Old apothecary jars bring high prices

COURTESY PHOTO These Old Paris porcelain apothecary jars sold for $835 at a Neal Auction in New Orleans a few months ago. The jars will probably be decorations in a living room, not part of a medical setting. In past centuries, medicine was very different than it is today. There was little knowledge about the causes of illness until Louis Pasteur reported in 1864 that germs cause disease. Even the idea of washing your hands to avoid germs is a 20th-century idea.

Most medicines were herbs and potions that had been found to help, although no one knew why. Sometimes parts of snakes, insects, roots, crushed minerals and other strange materials were used. Alcohol and drugs like cocaine and marijuana were effective painkillers.

An apothecary shop sold all sorts of dried mixtures, cures and medicines, usually made from alcohol and herbs. The shops kept some of the dry medicines in large jars decorated with the appropriate name and a fancy border. Other medicines were kept in glass jars, drawers or small-folded paper packets. Today's medicines in sterile containers and pill form have helped raise the average life expectancy from about 37 in the 1800s to about 66 today. Medical tools, medicine and medicine containers all are collected. Old medical tools bring high prices.

Q: I have an old organ that looks like an upright piano. It was made by The Stevens Organ & Piano Co. of Marietta, Ohio. Any information about it?

A: The Stevens Organ & Piano Co. was founded by Collins R. Stevens. Stevens worked for Estey Organ Co., which made the best-selling organ of the day, from 1859 to 1877. In 1888 he opened a store in Marietta selling pianos and organs. Stevens went into a manufacturing business with Orin C. Klock, a piano salesman, in 1892. They made reed organs under the name Stevens & Klock. The company made both organs and pianos, but when piano sales slowed, it made only organs. Organs were cheaper than pianos at the turn of the century, and many homes had parlor organs. The company name was changed to Stevens Organ Co. when Klock retired, and later it became Stevens Organ & Piano Co. Stevens began making combination reed-pipe organs in piano cases about 1900. The company also made large pipe organs for churches, and began making phonographs by 1919. Stevens died in 1921, and the company went out of business in 1924.