Antique TOOTH POWDER bottle w/ BRASS cap Ralph HOVEY PhG

Description

A
5 1/4" tall
round cylinder-shaped
dark PURPLE AMETHYST colored
antique
TOOTH POWDER
bottle.
This bottle comes with a
BRASS CAP
which is rare, as most of them had the cap rusted off decades ago.  This is an ORIGINAL ANTIQUE
B
lown
G
lass bottle with a screw top, dating over 100 years old.
Bottle embossed
:  "
RALPH C. HOVEY Ph.G. / CHEMIST
"
.
Condition
:   Bottle is in SPARKLING CLEAN condition.   It was not a discarded and dug up bottle but one that was tucked away somewhere and kept protected.  It has NO cracks, chips, dings, damage, etc.  The cap is sound as well.  (Please see photos for better idea of overall condition)
.
Age
: An ORIGINAL ANTIQUE blown glass bottle (ABM) with a screw top, ca. early
1900's
.
Shipping
:
FREE
domestic shipping.   We do NOT insure International orders unless buyer specifically requests this and we are able to provide an insurance estimate.  If an international shipping charge is much more than the actual shipping cost, we will refund the excess so what YOU pay for shipping/insurance is very close to, if not exactly, the ACTUAL shipping costs! This is important for foreign buyers to know as most of our foreign shipping charges are estimates.  We do not falsify information on the Customs Form, such as a price other than what the actual purchase price is, so please do not request us to do so. We ship several times a week and your prompt payment will hasten the turn-around time.
This bottle originally came packed with
"
HOVEY'S DENTAL POLISH
".  A labeled one we saw made this claim on the paper label "
A PERFECT TOOTH POWDER THA MAKES THE TEETH CLEAN AND BEAUTIFUL and KEEPS THE MOUTH IN A HEALTHY CONDITION
".   It was put up by "
RALPH C. HOVEY, Ph.G. and CHEMIST, in MELROSE, MASS
.
"   It originally came packed with a dry white fluffy powder that was sprinkled over a tooth brush and water added.  What makes this bottle
fun to look at is the
GRAPE LOLLIPOP PURPLE color!
You hear about old
glass turning purple ... this purple color is the result of having manganese in the glass.  Manganese is a mineral, a rock, that was mined, crushed,
and pulverized into a powder, then added to vats of molten liquid glass, and acted as a decolorizing agent to turn the natural aqua-tinted glass into a pure crystal clear colorless glass.   Then it was blown into a mold to produce a bottle.   But once exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the sun or other sources of UV rays, it triggers a chemical reaction and the manganese starts to oxidize and slowly turns a lavender or amethyst color.   The end result is what collectors refer to as SCA (Sun Colored Amethyst) glass.   The longer it is in the sun the purpler it becomes.  This particular bottle was exposed to some concentrated UV rays which had the same affect as the sun, but a lot faster.   It has not been colored, stained, or altered.    No matter how an antique bottle has turned purple (direct sunlight or UV rays in controlled environment) they all turn the same purple color as it is the same chemical reaction taking place.   The only difference is the time it took to turn purple.  What is important is that an item is old enough to turn purple as with few exceptions, only clear glass from before 1915 have manganese in them and will turn SCA.
After this, with the start of WWI, manganese was no longer available as foreign imports decreased and domestic resources turned towards the war effort.   Selenium sulphate then replaced manganese as a glass de-colorizer and when exposed to UV rays, it turns a yellow / straw color, and a dark burnt amber color.
Generally speaking NO MORE purple glass after 1915!
We used to think that Tooth Powder was the forerunner of tooth paste.  But after seeing all of the different types of antique tooth wash bottles, we see that tooth powder wasn't the forerunner of tooth paste, it was an alternative.  This is an exceptionally clean example, c
heck it out!
* * NOTE:  We have a collection of antique DENTAL, TOOTH, TEETH related bottles and items that we are selling off.  Our father was a dentist and we collected these bottles over many years' time.  Some are quite rare and others are common but top end examples.  Please check our listings as we will work at listing the whole collection over time and please feel free to contact us with questions.
Terms of Sale
:   Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction. We put our 30+ years of experience in antiques to use in describing every item we list. Items are sold in a store front format and your purchase is a binding contract, so please don't be hasty when looking over the listing. We find that communication is the key to successful transactions so PLEASE completely read the item description AND ask questions before purchasing,
thank you
!
9273-75x
ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DELAWARE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEVADA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW MEXICO NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OKLAHOMA OREGON PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH VERMONT VIRGINIA WASHINGTON WEST VIRGINIA WISCONSIN WYOMING.