Back in the 1970s when I started collecting bottles, I bought a lot of a dozen Restieaux’s Pill bottles. I guess I must have sold or traded most of them away over the years, but recently found one in a box of bottles stashed away in the attic.
In case you are not familiar with these little bottles, they are clear, are just 1-3/4″ tall and are marked RESTIEAUX’S PILLS in a circular formation on one side.
Apparently, Thomas Restieaux, an apothecary shop owner in Boston at some point decided to market his own product in addition to filling prescriptions and selling medicines by other manufacturers. I have no definitive proof that this is the same Restieaux but it seems very likely it is. Labeled examples of this bottle are marked “Restieaux’s Gentle Liver Pills” and “Thomas Restieaux / Boston, Mass”
Note the trade card below which advertises Horsford’s Acid Phosphate, Rumford Chemical Works in Providence, RI but no mention specifically of his pill product.
The card lists Restieaux’s business as located at 29 Tremont Street in Boston, opposite the Boston Museum.
According to “An Old Boston Institution: A Brief History of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society“, (of which he was a member) Thomas Restieaux was born in 1813 and was in business from 1835 until his death in 1887. His son, Thomas Jr., was involved with the business and may have continued in the trade after this time.
