They are not known to have had a 32-oz. The 1/2, 12 and 16 are the rarest, then the 3 and 6, then the 1 and 2, then the 8, and the 4 is most common. Here is a full set from the collection of my good friend Jerry Jones. It is the only complete set of Melvin & Badgers that I know of. ~Jim


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## zanes_antiques (Feb 6, 2007)

What is the bottle to the far right of the first picture. It says "THOS Mc????. Is it a Mcrystal from wheeling. I thought I saw wh????on the bottle also.


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## Jim (Feb 6, 2007)

Hi Zane, That one is a Thos. McMullen & Co's White Label acid-etched ale bottle that I dug this past summer. They are fairly common, but it is a beautiful bottle! ~Jim
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## downeastdigger (Feb 9, 2007)

HI guys
 I live near Boston, and lived in Boston a few years back, and found the Melvin and Badger Drug store in the North End, right on the waterfront.  It is gone now.  Back then, ( in the 80s ) I was working a delivery job ,  and on my break, I went in and tried to talk to the girl at the cash register about the history of the store she was working in.  I told her about Melvin and Badger drug store bottles ete etc.  She had a big ear ring in her ear, and black eye make up, etc, and looked at me like I was some alien from another planet and another time.  It was kind of sad.  Oh well.  I guess I shouldn't  be so cynical.
 I'm glad we are  part of a group of people who are holding on to physical proof of bye gone days.  I guess it's not her fault.  I guess I should just say Thank God for bottle collecting, to hang on to some physical proof of the past. 
 Bram


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## Jim (Feb 9, 2007)

Very interesting, Bram. I never knew that Melvin & Badger was around that long. The home of another one of these poisons, Billings and Stover, just closed in 2002. I wonder if there are any of the 28 known proprietors for these bottles that are still around. I know that some of them were bought out by bigger companies, and a lot of the small ones just fell by the wayside. With the coming of high overhead costs and ridiculous taxes and regulations on small businesses, mostly just the "big boys" were able to survive.

 The factory that manufactured all of these beauties just went bankrupt in 2003. By collecting these treasures that were once just empty junk bottles, we are indeed preserving history and having a lot of fun in the process []. ~Jim


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