New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Many of the old time miners also made use of products which were not only to survive through to the 20th century but also through to the present day...or at least close to it. Enos Fruit salts was something I liked as a kid and used to eat it like it had gone out of fashion behind my parents and grandparents back.

It was invented back in the 1850s by a bloke named James Eno - I dont know what else E noed but he did know how to make fruit salts as it was the favourite product of its type at the time and as a kid I loved it!

This bottle is another Gold fields pick up and form the assortment of bottles found over the years it makes us realise that once thew gold fields became established they miners did have a wide variety of goods to choose from.

It was really only the initial gold strikes where miners had to go without as there were no stores or supplies and thus they had to carry in their own, often taking only what thy could carry on their backs

Sherbet was probably quite similar! Enos was one of many late Victorian effervescent health drinks, primarily made of bicarb of soda but with fruit flavouring to help make it palatable, the product was a powder which was added to water to produce a drink that was claimed to be a remedy for upset stomachs. We have similar effervescent 'stomach aids' today.
I once read an article by a person who studied the lives of the early gold diggers extensively and who suggested that the problems with keeping their meat and foodstuffs fresh for any length of time helps explain why such a huge percentage of the glass bottles left behind by them were either a) products that aided digestion or masked stomach ailments and b) products that helped mask the taste of the rotten meat (!), relishes, peppersauces etc . An interesting thought. Its certainly the case that most of the ornately decorated peppersauce bottles so highly prized by collectors today have been recovered from the goldfields.

You better set it up like The Temple Of Doom as I am sure there are plenty of Indiana Jones wannabes ready to chance their arm!

The blackened piece of lead has attracted some questions, both from its shape and tarnish, which is what i believe it is, tarnished black-lead, from age. I dont think it has been ever coated with anything. Again, one of my favorite finds at the moment.
Im guessing that any metal can discolour with age if thats the word. Even GOLD.

Another Gold fields bottle - these bottles are totally endless but interesting none the less - no human could possibly build up 'the' definitve collection of bottles - for two reasons - they are endless and also no human knows exactly how many variations and colour tones there are in many of the individual companies bottles - an example of this being a bottle site dealing with bottles from the Gold rush/Indian Wars and Civil war era - it presented just one manufacturers product with the comment 'So far six different patterns or colour variations of bottle have been brought to our notice' - this infers that there could be more - who knows?

This bottle however is one of the more mundane ones - unlike Dr Townsends Sarsparrilla Bottles which do indeed come in many subtly different colours and markings.

This bottle is simply another of those great quack medicines - great stuff though - competition in those days simply meant one company packing more Opiates into the bottle to make you cross eyed and insensible faster than the next company.

This bottle reads

AYERS
CHERRY
PECTORAL
LOWELL MASS

Mass of course stands for Massachusetts in the good old US of A

At the end of the day though none of the claims made by these companies came within reach of one company whose claims were such that one fellow went in to the local medicine emporium to buy a bottle of the product which we will discuss later to cure his mates broken leg! Such were the claims made by some of these companies that some people swallowed those claims hook, line and sinker. The cure probably came from the psychological affect of the medicine after all if you believe in something enough its bound to happen.!

Of course it could also be said that if you drank enough of this type of compound it really didnt matter what you had because you had forgotten and in a haze of opium induced intoxication when you are oblivious to anything and everything including the pain of the initial infliction for which you took it and the only thing you are actually aware of is the angels fluttering around the ceiling above you then the fact that you were quite likely to wake up dead next morning became more hilarious with every mouthful. The effectiveness of these medicines can be attested for by the numbers of empty bottles that turn up. What the contents were actually effective at other than addling the mind is a matter of debate and conjecture.

Edited by user Tuesday, 24 April 2012 6:13:54 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

love your bottles very cool,
thats alot of gold youy have there.

Crisyboy

I like bottles but lose one or two now and again due to flying objects in the house, things dropping on them, dropping them, errant cats - 'Kill a cat and save a Bellbird' - I have so many that I had to bury hundreds on my place - thats the good news, I have plenty of spares - the bad news is I cant find where I buried them!

As for the gold - I used to weigh all I got but i the end gave up so would have a clue what I have any more nor what I have found over the years - I think I have got beyond worrying - I took friends up on Wednesday last and they came home with gold and I came home with none and yesterday took another couple of friends and gave all I got to them including a 1.5 gramme nugget...some how it dont matter no more because the smile they give is sort of like the Cheshire Cat grin...the only bad thing about that is the fact that I dont like cats!

Expat

Yes Mr Loasby is certainly interesting and I noted that his product was widely advertised in both Australia and New Zealand - at this point in time I think he must have had factories in both New Zealand and Australia - I was really interested in your comment about the varieties of Loasby bottles as I dont think I have any others beside this one.

Thanks to Mr Google Benjamin Gum is a gum resin used for treating skin problems - it may be the same as Gum Benzoin...Cripey I have learnt something new!

I noted your saying at the bottom of your contribution - 'My greatest fear is that when I die my wife will sell my collection for what I told her it cost me.' - Do I say "You miserable shit you" or do I say "Great Minds think alike" - I love it - Recently I have put labels on my main collector items with values...its just that I dont let her see the labels - in this way she wont throw the hissy fit until I am dead and gone. When she sees the labels she will also wish she never threw my toys out of the cot like she does now - but then again most men prefer to fondle...no I wont say that...instead of a Navy Colt in bed!

Edited by user Sunday, 29 April 2012 1:29:10 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

OK so theres another reason to encourage the demise of the common household Moggie...'Kill a Cat before they drive you insane' - actually most cats, having an instinct for danger, usually give me a wide berth so any madness I have has probably got more likelihood thave originated from a Cow and that particular disease hasnt got to Kiwiland yet...or has it?

Another apparent favourite of the Goldfields community was the Hollaway products - Holloways Ointment and Holloways Pills. Over the years I have found a good many Holloways containers in my meanderings around the hills...I was always quite intrigued by the claims of Holloways. If their claims can be of any value then I am not quite sure whgy people ever suffer from anything except accidents and intentional self inflicted injuries or injuries involving others - and even then Holloways should have been able to cure the problem.

The Holloways oi8ntment containers shown here read

HOLLOWAYS
OINTMENT
FOR THE CURE OF INVETERATE ULCERS
BAD LEGS SORE BREASTS SORE HEADS
In Pots 1s 1 1/2d 2/9 4/6 11/ 22/ & 33/ Each
BY THE PROPRIETOR
244 STRAND LONDON

Its obviously great stuff. Between this stuff and the various painkillers and patent quack medicines the old time miners must have had a ball....but if Holloways ointment seems to be the miracle cure all it is nothing compared with Holloways Pills...more later!

Edited by user Sunday, 6 May 2012 9:49:38 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I guess that it would be very interesting to know the statistics relating to alcohol consumption, the use of painkillers and opiates but I would most certainly think that there would be those who never touched a drop and those who were cross eyed half the time.

I think that the early gold fields were very sparten as far as choices and varieties is concerned but after the merchants arrived on the scene I daresay there was a very wide variety of goods on offer and this is evidenced by the variety of products I have attempted to present here and which I shall continue to do so.

No I don think they were on 'miracle cure' - just as we see today there were those who partook of products of nefarious and dubious value and those who didnt - yesteryear it was opiates and alcohol and today its wacky baccy and worse plus alcohol. No difference really...at least I dont think so.