Page 12 - BBR July 5 2020 Auction

Dr Webster’s ‘English Diet Drink’ a “vegetable specific for various diseases” is said to have been formulated in 1742 by Joshua Webster (1709?-1801) M.D. He was a member of the Corporation of Surgeons created after 1745 when the Barber Surgeons went their separate way; it was dissolved in 1800 at the formation of the Royal College of Surgeons. Despite occasional claims in bottle books his drink was not a patented remedy. 19th century advertisements refer to the Cerevisia Angelicana as “English diet drink and to “Abernethy’s book”. A cerevisiae is a medicinal preparation made by adding medicines to malt wort and letting them ferment together (Saccharomyces cerevisiae is yeast). ‘Diet-drink’ was advertised as early as 1697 but a later version was the ‘Lisbon’ Diet-Drink promoted by Dr Leake in his 1787
book. It was a decoction of Sarsaparilla, guaiacum wood, sassafras, mezereon bark, liquorice and antimony. Such preparations spoilt quickly so it is likely Webster’s use of them in a cerevisiae
made them have a longer shelf life. John Abernethy (1764-1831) the founder of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School in London. He wrote quite a few books and, fond of mentioning them
with the zeal of a chat show plugger, so his patients gave him the nickname ‘Doctor My-Book’. Basically Dr Webster’s was medicinal beer.
Slee’s adverts for Webster’s drink cite Sir John Hill (see BBR 111) and Dr Boerhaave (1668- 1738), both influential in promoting botanical drugs. Slee’s advertising played on a ‘request’ by Webster’s “deceased & much respected friend” Dr Benjamin Franklin to make his formula known. Strange as this might seem, it is possible. Franklin (1706-90) lived in London at 36 Craven Street, the house of a widow Margaret Stevenson, for almost 16 years. Her son in law ran an anatomy
class from the house - Dr Webster might have attended? Yellow fever, also mentioned in Slee’s broadsides was to ravage Franklin’s home town shortly after his death claiming
his grandson the proprietor of the Philadelphia General Advertiser. Franklin himself was proprietor of the Philadelphia Gazette and both papers frequently
advertised proprietary and patent medicines.
Edward Slee, later Edward Slee & Co or S. Slee, W. Bryan & Co, were proprietors from 1804-1843, and listed around 94 Borough High Street in
1825 but also separately at 93 as a wine merchant, which in 1839 is given as ‘The Grapes Wine Vaults’, run by Slee & Pike (a later address is at no 80). The Slee family are of course better known as vinegar makers, the company merging with another to form Champion Slee & Co in 1907, later becoming part of British Vinegars. The Slee yard was not far from Borough High Street in Horsleydown (horse lie down) Lane, but they seem to have been quite
a little hive of activity in Southwark where they were mustard makers and drug grinders, leather dressers, sugar refiners, flour factors, and even iron merchants in the first half of the 19th century.
The Diet Drink was sold in three sizes in the 1850’s, at 14s, 7s.6d and
4s and this lot offered here is the middle size. There are around a dozen London Websters recorded. American bottles lack both the retailer name and ‘London’, a plain banner, broken pontils and double or narrow single collar lip finishes. The Greer Collection contained two America bottles (lots 1316 large & 1317 middle size) and the only known smallest London size (1736). The Ault collection has the only known large green example. London examples vary in lip finish - the earliest having an applied ring or small collar, this example has a single wide collar, and lacks the Slee wording.