Mounsey's Preston Salts

[Genuwen1]

Hello Everyone,

I have a bottle I recently acquired in a lot box of bottles and need help identifying and finding a value for selling. It is a small aqua bottle measuring 1 3/4" tall. The front embossing says Mounsey's Preston Salts. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Clam]

I dug one of these a few weeks back and I was told that it has a value in the range of $40 to $60 it has a age range of about 1840's to 50's

 

[epackage]

If it's an OP the last one on Ebay sold for $85 in 2011...Jim


Member id reddbehrens-us ( Feedback Score Of 97)

Dec-28-11 19:34

Collectible Antique Bottle Aqua Mounseys Preston Salts OP (#110785505547)

US $85.00

 

[surfaceone]

Hey Caren,

Ya doesn't has to make the photo so small. [8D] Us old blind guys thank you in advance.

What's the base like? Lavender Smelling Salts it is.

"Mounsey's Preston Salts The following directions for making this preparation are taken from the London Pharm Journal viz:
Take of True oil of cloves
English oil of lavander of each a drachm
Oil of Bergamot five drachms
Strongest solution of ammonia sp gr 880 one pint
Mix these together The bottles are then to be half filled with rough carbonate of ammonia and filled up with the carbonate in fine powder The salt is then saturated with the above solution and corked closely" New Hampshire Journal of Medicine, 1854.

Check out this Sandwich Pungent.

This one

is in the NY Historical Society

I believe there may be both British and American examples.

 

[Genuwen1]

Hi Jim,

What does OP mean? Open Pontil? Still learning I apologize.

Caren

 

[epackage]

Yes Caren..[]

 

[deepbluedigger]

Pretty sure it's like Dalby's, Turlingtons, etc, and was originally a UK product, but became very popular and was widely copied on both sides of the Atlantic.

There are English versions of the bottle in flint glass, and several variations in the embossing: Mounsey's Preston Salts; Preston Salts; Preston Smelling Salts; etc. I have a heavy pontiled flint one that's just embossed "Mounsey / Chemist / Preston". Preston is a town in Lancashire in NW England. Mounsey was a chemist / druggist there in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (latest reference I've found to him still being alive and in business is 1819).

 

[cowseatmaize]

It was my understanding that Preston Salts was a cheaper, ammonia based salts used for colds, fatigue etc but most commonly seen in movies to revive the fainting woman whose corsets were to tight in warm weather.[][]
Not quite to be confused with Preston of New Hampshire (Portsmouth USA) but was the same thing but the actual people were named Preston. [8|][8|][][]

 

[AntiqueMeds]

I always wondered if there was some link between the mounsey and preston NH products. It would amaze me if there wasnt.

 

[cowseatmaize]

Preston of NH had been around since the late 1830's and I had researched the stuff. William first and then Andrew I believe. I had a full labeled ground stopper with metal cap from 1900-20 and a couple others of different names but when I lost those and the writeup I never bothered re-researching. They were mostly smelling salts but of coarse some of the catarrh cures etc. crossed over before the 1906 thing.
The Preston formula I think was a development to just make a more cost productive product. Was it by those Prestons, I don't remember but with the earlier Mounseys I think probably not.[8|]