# Canadian Poison Bottles



## mctaggart67

Most Canadian poison bottles are variants of the irregular hexagon, or "Canadian Coffins," as we call them in Canada. This bottle belongs to the first wave of Canadian Coffins, which were distributed by the Beaver Flint Glass Company, Toronto (BFG Co. T) but probably manufactured by the Diamond Flint Glass Company. These Beaver Flints are almost exact replicas of English Lewis and Towers patent poisons, suggesting that Beaver Flint either ripped off the design (unlikely, given the strong links between British and Canadian civil courts at the time) or had some sort of agreement to use the design in Canada. They come in 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8-ounce sizes, with or without the word "POISON" embossed on the front side panel, and range in colour from very light cobalt, verging on cornflower, to very dark cobalt, with a hint of a purplish tinge.


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## mctaggart67

RIGO Canadian Coffins are the most common type of Canadian poison bottle. RIGO is an acronym for Toronto's RIchards Glass CO., established in 1912 to distribute glassware primarily to drugstores. Most, if not all, RIGO bottles were actually made by the Dominion Glass Company.


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## mctaggart67

RIGOs are basal embossed with RIGO, either with or without Dominion Glass's diamond trademark.


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## mctaggart67

One interesting RIGO variant is embossed with "POISON" across the back shoulder. Canadian collectors have given them the nickname "RIGO poison backs." This one sports a label from Canada's famous T. Eaton Co., which distributed products, including poisons, across Canada via a catalogue system. Eaton collectors will notice that the label references only the Winnipeg store, rather than "Toronto and Winnipeg."


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## mctaggart67

Private mould Canadian poison bottles include BIM and ABM Parke, Davis & Co. (P.D. & Co.) poison bottles, which have Dominion Glass Company mould numbers embossed on their bases. You'll have to take my word that this example has a Dominion mould number.


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## mctaggart67

Gophers -- technically, Richardson Ground Squirrels -- presented farmers on the Canadian Prairies with a number of pest problems, most notably that gopher holes were dangerous to livestock because of the hazard of leg breaks. There were two basic methods of dealing with the gopher issue: 1) shoot the rodents, and some Canadian farm boys got so good at this method that they made excellent snipers in World Wars I and II, or 2) poison the varmints. This latter method has resulted in what may well be another uniquely Canadian contribution to the world of poison bottles -- the silk-screened gopher poison jar, like this variant from Saskatchewan, the most fun Canadian provincial name to pronounce! I imagine thousands and thousands of these jars were manufactured, but I've only seen two of them since moving to the Canadian Prairies four years ago. I've got, and have seen, many standard drugstore prescription bottles and regular poison bottles labelled with gopher poison labels, and I've seen a fair number of plain jars with gopher poison labels stuck on them, but these silk-screened fellows just don't turn up. Anyone out there have anything similar?


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## mctaggart67

I'd like to give credit for the above pictures of specimens in my collection to:

 1) Leanne Smith, my wife, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lookatleannespictures/

 2) Darren Spindler, a good collecting friend, at http://www.ecbw.ca/

 3) Four Seasons Bottle Collectors Club at http://www.canadianbottlecollectors.com/


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## Longhunter

I just won this bottle on the bay. It looks like it fits the RIGO category you are showing here. The embossing is different.
 It reads "1 OZ CARBOLIC ACID" on the front panel, "POISON" on the right panel and "USE WITH CAUTION" on the left panel.
 It is coming from a Canadian ebay seller.


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## mctaggart67

The Carbolic Acid poisons resulted directly from the efforts of the Ontario College of Pharmacy (OCP) to oversee the sale of that chemical. Around 1910-12, it became provincial policy, as per the regulatory initiatives of the OCP, that Ontario pharmacists had to put up carbolic acid in these specially designed bottles. They come in 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 16-ounce sizes. Besides being embossed with "Carbolic Acid" on their fronts, they also have "O.C.P." (for Ontario College of Pharmacy) embossed on their bases. Other provincial pharmacy boards in Canada also adopted their official use.


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## surfaceone

> ORIGINAL:  mctaggart67
> 
> One interesting RIGO variant is embossed with "POISON" across the back shoulder. Canadian collectors have given them the nickname "RIGO poison backs." This one sports a label from Canada's famous T. Eaton Co., which distributed products, including poisons, across Canada via a catalogue system. Eaton collectors will notice that the label references only the Winnipeg store, rather than "Toronto and Winnipeg."


 
 Hey Glen,

 I like your credits above. Kudos to youse.

 That lovely is near pristine! What is the embossing?

 "John Craig Eaton, the son of Timothy Eaton, became an early proponent of building a combined store and mail order operation in Winnipeg. Although Timothy Eaton initially had misgivings over the difficulties involved in managing a store 2,100 kilometres (1,300 mi) kilometres from Toronto, John Craig was eventually able to convince his father. Eaton's acquired a city block on Portage Avenue at Donald Street, and the five-storey Eaton's store opened to much fanfare on July 15, 1905. Timothy Eaton and his family were on hand for the opening of the second Eaton's store, with the Winnipeg Daily Tribune noting in its front page headline: "The Canadian Napoleon of Retail Commerce Reaches the Capital - Views His Great Store for First Time - Well Pleased".

 The landmark red brick store, known as "the Big Store" to Winnipeggers, was a success. The initial staff of 750 grew to 1200 within a few weeks of the opening. By 1910, three more storeys were added to the store and other buildings were constructed. By 1919, the Eaton's operations in Winnipeg covered 21 acres (85,000 m2) and employed 8000 people.

 For many years, the Winnipeg Eaton's store was considered the most successful department store in the world, given how it dominated its local market. As late as the 1960s, Canadian Magazine estimated that Winnipeggers spent more than 50 cents of every shopping dollar (excluding groceries) at Eaton's, and that on a busy day, one out of every ten Winnipeggers would visit the Portage Avenue store." From wiki-Eaton's.


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## mctaggart67

Eaton's also used its Winnipeg store to dominate the catalogue sales market west from Winnipeg. From 1900 to 1914, over 1,000,000 immigrants and hundreds of thousands of Canadian-born migrants settled Canada's Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. As theses provinces boomed, so did Eaton's Winnipeg store.


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## bne74honda

mctaggart67,

 great thread! I started collecting poisons some 5 years ago and have been lucky enough to actually dig a couple, one being marked as a T. Eaton Co. 1 oz. I have collected many other poisons since then, many Canadian and this information has really helped in identifying them.

 Brian


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## Longhunter

Here is another of my recent aquisitions. This is a KI-5.... 3 1/4".
 It has the same basic shape and embossing as the KI-4 that I posted above* BUT * in addition to a screw top the embossed words "CARBOLIC ACID" are missing from the front panel. This one has a label that reads "carbolic acid".

 SO........ in later years was this bottle also used for other poisons other than carbolic acid (at the pharmacists descretion)???


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## Longhunter

Here is the "carbolic Acid" label from the larger flat panel.


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## mctaggart67

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. The screwcap Canadian Coffins, without any embossing on the front panel, were for general use, so it's not surprising to see a carbolic acid label on them. As to the Ontario College of Pharmacy ("OCP") "Acid Carbs," they were phased out of production around 1920 or so, as far as I can determine, when Dominion Glass focussed upon producing only "Not To Be Taken" ABMs in various sizes, with 1, 2 and 3 ounce being the most common. If memory serves me right, there is a 2-ounce ABM "OCP" "Acid Carb" variant, but they are hard to locate.


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