Vintage Mother\'s Friend Massage Medium Advertising Bottle with box/directions
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Vintage Mother\'s Friend Massage Medium Advertising Bottle with box/directions:
$14.99
You are viewing a great piece of advertising history, as well as an early product marketed to woman and obstetrics. This product was manufactured by the Bradfield Company of Atlanta Georgia. This particular bottle sold for $1.25, contained 3 fluid ounces and was meant for use as a massage product for expectant mothers. The original box is included, as well as the package insert which is a really interesting read. The package insert claims, \"Mother\'s Friend is not a panacea for the suffering incident to pregnancy but it has been on the market for more than sixty years and experience with it has been sufficient to form a basis of accurate judgement as to its actual worth for the uses for which it is intended and recommended. No claim is made for Mother\'s Friend to relieve or help any incident or process in connection with labor or delivery of the child.\"I am not sure of the age of this particular bottle, but am assuming it was manufactured in the 1930\'s.
The bottle itself is filled with this miracle product and is free of chips or cracks. The original bottle label is present, however it is in two pieces, the bottom is still affixed to the bottle and the top is not. The package insert is in perfect condition. The outer packaging is not in excellent condition. Please examine all photographs for condition. This truly is a great piece of advertising history. It would make a terrific addition to anyone\'s collection.Please read this information that I found regarding this product, it\'s history and miraculous claims.
Mother’s Friend was on sale in the US and Canada by the mid-1880s, though some adverts said it had been around for longer. During the last couple of decades of the 19thcentury and into the 20th, the advertising made some far-fetched claims.
The packaging stated that the liniment would ‘cause an unusually easy and quick delivery’and that it would ‘alleviate in a most magical way the pains, horrors and risks of labor’. Used early in pregnancy, it would also cure morning sickness.
Some of the advertising went further and suggested that the use of Mother’s Friend would make the resulting baby clever and good-looking. In this 1901 ad, for example, an anonymous father sets up a potential fratricide situation by describing the youngest of his three children as the ‘healthiest, prettiest and finest-looking of them all’.
The Alamance Gleaner, 13 June 1901
The advert below rings a few alarm bells by insisting that there is no opium, morphine or strychnine – but in fact this was true. Twice in 1909, consignments of Mother’s Friend were seized under the Food and Drugs Act (1906) and deemed misbranded because of the claims made. Analysis showed them to be a mixture of oil and soap (the type of oil is not specified in the misbranding reports but presumably it was a vegetable oil).
The Rock Hill Herald 19 April 1902
The Bradfield Regulator Company was allowed to continuing selling the product provided it did not make unrealistic claims, so from then on Mother’s Friend was marketed as a massage oil to help with dry skin and the aches and pains of pregnancy. Later, under ownership of the S.S.S. Company, it became a body lotion, firmly in the category of toiletries rather than medicines.
The Reading Eagle 11 March 1941
The bolder claims of the early advertising, however, were not without some merit – for pregnant women, accustomed to having to listen to everyone else’s birth horror stories, the positive outlook of Mother’s Friend must have been a welcome change.
Vintage Mother\'s Friend Massage Medium Advertising Bottle with box/directions:
$14.99