If you collect Warner’s Safe Remedies to any serious degree, you are already familiar with the name Michael Seeliger. If you aren’t, you should be. I have collected Warner’s for nearly 40 years and I can credit or blame Michael, to some degree, for my addiction. You see, way back in 1976, I picked up my first old bottle and started what has become a lifelong hobby.
Michael Seeliger
When I first started collecting, I knew that I liked cures and remedies and made that the focus of my collecting efforts. Well, pretty soon, I realized that even that area of bottle collecting was enormous and I figured that I had better narrow my focus even more. About that time I joined my local antique bottle club to try to mingle with other collectors and to learn from their expertise. The Richmond Area Bottle Collectors Association had its own lending library and one evening, I chanced upon a copy of Michael’s original H. H. Warner: His Company & His Bottles (1974).
H. H. Warner: His Company & His Bottles (1974)
Michael’s original book was paperback with hand-drawn illustrations of the “then known” universe of Warner’s Safe Remedies. I was smitten. It was exactly what I needed and pretty soon thereafter, I purchased my first Safe Kidney & Liver Cure, then a Safe Nervine, then a Safe Diabetes Cure and so on. There was something special about Warner’s Safe Remedies. Perhaps it was the embossed safe or perhaps the variety of cures and remedies that extended beyond the United States to Canada, Europe and Australia.
Over the years, I have met and become friends with many other bottle collectors and Warner’s collectors, including Michael. I have expanded my collection to include some wonderful and unique Warner’s variants. Fortunately for all of us, Michael has decided to update his original paperback book with a digital version entitled H. H. Warner: His Company & His Bottles 2.0. Gone are the hand-drawn illustrations; replaced by digital images of Safe Remedies bottles and advertising. Indeed, the entire book is on a credit card sized disk with an insert that goes into your USB drive.
Michael’s 2.0 version contains over twenty chapters on all aspects of collecting Warner’s including a history of the company, advertising, an updated catalog of bottles and even a copy of the 1974 original book. It is also loaded with pictures that help any collector appreciate the extent and variety of Safe Remedies that have come to light since 1974. In short, the 2.0 version is well worth the investment of $18.00 and $3.00 for shipping. In order to get a copy, email Michael at: MWSeeliger@gmail.com.
Also, if you are planning to attend the Federation Expo in Sacramento in August, Michael and Michael Craig will be doing a presentation on Warner’s Remedies that will provide lots of great information.