City of Armadale - History House > Records

BOTTLE,MEDICINE - CLEMENTS TONIC

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c. 1910

Overview

Brown glass rectangular moulded bottle with an octagonal base. Bottle has large flat front and back panel with three smaller glass panels forming the side of the bottle. Bottle tapers up at the shoulder to a round neck.

Moulded text on the front of the bottle along with a logo. Moulded text on the back of the bottle.

Historical information

Found at Mt Richon Vineyard in a rubbish pit. It would have been thrown into the pit when the contents were finished and the jar served no further use.

The Richon vineyard was originally planted by Joseph and Anton Marian in 1901 as Marians Vineyard with some locals referring to it as The Slavonian Vineyard. Joseph was Anton’s uncle and was originally from Austria.

A cellar was built at the site in 1906 but was almost completely burnt to the ground in 1914, it would be rebuilt and extended.

In 1919 the vineyard was sold to Gerald Valentine Patrick McCarthy who renamed it in 1920 to Richon after Rishon LeZion, a town in what is now Israel. McCarthy had spent time in the town during the First World War as an intelligence officer.

Clements Tonic is a product first produced by Frederick Moore Clements in 1882. He was an English chemist who sold the tonic as a product to help recover from colds, injuries and better health.

The product is still sold today.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-33-AK2000.202

Item type

Medicines

Material

Glass

Inscriptions and markings

[THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS / THE PROPERTY OF / CLEMENTS TONIC / LIMITED]

A large [A] is marked underneath the base on the top centre. [S 654] is underneath on the bottom off to the right.

Year