..........There were 7 products we know that were sold in these ointment jars. Dr. C.H. Berry Freckle Ointment is the only one of the seven that we know contained mercury. It is the only one likely to have contained mercury. I'd be interested in any discussion this might generate.
I knew there were a couple, but I wasn't aware we had found six other products. What are the other six?
tb
Hello, total newbie here and I hate to post a first post that is contradictory but there was more than one product containing mercury that used that jar type found on the island.
There is
VELVETIN VANISHING CREAM. In fact their name is embossed in the glass in the botton of the jar I am aware of.
That was a 1930's product that used this exact same jar. It used mercury like every vanishing cream I am aware of.
It matches the found jar exactly except it too is milk glass.
So it appears that like today this ointment, vanishing cream(AKA freckle cream) was put out for different companies to sale in the same jar but with different labels. The hazel Atlas glass company apparently embossed a company name for some of their biggest buyers if requested.
So Dr.Berrys being just one freckle cream. Velvetine being another.
Which one would a lady of means prefer? We don't know.
That doesn't change that a vanishing cream jar was probably found on a deserted island.
What it does mean is that perhaps everyone jumped the gun a bit saying it is a Dr.Berry's jar. Every press report said a Dr.Berrys jar was found.
Perhaps very wrong.
It could have been another company marketing vanishing or lightening cream using this same jar. Some companies would have called it freckle cream. Some companies would have said labeled it spot lightening cream.Likely there were more than the two known companies, Velvetine and Dr Berrys using this jar.
By the late 1930's vanishing cream was fading from popularity, as this link below states.( Not sure if the rules permit links here, but here is a little class on vanishing creams).
http://cosmeticsandskin.com/aba/vanishing-cream.phpSo a vanishing cream jar and it's implications was probably found.
To say it was Dr.Berrys is highly speculative since at least one other company( Velvetine) was using this exact same jar.
Perhaps it should be called the Vanishing cream jar, instead of the Dr.Berrys jar.