I found this beautiful old bottle the other day, but haven't had much luck digging up anything about it online, other than the company appears to still be around and / or just utilizing the classic name. So for now, just the label information will have to do: Established in Chicago in 1871 --the same year as the great Chicago fire!-- E. Burnham's Reducing Lotion promised superfluously successful flesh absorption / reduction with a daily massage of its contents. Prepared only by E. Burnham himself, the best thing I can say about this stuff (after popping the ancient cork and seeing the creepy calcified contents at the bottom of the bottle), is that Mr. Burnham designed a truly gorgeous, nouveau-esque bottle label. The smiling young lady with the rouged cheeks and powered wig beckons you to dive in with the circular kneading motion immediately! "KALOS" as written upon her chest, is a Greek word describing something that is not only good in quality, but also has an attractive, captivating character. I'd say that sums up this bottle perfectly.
5 comments:
So cool - Early 20th Century artwork and advertising is so distinctive. I too did a little searching and only found two other online references, one was an ad featuring the same be-wiged lady - called the "Kalos Girl" HERE, and another with a melted glass bottle from the Chicago fire, which said it was from E. Burnham and Son, Wholesale Druggists. HERE
All in all a wonderful find in such great condition
A fine old bottle, no chips or cracks, and the label is intact, the dream find for a bottle collector.
I can only guess that this was bought, used, then placed in a closet and forgotten, only to be found decades later. A survivor from time gone by.
You certainly have the knack and the luck to find such gems from the past Karswell.
So 6% alcohol and I suspect 94% water from the drainage ditch in the back.
Not a giant fan of the lady (don't know why, I think it's the look) but the surrounding graphics are great. The kind of artificial looking flowers and steams, the sunbursts, the lettering, that some really flashy graphics work.
Ugh, the peek into that thing really is harrowing.
I feel like that bottle might actually be older than the label. I could be way off, but it looks like it's typeset in Helvetica, which would put it in the sixties at the earliest. Be advised that Helvetica (and the later Arial) fonts were made to emulate older, turn-of-the century German typefaces, and I am not the best spotter. But my guess is that this label was fashioned to evoke times gone by.
That said, it's a wonderful bit of work and looks great on a bottle full of creepy stuff!
Thank you for the link, Mr Steven! I love the Kalos Girl in every way possible --and I know exactly why!
If this label is indeed more modern, and "fashioned to evoke", you'd think there would be at least one other image example somewhere online. It's all very strange to me...
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