1847 – Broadside certificate attesting that Marton Hawes of Westbrook, Maine was an authorized sales agent for “Dr. Sear’s Universal Sanguinarian or Blood Root Pills”
East Thomaston, [Maine,]: 1847. Unbound. This “Certificate of Agency” promoting Dr. J. B. Sears’s Blood Root Pills measures 7.75” x 9.75”. It was printed by R. B. Caldwell and features an illustration of a Native American chief or medicine man supervising the harvesting of Sanguinaria canadensis, commonly known as bloodroot. The image is captioned,
“A view of the blood root with Indians in the background, by whom this article was first used, and by them it was and still is highly esteemed for its medicinal virtues.”
Sears, who sold his pills through agents and retailers, printed these certificates to assure customers that they were purchasing his, and not counterfeit, products. It prominently promises,
“This / Certificate is intended as a Guarantee / To The / People of the United States / against purchasing counterfeit medicine purporting to be / Manufactured by Me.”
It reads,
“Know all men by these Presents, That Marten Hawes of Westbrook [Maine] is my duly authorized Agent for the sale of my Universal Sanguinarian or Blood Root Pills, for the term of one year from the date hereof, therefore no one is my Agent unless he can produce this qualification, signed by me in my own handwriting, dated at East Thomaston, [Maine,] this 28 day – of Septr in the Year of our Lord 1847.”. Very good. Item #010651
At the time, blood root concoctions were sold by quacks as a cure for cancer, skin disorders, and respiratory diseases. However, in contemporary advertisements, Sears made no such outlandish boastss. Rather he, made, for the time, the rather modest claim that his pills were effective in treating a variety of relatively minor complaints including fever, impurities of the blood, coughs, colds , pain killing, and indigestion.
While Sears’s claimed that Native Americans used blood root medicinally, nonetheless it is poisonous and dangerous. Today, quacks continue to promote it as a possible cure for cancer, however numerous studies show that it may act as an expectorant, but its therapeutic value is minimal in relation to the danger it poses. When used topically, as a “black salve,” it may kill a rash, but it also kills live skin cells, resulting in a massive scab and subsequent disfiguring scare.
Sears’s blood pill advertisements are relatively scarce although they occasionally appear in the trade and for sale on ebay. However, his “Certificates of Agency” issued to retailers are rare. At the time of listing none are for sale in the trade, none have been sold at auction per the Rare Book Hub, and none are listed in institutional collections by OCLC. One, however, a Google search shows that one has been sold on ebay, and another by a prominent Americana dealer.
Price: $200.00