Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Ceramic liqueur bottle for Orlow brand cumin cream produced by Hartwig Kantorowicz distillery and liqueur factory in Posen, Germany, between 1880 and 1920. In 1917, following World War I, the town, now called Poznan, became part of the newly reformed Poland. The distillery was founded in 1823 by a Jewish man, Hartwig Kantorowicz, and quickly gained a reputation for creating high quality products. It was a prosperous family business and opened several branches in Hamburg and Berlin. The majority of their products were liqueurs sold in glass bottles produced by Silesian, Saxon, and Czech glass factories. The distillery also sold patent medicines, like tonics and bitters, in bottles they manufactured for their own products as well as several other companies. These products often included high percentages of alcohol and were heavily spiced with strong, supposedly medicinal herbs.
- Date
-
manufacture:
approximately 1880-1920
- Geography
-
manufacture:
Poznan (Poland)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
- Markings
- front, center, stenciled, black paint: Allasch / “Orlow” / H K / Anno 1823 / Hartwig Kantorowicz / Posen. [Cumin cream / Orlow brand / Hartwig Kantorowicz / Year 1823]
bottom, center, engraved : 2522 / ½ Lt. - Contributor
-
Manufacturer:
Hartwig Kantorowicz
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Containers
- Category
-
Glass containers
- Object Type
-
Medicine bottles (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Cylindrical, glazed offwhite ceramic bottle with a flat base, a narrow neck with a smooth, rounded lip, and a circular, open mouth. At the top back of the shoulder is an attached, round looped handle with an incised line along the edge. On the front center, painted in black, is a simple fish in left profile at the center of an outlined Star of David with the product name and manufacturer’s information painted around it. The bottle is broken and has been repaired with adhesive. There is a partially repaired hole at the top front.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 7.375 inches (18.733 cm) | Width: 3.000 inches (7.62 cm) | Depth: 3.625 inches (9.208 cm)
- Materials
- overall : ceramic, paint, ceramic glaze, adhesive
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Food industry and trade--Equipment and supplies.
- Geographic Name
- Germany--Social life and customs.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The medicine bottle was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:11:15
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn4106
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- By Appointment
- Request 21 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Request to See This Object
Contact Us
Also in Early 20th century Germany business equipment collection
The collection consists of an AGFA Billy I automatic camera, a Kantorowicz liqueur bottle, a Reichspost W28 rotary phone, and a spring balance scale as examples of personal and business equipment that would have been in use in Germany in the early 20th century.
Date: approximately 1880-approximately 1938
Deutsche Reichspost W28 model desktop rotary phone
Object
Siemens and Halske W28 model rotary dial telephone commissioned by the Deutsche Reichspost [German Post Office) as its standard issue model from 1928. In the mid-1930s, the Reichspost commissioned a new model seeking a more economical and reliable device. They passed on the model produced in 1936. The W38 model was adopted but not introduced on a large scale until 1940. Some parts, such as the bell, were made of different materials due to war economies. The W38 was sturdier and introduced a dialing pause to make connections more consistent.
10 kilo economic spring balance scale with a weighing pan
Object
Ten kilo (22 pound) spring balance scale with weighing pan likely produced in Germany around the turn of the 20th century. Scales such as this would be used at small farms or shops to weigh vegetables or other solid materials.
Agfa Billy I automatic 6 x 9 cm format camera
Object
Billy I self-erecting camera with bellows made by AGFA [Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation] from 1930-1931. This was one of the first AGFA automatic box cameras with rollfilm, and the basis for a long-running series. The film manufacturing company began producing cameras under its own logo from the mid-1920’s, including the first Billy series model. In December 1925, AGFA merged with 5 German companies, including BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst, to form IG Farben, the largest chemical manufacturer in the world. In February 1933, IG Farben contributed 400,000 reichsmarks to the new Nazi government. Initially, the company resisted the antisemitic racial policies such as the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. But by 1937, all Jewish employees, board members, and executives had been removed, and the majority of the remaining board members joined the Nazi Party. IG Farben was an integral part of the war economy, often taking over chemical factories in regions taken over by Germany. They used over 35,000 forced and slave laborers in their factories, including one near Auschwitz III – Monowitz (Buna) concentration camp, and supplied the Zyklon B used in the gas chambers. After the war ended in May 1945, IG Farben was dismantled by the Allies. In 1947, the company’s top officials were tried by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Thirteen of the 24 defendants were found guilty of at least one of the five counts.
