A grouping of Clarke’s Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters
11 November 2015
It seems like I am always moving bottles around because I am adding to the collection, dusting or just plain ole’ re-arranging. You see, bottles talk to each other and communicate as a group. It is fun to pair them up in situations where they might not been seen that way on a shelf.
Here are some aqua Clarke’s Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters that I grouped this past summer. I actually have a variant or two more that I forgot about. Maybe they can join the next family reunion? What amazes me is the astounding reflections and colors that radiate thru aqua bottles when you pose them near a window. The glass grabs the sky, the landscape, the sun, the shadows, the wood surface and their companions. And you can even read some of the embossed typography. Isn’t bottle collecting fun? Bottles photographed with my iPhone 6.
Read: A few of my aqua figural bitters met for a little sun today.
Read: XR Clarke’s Vegitable Sherry Wine Bitters sells on ebay
Hi Ferdinand, Your collection of Clarke’s bitter bottles is amazing! My husband’s family are direct descendants of Dr. Clarke of Sharon, Massachusetts. Dr. Clarke is third great-grandfather to my children. “Dr.” Clarke — as he had “no degree from a medical college,” according to the family history — manufactured at one time 36,000 bottles of bitters per month. Family history writes that in an old newspaper article the large number of bottles, ‘will not seem incredible, when we are aware that the doctor’s portrait, which is on each bottle, is as familiar a sight at the trading stations on the West Coast of Africa, in
Honolulu, and the Sandwich Islands as in the country stores of New England.’
Dr. Clarke’s Sherry Wine Bitters ‘acquired a worldwide reputation as a cure for asthma, dyspepsia, and general debility,’ the article also states. A fun family fact of Dr. Clarke is that in the family, the Clarks before him never spelled their name with the final “e.” Dr. Clarke must have liked having that extra “e” for some reason. All direct descendants of
Dr. E. R. Clarke have hung on to that final “e.” My children’s great-grandfather (deceased 2003) shared Dr. Clarke’s name, Edwin Richards. His wife, Mrs. E. R. Clarke, is still living and celebrates her 98th birthday next month. Her name is Elizabeth. She has always been a history buff and told me the story of Dr. Clarke’s patent medicines when I married into the family, even showing me a piece of one of Dr. Clarke’s bottles with his name intact. I thought you would appreciate some information about the man on the bottles you collect.
Holly Warden