Bay Colony Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this fantastic early 19th century antique painted blanket chest / medicine chest. When we envision a medicine chest, this is not exactly what first comes to mind, but nonetheless we have this advertised as a medicine chest because of the 1833 paper label affixed to the lid stating it is so. The label reads “CHARLES HOLMAN, no 9 & 10 Penhallow Street has constantly on hand, at wholesale & retail, a large and general assortment of Vegetable Family Medicines, all of which are carefully selected, and put up in the best manner. FAMILY MEDICINE CHESTS, containing a sufficient supply of medicines for all ordinary cases, with printed directions for using, furnished at the shortest notice. Portsmouth, NH 1833”.
We can’t say we’ve ever encountered a Charles Holman medicine chest before so we did a quick search online to see if we could find any information on him. We didn’t find any similar chests but did find some old newspaper advertisements that are digitized online where Charles Holman advertises a number of different medicines. Holman’s card on the lid states that the chests “contain a sufficient supply of medicines” and we believe the chest came stocked with a grouping of the medicines in his newspaper advert. Holman was a successful businessman and had his hands in many ventures. If Holman went so far as to print custom cards for his medicine chests, surely there have to be more out there. If anybody out there has one in their collection we’d love to see it.
We were unaware of the paper labels existence when we purchased the chest, we purchased this for the wonderful painted surface. The chest showcases opposing cornucopias overflowing with flowers amid a cream-colored field on the front face. These painted surfaces were usually done by young women and schoolgirls in the community alongside other leisure arts like cross stitching, watercolor paintings, etc. The chest retains its original hasp, hinges, & lock and is joined together with hand cut dovetails. The feet appear to be a later addition, but whoever performed the work did a great job and even incorporated a cupids bow cutout pattern on the sides. The chest being raised off the ground also makes it much more practical to use. The chest is in very good condition with our only notes being minor paint loss & the age split on the top. The split is stable, and we pushed down on it with some force to see if it would flex or wobble, but it’s nice & solid. The chest measures 41” wide x 15 1/4” deep x 20” tall (34 1/2” tall with the lid fully open).
Antique bottle and glass collectors might recognize the Holman name thanks to Charles’ nephew, JB Holman. JB Holman continued selling his uncle's compound & certain J.B Holman bottles sell for low five figure prices when they seldomly find their way to market. If you happen to own a $15,000 Holman's Nature's Grand Restorative bottle, we can't imagine there's a more fitting housing out there for such a rare bottle. Just make sure it's well protected!
