# evolution of Phillips' Milk of Magnesia?



## GuntherHess

Phillips milk of magnesia was apparently made over quite a long period. Does anyone know what the earliest bottles looked like. The one I have pictured here seems to be the earliest one I have. It is very light blue with a fairly large tooled lip. It is embossed PHILLIPS' MILK OF (trade mark) MAGNESIA. Below magnesia there is a word that is peened out of the mold. I think it originally read REGISTERED but is peened out pretty well.

 Anyone found any Phillips that seem older than this one?


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## GuntherHess

According to some info on the web ...
 Phillips invented milk of magnesia in 1873
 Phillips started selling it in 1880
 The Phillips company was incorporated in 1885
 They were aquired by Sterling Drug in 1923
 Phillips' Milk of Magnesia was bottled up until 1976 

 A 100 year product run is pretty amazing...


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## madman

hello gh, this is a great post for people to post there milk of magnesia bottles, your bottle is the oldest ive seen,  my bottles read pat aug 21 1906, your bottle is from 1906?  heres some newer and old  mike


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## madman

this one is bim


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## madman

newer


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## GuntherHess

I'm guessing the earliest ones just said REGISTERED or PAT APPLIED FOR at the bottom. The one I posted was possibly when they got the patent and they peened out the registered, still using the old mold. Then they re-designed the mold in 1906 to show the patent info.


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## Ye Olde Prospector

Hi Matt,

 Here's the earliest Phillips I have dug. Strap sided, aqua BIM with tooled lip, 6 1/8 in tall..Embossed  C.H. PHILLIPS / NEW YORK PATENTED / APRIL 29th & JULY 22nd / 1873  That's the info peened out on the one you have, Still don't know if it would be worth cleaning though. Base is plain.


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## mabel

This is great!!  You are talking about my area of interest.  I collect Phillips Milk of Magnesia bottles. I am probably the only person to be interested in these common bottles.  I have tried to find the oldest examples that were made.
 I have 3 bottles with a date of 1873.  One clear bottle and one light blue bottle, both about 7 inches tall:"CH Phillips  New York  patented April 29 and July 22 1873".  An ice blue bottle "Phillips Milk of Magnesia  patented April 29 and July 22 1873".  I will post photos of my collection later tonight.
 I have about 90 Phillips bottles, ranging from 3 inches to 14 inches.  The oldest ones are clear or light blue and say "New York." More recent bottles say "Glenbrook Connecticut" and are darker cobalt blue.  I have 2 bottles from New Zealand with odd metal flip-top lids.  
 I have several printed in Spanish.
 There are amber brown bottles that say "Phillips cod liver oil  NewYork" but I am not sure if this is the same company.
 Thank you for letting me ramble on.  I rarely have a chance to talk about my bottles.  Mabel


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## GuntherHess

That's definately an early bottle from Phillips. I would guess its milk of magnesia even though it does say it. It looks like it lists the original patent date for milk of magnesia. Mine is a totally different mold since it does say Milk of Magnesia. Mine has one line of text peened out. It either said PATENTED or REGISTERED.
 I think yours is the earliest I have seen so far. 

 Hi Mabel, I figured SOMEBODY out there collected these durn things.
 Do you know what the peened out embossing on the one I posted originally read? 
 From what I can tell Phillips cod liver oil was made by the same company and competed with Scotts emulsion.


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## Mike O

Here is a small and a medium one that I have found.  They both have the same inscription "Rec'd in US Pat. Office AUG 21 1906 but are very different colors. The small one has been cleaned and is deep colbolt, The bigger one is as found in a barn, Note the original cork still on it. I think if I were to clean it it would fall somewhere between aqua and clear


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## capsoda

Hey Matt, Cliff's bottle is the oldest. The 1873 date is the patent date for _hydrate of magnesium 8% sollution with water_, invented by Charles Henry Phillips.

 The phrase _milk of magnesia_ was patented by someone else and phillips didn't start usind it until 1880. That would be your bottle with the 1873 patent date peened out.

 The familar and common 1906 bottle has the patent date for the trade mark shield. The link below it the patent date for the trade mark. http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=71016576


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## Ye Olde Prospector

Hi Warren,

 Thanks for the info. I figured from the aqua glass and oval shape the one I had was probably an early "Milk of Magnesia". Didn't know when it was first marketed. Anyone seen other aqua Phillips bottles? It might actually be worth getting cleaned I suppose just to add to my collection. I haven't dug any others. Just kept it as an oddity.


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## Bottleman

Itâ€™s nice to see some of the older Phillips here. Last year I saved all the ones I dug and had about 15 different Phillips. Most were screw tops but they were all different. I ended up sell them because they were to new but I did save a few of the ones that said tablets on them. 

 ~~Tom


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## capsoda

Hey Cliff, I'd clean it. The early ones like yours are not all that common and are worth more than the usual $10 asking price. Sold a large one for $30 and a small one for $20 at a local auction using a good explanition of why it is different.

 The peened ones are fairly rare too.


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## GuntherHess

I've seen very few of the aqua Phillips. It would probably be pretty valuable if it wasnt associated with the other common versions... a case of guilt by association[]


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## Ye Olde Prospector

Hi Matt and Warren,

 Thanks for the info. I'll sit it on my back shelf for now, with the rest of my hoard of needs cleaning bottles. Maybe by 2073 someone will be looking for one,[][]

 Cliff


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## mabel

Here are my 3 oldest Phillips bottles.  The one on the left has the same mold as Guntherhess' except his has the dates peened out.  It is an ice blue.  The middle aqua bottle and the faint purple one on the right both say NewYork, so I imagine they are earlier although they too carry the 1873 date.


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## mabel

Here is a better picture of  the blue one.


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## mabel

This is probably my oldest, as it says New York and is clear.  The bottles appear to have been clear initially, then over time were blue, then the familiar cobalt blue.


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## Ye Olde Prospector

Hi mabel,

 This last one looks like same mold as the greenish aqua one I  posted. Guess from info "Milk of Magnesia" wasn't embossed til 1880 or later.  The neck on the one I have has lots of bubbles and stretch marks with a hand tooled lip. Guessing both of these were made between 1873 - 1880. Interesting info from this thread.

 Cliff


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## mabel

These are my oldest Phillips bottles that still have labels.  The tall one is the older, but despite the label listing nine thousand conditions Milk of Magnesia will fix (headaches, crabbiness, etc) I cannot find a date. The bottle has no embossing anywhere.
 The label on the 7 inch bottle has the 1906 date.  The reverse side has embossed shield "Phillips milk of magnesia  rec'd U.S. patent pat. office Aug. 21, 1906."  The bottom has "T" above "24".
 I'd be interested to see other old Phillips Labels.


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## GuntherHess

The 9000 cures for all ailments turned into a treatment for indigestion with the Food & Drug act of 1906.

 Mabel you can have that bottle i posted with the PATENTED peened out if you want it. For free, just pay whatever postage is.


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## capsoda

Hey Mabel, Your large bottle dates between 1880, when Phillips was first allowed to use Milk of Magnesia on their labels and 1906 when the bottle embossing changed.

 My wife and I have dug alot of those tall unembossed bottles and we never knew what they were until know. We dug them in a city dump that was also used by a hospital so maybe the bottles they used were unembossed to make them cheaper.Thanks.


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## mabel

Warren, I think you are right about the hospital use of Milk of Magnesia.  When I was an intern on call almost every patient had an order for MOM as needed, often in hopes of avoiding an unnecessary call from the nurse in the middle of the night, so I'm sure they used tons of it.
 Yes, Guntherhess, I would like that bottle.  That's very kind of you.  What do I owe you for postage?
 One last question.  I have 2 bottles I bought on ebay that came from New Zealand and both have metal flip top lids.  These are screw-top bottles, though these lids don't unscrew.  I've never seen these before.  Are they common outside the USA?  Did they come with the bottles originally or did someone get creative later on?  Thanks, mabel


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## Bottleman

My guess would be someone put them on later. The lids just donâ€™t seem to match the bottle although the smaller one looks alright. Whatâ€™s that white stuff under the edge of the lid on the big one?

 ~~Tom


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## mabel

Tom, yes, it looks like they put the smaller flip-top on the larger bottle and vice-versa.
 I'm not sure about the white stuff, maybe glue.
 Oh well, they did manage to entice me into buying.  I wonder where they got the flip-tops?  mabel


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## GuntherHess

> Yes, Guntherhess, I would like that bottle.


 
 Just send me your shipping address to my email.
 You can find my email on my website...
http://www.mattsoldhouse.com/MC/bottles/order.htm
 Postage should only be a couple bucks...assuming you are in the US.


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## Beebs

Mabel,

 I believe this might be one you could be looking for. It's in mint condition, no cracks or chips. The seam does not go to the top, just up to the neck. I will show more pics.

 Beebs


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## Beebs

Then again you may already have it...[]

 Beebs


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## Beebs

Not sure if it means anything, but there is a T on the bottom. However old it is, it's a nice bottle & in mint condition.[][]
 Beebs


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## Oldtimer

> ORIGINAL: GuntherHess
> 
> Phillips milk of magnesia was apparently made over quite a long period. Does anyone know what the earliest bottles looked like. The one I have pictured here seems to be the earliest one I have. It is very light blue with a fairly large tooled lip. It is embossed PHILLIPS' MILK OF (trade mark) MAGNESIA. Below magnesia there is a word that is peened out of the mold. I think it originally read REGISTERED but is peened out pretty well.
> 
> Anyone found any Phillips that seem older than this one?


 
 Hey..

 I dug one like this, ice blue and BIM yet not as old as Ye olde prospector's....it had a lip chip, so it got traded off..
 The hole I got it from remains un-finished for digging...the whole thing 25'x20' is 4 ' deep with newer trash..on top of older stuff. I got the phillips from as deep as I could get with a small diggerer...I intend to go back with an alminium shovel and get to the bottom..the 76 year old owner recalls tossing trash in this hole as a small child...he says it was an old trash hole then...His home is pre-1850 and sits 120' from this hole..I would expect to find yet older phillips bottles in there..


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## Bottleboy4419

I found a milk of magnesia not a very old one tho in a 50's dump and it still had the original cap on it and when i opened the cap it was so nasty there was just all this dried white crud on the inside


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## mabel

Beebs, Yes, that's an old one.  I have one like it.  But are we sure it is the same Phillips family?  No surprise that milk of magnesia proved more popular than fish emulsion.  Mabel


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## capsoda

Charles H. Phillips Chemical Company was in Connecticut. There are listings for a Christopher Hallowell Phillips in New York.


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