Antique Smithsonian Apothecary Bottle Museum and 41 similar items

A lot of incredible antiques come into the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC. This is a rare opportunity to own a vintage collectible that actually came out if the Museum of Natural History. From the late 1800s up until the 1980s the museum stored its vast collections of once living specimens such as fish, reptiles and mammals in beautiful ground glass apothecary jars. However, the jars leaked, they were fragile, and not easily manageable for research scientists so the museum decided to replace the jars with more appropriate modern jars. As the collections were maintained in sometimes toxic chemicals such as formalin, the old bottles were not re-sold to individuals for fear someone would reuse them to store food. Some jars were retained by the museum, others donated to under-funded museums, some were given to employees as keepsakes, but the vast majority of the bottles were destroyed. This medium sized (7.5" tall) ground glass specimen jar is from the fish division and I don't remember what type of specimen it once contained. The bottle is machine produced and has "M.B.W. - U.S.A" embossed on the bottom. The mark, standing for "Millville Bottle Works" dates the vintage apothecary jar between 1903 and 1930 as this was the time frame the mark was used. The Millville Bottle Works of Millville, NJ was known for producing quality glass products, including Wheaton Glass which is highly collectible today, as well as druggist, chemical and laboratory bottles. The ground glass jar has a gorgeous matching glass stopper (likely the original matched pair). It is in great shape, free from breaks or cracks. Clarity is excellent. The bottle measures about 7.5" tall from jar topper (Jar base height is about 6.5") x 3" wide. The buyer should not use the jar to store food. For more info on Millville Bottles see the websites below: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/MillvilleBottleWorks.pdf https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/bottlemarks-4/