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Offered Is a Rare + Exceptional, Original, Late-1800’s Hand-Written Business Letter from a Huge American “Patent-Medicine” Company.
The Letter Is Written Upon Business Stationary That Features a Nice Graphic “Bill-Head” and Advertising For “Warner’s Safe Cure” Company of Rochester, NY.
The Letter Is Requesting a Newspaper
Advertisement and Reads:
“Rochester, N.Y. ~ April 7, 1887
William F. Salisbury Esquire
Buffalo, N.Y.
Dear Sir,
Your Favor of April 4th. Received, and In Reply, Will Say that We Will Offer 400.00 Dollars for 600 Inches of Space in the “Lively Times” of West Valley, New York. Said Space to be on Main Sheet, Next Following Some Full-Column of Regular Reading, at the Top, Unclassified - To be Used In Such Amounts and At Such Times, as We May Desire. If This Meets With Your Approval, Let Us Know.
Respectfully,
H.H.Warner”
+++++ CONDITION: The Antique Document is in Nice Original Antique "Estate" Condition with Some Normally Seen “Age-Toning” and Some Minimal Indications of Age-Related Usage + Handling ~ but ~ NO FORMS OF "DAMAGE" OR "ISSUES". NO HOLES, NO "MARKINGS", NO STRIKES OR "IMPACTS", NO WATER OR "MOISTURE-CONTACT-ISSUES". The Document would be Easily "Framed" for Display. Overall The Document is Very Clean + Very Nice ~ !!!!!!
*****As Always, This Original Antique Paper-Item is Presently Stored and is "Shipped-to-You" within a "Rigid-Plastic-Holder" for the Utmost Protection During the Shipping Process.****
< The Original, Antique “Warner’s Safe Cure” Patent-Medicine- Bottles”, Appearing in the Photos Of This Listing, ARE NOT FOR SALE, In This Listing, Which Is Solely For the Sale of the Antique “Warner’s-Invoice-Letter”, That Is Seen in the Listing’s Other Photos.>
+++++ WARNER’S SAFE CURE ++++++
Familiar to collectors of Antique Bottles, especially those For “Patent-Medicine”, is the distinctive flask-shaped, amber-colored bottle for “Warner’s Safe Kidney & Liver Cure”.
Interestingly, given the word “Safe”, in its name, such bottles are embossed with the design of a strongbox, but we are getting ahead of an interesting story about a multiple-quack-medicine empire. Here it is—focusing in turn on each word of the company’s name, Warner’s Safe Cure Company.
H(ulbert) H(arrington) Warner (1842–1923) was a Rochester, New York, patent-medicine mogul.
Having become wealthy in a previous business (discussed later), he purchased a medicinal formula from a Rochester physician, Dr. Charles Craig.
Warner would subsequently claim that Craig’s vegetable concoction had cured his Bright’s disease (a vague, obsolete designation for kidney disease) when he miraculously survived the disease after using Dr. Craig’s “Cure”.
H.H. Warner introduced his “Warner’s Safe Kidney & Liver Cure”, in 1879.
Before long, the admired name of “Craig”
was dropped from Warner’s advertisements—perhaps about the time Warner sued him for attempting to market a virtually identical “Cure”.
Safe Business
Warner had become a millionaire with his previous Rochester New York Business Venture.
This was a company specializing in fire and burglar-proof safes, the demand, for which had burgeoned after oil was discovered in Western Pennsylvania.
However, he made a Fortune, with his next enterprise, selling “Patent (Proprietary) Medicines”.
The Word “Safe” in Warner’s Business-Name, not Only Linked His Previous Success in the Bank-Safe-Business, , but Of Course, Seemingly Promised that the Product could be Taken Without Fear of Harm—which, as we shall see, was untrue.
The Graphic “Safe” design—(that Served as a Company “Logo”, was Embossed on Warner’s Curative Medicine Bottles, and was Lithographically Printed on These Bottles “Advertising Paper-Labels” ~ That were Affixed to the Bottle’s Opposite-Side.
The “Safe” Logo was intended to help give his Warner’s Safe Cure products a recognizability that could not be easily imitated, by Possible “Copy-Medicine Products”.
Cure
The word “Cure” appearing Embossed or Printed on Such Early Medicine Products, is an Iconic Example of the “19th. Century ‘Quack’ Medicine-Industry”. A “ Warner’s Safe Cure Company” Advertising Booklet, of 1892, Stare, “We do not Cure everything from one Bottle”.
Warner’s Line of Medicine Featured Various Other Remedies, and Health Curative Products, however, its “Warner’s Safe Cure” (a Short Designation for it’s Original “Kidney + Liver Ailment-Products”, ) was Recommended for a Remarkably Wide-Range of Various Other Medical Conditions, Including “Bright’s Disease”, “Jaundice”, “Lame Back”, “Impotence”, “Dropsy”, “Liver Inflammation”, , “Female Complaints”, “Debility” and Many More….Even including “Malaria”.
Among the Company’s other Products with such outrageous claims were “Warner’s Safe Diabetes Cure” and “Warner’s Safe Rheumatic Cure”.
The Kidney and Liver Cure, at least, was “fraudulently” advertised, according to the American Medical Association (AMA), for its claim, for example, “that a pain in the back is a sure sign of Bright’s disease.”
With the Passage of the United States 1906 “Food and Drug Act” Law, Warner’s Company was Required to Replace the Word “Cure” with “Remedy,” and to Disclose The Products Ingredients (Including Alcohol-Content) on Paper-Bottle Labels, For Full Transparency about the Medicine’s True Active Constituents and It’s Possible Healing-Properties.
Company
Warner’s Rochester N.Y. Business—begun in 1878—Was so Nationally Successful, That it Was Eventually Branched to Other Regions of the World. Delightful “Safe-Cure” Bottles that were Crudely “Mold-Blown” In a Wide Range of Beautiful Colored Bottle-Glass, Were Now Embossed with Cities Such as “LONDON”, “FRANKFORT”, “MELBOURNE”, and Others.
In 1883, H.H. Warner Opened Offices in Toronto, London, Melbourne, Frankfurt, Pressburg (Hungary) Dunedin (New Zealand), and elsewhere.
In addition to his “Safe Cure” Products, Warner offered a “Warner’s Tonic”, (supposed to soothe the nerves), a “Warner’s Bitters”, a “Log Cabin Sarsaparilla,” and a Paper-Labeled Small “Phial-Cylindrical-Container” that was simply named “Log Cabin Pills.”
A millionaire several times over, Warner became a philanthropist, notably sponsoring a Rochester (Astronomy) Observatory.
He also built a lavish mansion, but the “Panic of 1893” sent his already declining business into a tailspin, and he was forced into bankruptcy.
Persistent Investors continued to Sell the Decreasingly Successful and Waning Medicine Line, and to Operate the American Branch of the Company as the “Warner’s Safe Remedies Company” into the 1940s, To Conclude an Almost 70-Year-Run of Incredible Success.
