Tuesday, January 31, 2017

CONNELL'S MOONPLANT !


 
 
Now here’s a bottle that has always intrigued me. Just the name alone is strange, CONNELL’S BRAHMINICAL MOONPLANT EAST INDIAN REMEDIES, and the embossing with a pair of feet with stars surrounding them about takes the cake as far as interesting and quirky embossing goes in my book.
 
And how about the lettering font on this bottle!

The R in “BRAHMINICAL” is your basic straight leg R, however, the R in “REMEDIES” and “TRADEMARK” are the curved leg R associated with western glass houses. Could be the mold for this bottle was reworked and the “EAST INDIAN REMEDIES” and “TRADEMARK” added at a later date however I do not have any concrete proof that this was the case.

Was this a bitters, well it certainly was supposed to cure the same ailments as bitters, The definition of BRAHMINICAL is:  A member of a cultural and social elite, especially of that formed by descendants of old New England families. Hmm... Trying to find the definition of MOONPLANT led me to moonbeam (nickname for California's governor ) and moonflower which is defined as: Any of several unrelated vines which bloom at night. Even the name of this product has me baffled; was it an extract of some sort of climbing vine that was intended to be used by wealthy Boston socialites in the moonlight? 
 
I have heard that there are two variants of this bottle, one an eastern made product and the other western manufactured. What’s the difference?

The earliest and one of the only advertisements that I could find for the Moonplant was listed in the May 1873 Sacramento Daily Union and was repeated for a week or so, that’s it.


 
Thanks to Jeff Wichmann for the pictures

From Eric McGuire
 




5 comments:

  1. The Moonplant is truly a western bottle anomaly in many ways. It reminds me of the Bitter Witch only in a more bizarre way. Of all the oddities of this bottle to ponder the main question in my mind remains ...Why feet?

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    1. Charles;
      I have your magnifying glass loop, that you left at the Anderson bottle show. Get in touch with me.

      Delete
  2. There is a 48 page booklet at the Stanford University Library that can be viewed online published by Connell's Brahminical Moonplant East India Remedies in 1873.

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  3. "At the banquet of the 10 Brahmans, in a year of mysteries, in the 10th cycle of the 10th incarnation of Indra, at the Gates of Haimagaree, near the 10th point footprints entrance environed by 10 signs perpetually luminous"."Drink of the Moon Plant". I am enlightened now. Thanks for the reference Warren!

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  4. Eric.... Please, please write a book on Western meds. I think it would be one of the best Western bottle books ever written. You have soooo much great info that no one has ever seen or heard of !

    AP

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