Drugstore Bottle Designs & Patents



The table below shows various drugstore bottle styles and patent information. Where I have an example bottle, I've included photos of the bottle.
Much of the information in this table was obtained from the book: "History of drug containers and their labels" by George Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard. Additional information was obtained from searching U.S. patents on-line.
Copies of the patents can be viewed by searching for them at the US patent website.

PATENT # ISSUE DATE NAME INVENTOR FRONT VIEW SIDE VIEW BOTTOM VIEW
D10407 Jan 22, 1878 Millville Round R.M. Atwater 1878Jan22_front 1878Jan22_side 1878Jan22_bottom
D12140 Jan 18, 1881 Keystone Oval C. Roberts
D17945 Dec 13, 1887 Symmetrical Oval W.W. Lowrey 1887Dec13_front 1887Dec13_side 1887Dec13_bottom
D18021 Jan 24, 1888 Seal Oval R.M. Atwater 1888Jan24_front 1888Jan24_side 1888Jan24_bottom
D18221 Apr 3, 1888 (unknown) R. M. Atwater 1888Apr03_front 1888Apr03_side 1888Apr03_base
D18309 May 15, 1888 Chicago Oval A.M. Foster 1888May15_front 1888May15_side 1888May15_base
D18390 Jun 19, 1888
(bottles are marked
Jun 17 in error) 1
Brooklyn Oval W.M. Garton 1881Jun17_front 1881Jun17_side 1881Jun17_bottom
D19125 Jun 4, 1889 Royal Oval / Gem Oval William Baker Jr 1889Jun04_front 1889Jun04_side 1889Jun04_bottom
D19182 Jun 25, 1889 Symmetrical Ellipse W.W. Lowrey 1889Jun25_front 1889Jun25_side 1889Jun25_bottom
D20199 Oct 14, 1889 Capitol Oval W.B. Swindell
D21285 Jan 5, 1892 Manhattan Oval C.A. Tatum 1892Jan05_front 1892Jan05_side 1892Jan05_bottom
D22354 Apr 18, 1893 (unknown) T.C. Wheaton 1893Apr18_front 1893Apr18_side 1893Apr18_base
D23874 Dec 11, 1894 Knickerbocker Oval C.A. Tatum 1894Dec11_front 1894Dec11_side 1894Dec11_bottom
D26924 Apr 20, 1897 Winchester Oval W.H. Cropper
D28182 Jan 18, 1898 Penn Oval J.M. Whitall 1898Jan18_front 1898Jan18_side 1898Jan18_bottom
D30664 May 2, 1899 (unknown) F. Schilling 1899May02_front 1899May02_side 1899May02_base
D36001 Aug 12, 1902 Usona Oval H. Forest
D36479 Aug 4, 1903 King Oval L.F. Richards
D38835 Sep 24, 1907 Nu-est Oval T.S. Obear




1 Page 42, "History of drug containers and their labels" by George Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard

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This page last updated on October 8, 2016.