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- Turn of the Century Bottle (e.g. 1890-1910)
- Clean/Shiny/Bright
- No ghosting, no dirt
- No notable scratches
- 10\" T x 4.5\" W
- But please note the: There is a tiny Flea Bite to the edge of the lip (see finger point pics).
- Much better than average condition for this bottle.
- Ornate, Elaborate, Embossing including a picture of a woman on the wooden stool
- Buffalo Lithia Water (later Buffalo Mineral Springs Water) was a brand of lithia water bottled in Buffalo Lithia Springs, Virginia.
- It was advertised with outsize medical claims, including the ability to treat fevers and nervous disorders. One ad promised a \"Marvelous Efficiency in Gout, Rheumatism, [and] Gastrointestinal Dyspepsia.
- It was sold from the late 19th century to the early 20th.
- At the height of its popularity, it was available in approximately groceries and pharmacies in Europe, Canada, and the United States.
- In 1910, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia filed suit against the company for misbranding and false advertising, alleging that there was too little lithium in the water to qualify as a lithia water.
- Giving testimony in the case in 1912, a Dr. Collins testified that \"for a person to obtain a therapeutic dose of lithium by drinking Buffalo Lithia Water, he would have to drink from 150,000 to 225,000 gallons of water per day.\"
- In 1917, the case was finally decided against Buffalo Lithia Water.
- The company was forced to change its name, rebranding itself as Buffalo Mineral Springs Water.
- Subsequent to the case, the company was sold.
- In the 1950s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers took possession of the property containing the original spring. During the building of the John H. Kerr Dam and the creation of Kerr Lake, the grounds were flooded.
- Sadly, the bottling business was never reopened.
- I package well and ship out daily!!
A Mid-Summer Day, Circa 1895 — Hot Springs, Virginia
Sunlight glints off mineral springs that bubble from the earth amid the rolling Blue Ridge foothills. The air smells green and earthy—ferns, damp stone, and a hint of sulphur. This is Hot Springs, Virginia, famed for its curative waters. Visitors arrive by carriage and train, seeking rest cures, tonic regimens, and relief from “afflictions of the blood and nerves.”
At the grand spa resort, Miss Clara Whitfield, a schoolteacher from Richmond, checks into her lodging. The veranda of the hotel overlooks a small creek, bathing pools, and walking paths lined with hemlock and mountain laurel.
She orders a bottle of Buffalo Lithia Water, Nature’s Medica, embossed with delicate scrollwork and the words “Buffalo Lithia / Nature’s Medica”. The teal-aqua glass glows faintly in the afternoon sun as the hotel porter hands it to her. The stamped bottle is cool to the touch.
Afternoon in the Sitting Room
Clara joins other guests in the sunlit conservatory lined with palms and lace-curtained windows. High ceilings and carved woodwork, a few wicker chairs, and ferns in ceramic pots give the room airy elegance. On a small lace-draped table sits a silver pitcher with lithia water and ice.
She pours the mineral water into a cut-glass goblet. It effervesces gently, sending tiny bubbles dancing. She sips, letting the “medicinal soda” warm slowly on her tongue—a ritual believed to cleanse the system, ease rheumatism, or calm the digestive system.
She has been on the spa program for three days now: morning walks to the spring, a bath in the warm mineral pools, light meals of broiled fish and steamed vegetables, rest, and this lithia water taken four times daily. The spa director extols the “curative powers of the salts, lithia, and natural carbonation.”
Evening Toward Dusk
By dusk, Clara returns to her room. A gas lamp flickers beside a hand-quilted bedspread of floral prints. The wallpaper is soft pastel stripes. Her nightgown—a high-collar cotton with lace trim—rustles as she moves.
She places the Buffalo Lithia bottle on the walnut washstand beside a bowl and ewer of porcelain. A small kerosene lamp paints soft shadows. Outside, the distant whistle of the steam train echoes through the pines, carrying new guests to the resort.
She lies in bed reading a pamphlet from the hotel: “Nature’s Medica: The Buffalo Lithia Cure and Salt Springs.” It claims relief for kidney disorders, gout, gravel, skin diseases, and “impurities of the blood.” Her final thought as she drifts off: tomorrow morning, she will take communion of the mineral waters again, hoping the gentle power of lithia will grant renewed vigor.
