ANTIQUE DAVIS GLASS BOTTLE: In the 1867 Octagonal Style Embossed 'DAVIS on the front, and VEGETABLE / PAINKILLER on the sides. This vintage bottle is a classic post-Civil War era, light blue aqua, 6 inches tall and 1.75 inches wide, in near-perfect condition, clean and free of cracks or chips, other than the bubbles and defects within the glass, as is usual for the time period of 1870-1880.
HISTORY: In 1840, a very ill Dr. Perry Davis mixed opiates, ethyl alcohol, and herbs into an elixir that he said made him feel better, and the Perry Davis’ Vegetable Painkiller was born.
A self-proclaimed man of letters, “Dr. Davis” was a devout Baptist and, interestingly, a lifelong temperance advocate, yet he sent free cases of his "medicine" to Baptist missions around the world. Probably one of the major reasons his miracle medicine was so popular was unlike other “cures” he did not address a specific ailment, but promised freedom from pain, any pain! Davis was generous beyond his free contributions, and in 1850 gave $36,000 for a new Baptist Church (over 1.3 million dollars today) in Providence. At the time of Davis' death in 1862, during the Civil War, his Painkiller was seen as so crucial to the Union Army that they took control of the Davis factory on Pond Street.
