Description:
Salt-glazed stoneware jug, stamped under spout in black capital letters: "B F MINER/MONTAGUE MASS". The stamp on the jug represents the retailer, not the manufacturer of the jug. According to several town histories, Benjamin Franklin Miner established a company in Hoosick Falls, New York in 1890, selling a widely known medicated lotion called "Toiletine". The alcohol-based remedy could be used for all internal and external ailments. The business moved to Monatague, Massachusetts, in 1893 or 1895 and was located on Swamp Road. The products sold included a line of flavored extracts and toilet preparations. In 1910, the business was purchased by W.H. Ulrich and moved the following year to Hope Street in Greenfield, Massachusetts; the Toiletine Company existed until 1971. According to a Greenfield Recorder-Gazette article of June 9, 1953, this is their version of the business's history: The Toiletine Company at 143 Hope Street got its start in 1885 when a "fast-talking medicine man" named Benjamin Franklin Miner set up shop in Hoosick Falls, New York, and moved it to Montague in 1900. Miner advertised his product as the "best type of all-round cure-all on the market." He marketed this and companion products (for example, shampoos, lotions, and flavor extracts) far and wide throughout New England in his horse and buggy. In 1910, William Ulrich bought the company and moved it to Greenfield, Massachusetts. The company disappeared in the early 1970's, probably due to the owner's failure to advertise in an attempt to keep the company small. This jug could have held large quantities of toiletine or extracts.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2002.54 |
