MYSTERY OF THE MONTH:
Whence this "Winthrop"
Artifact?
A friend of the Society, while strolling along the Atlantic shore,
discovered an ancient remnant of glass, a brown bottle marked with the
name "Winthrop" marked on its face. What might this portend?
If you are the first to identify its origin, we will award you with
two passes to the Peabody-Essex Museum Galleries, or the associated
nearby Phillips Library in Salem, Massachusetts, for the day of your
choosing!
If you can solve the enigma wrapped within a mystery sealed in this
ancient bottle, please contact us and claim your prize!
Incorrect responses so far:
This bottle is the only surviving specimen of 'Winthrop's Colonic
Irrigation.' A mixture of sour meade and rotted toad's legs once manufactured
in the English West Country and used by Puritans to extricate Roman
Catholic teachings and influences from new Puritan converts. It is
in great demand in Northern Ireland, where the formula has been lost.
Now you know, please send me my tickets. God Save The Queen.
— John Skuce (Irishman of English Puritan Descent)
THE WINNER!
In response to your "Mystery" bottle, I would suggest
that if it is a screw-top, it is not "ancient" at all. It
well may be a "tonic" bottle or medicine bottle produced
by the Winthrop Co., an off-shoot of the Sterling Winthrop Co. founded
in 1900 as an amalgam of the Neuralgyline Co. and the Winthrop Chemical
Co. In 1917, Sterling was re-named Sterling Products and in 1918 Winthrop
Chemical Co. was founded to sell physicians drugs. The company produced
a number of products, some of which were harmed by light and hence
the brown glass. I wonder if the initials on the bottom may refer
to the Sterling Co. origin.
— Dr. R. Sullivan, M.D.
HURRAH! Dr. Sullivan has won two tickets to the Peabody-Essex Museum
Galleries, or the associated nearby Phillips Library in Salem, Massachusetts
for any day he selects!
