Summary

Blue glass pharmaceutical bottle for castor oil, excavated at the Commonwealth Block site between 1988 and 2003. It was manufactured using a two piece mould with a separate base.

Health and hygiene:

'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. This is a difficult maxim to follow when 'there is not one bath in sixty', when sewerage gathers in cesspits and open drainage channels line the streets.But the residents of Little Lon did practice personal hygiene. Archaeologists have uncovered toothbrushes and toothpaste pots, scent bottles, soap dishes, combs and hairbrushes.

Clean teeth and neat hair did not guarantee good health however. Doctors were expensive, so ordinary people had to rely on medicines like Holloway's Ointment and Hall's Vegetable Pain Conqueror as well as Chinese herbal remedies. Children were dosed weekly with the laxative castor oil, to keep their bowels regular.

Physical Description

This is a cobalt blue cork closure bottle cork closure. It has a three piece finish with a down tooled lip and string rim. The neck tapers to rounded shoulders and a cylindrical body. It has a flat heel, shallow concave basal profile and no pontil scar.

Physical Description

Bottle cobalt blue, 2 piece mould with separate base, cork closure, 3 piece finish, hip down tooled, down tooled string ring. Neck tapered, shoulders rounded, body cylindrical. Basal profile flat heel shallow concave. No pontil scar. Base diameter 46mm, height 230mm. For castor oil.

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