A.A. Mellier Saddlebag
Object/Artifact
A pair of lockable, brown leather saddle bags with connecting band, edges tooled in a serpentine pattern and the flaps embossed "ELLIOT'S PATENT / GRANTED JAN. 18, 1870 / A.A. MELLIER / ST. LOUIS, MO. / SOLE PROPRIETOR" in an oval. Each bag is divided into a metal-lined upper section (that is empty) and a drawer-like lower section loaded with either 56 small vials or 16 large vials. The vials are corked, some are labels, some are not. Some have material inside, some appear to be empty. The leather is very worn, dusty and torn/rotting in some places. Narrower side strap is broken. Each bag is about 10 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall by 3.5 inches deep. The strap that connects the bag is 22 inches long and 6 inches wide in its narrowest place. The small vials are 4 inches high, including stopper and .5 inch wide. The large vials are 4 inches high and 1 inch wide.
2022.11.45
May have been the property of Dr. Walter Bradley House when he practiced in Detour, Michigan, Oberlin O., or Denver. In Saugatuck, Dr. House traveled to house calls in a Model T automobile.
Hospitals, medical care and doctors
Medicine
Doctor
11-1/2 in
6 in
Sec 1E Shelf S26
House, Walter Bradley 1857-1938
About the manufacturer from https://medicalandsurgicalcollectibles.com/c-1880-85-amputation-set-sold-by-a-a-mellier/ AUGUSTE AMADEE MELLIER 1825 – 1889 Auguste Amadee Melllier was born in France in 1825, the son of Albin Mellier, whose father owned a large printmaking company. Albin came to America in 1828, and established one of the first print-works near Baltimore. Young Auguste was sent to London and Paris to further his education, and while abroad, was orphaned. In 1847, at the age of 19, Auguste returned to the U.S. and took up residence in St. Louis, Missouri, where he made the acquaintance of men engaged in the drug business. With their financial backing, he opened the firm of Richardson, Mellier & Co. in 1857. The co-partnership was dissolved in 1862, and in 1865 became Scott & Mellier, and was located on the corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue. In 1870, Mellier purchased his partner’s interest and became the sole proprietor, the firm now being known as A. A. Mellier. His trade developed rapidly, and soon he was one of the largest wholesale druggists in the West. In 1875, he combined properties at 709 and 711 Washington Street into a large, elegant building which included a retail department and large warehouse. He engaged in retail pharmacy, the manufacture of proprietary medicines (such as “Santonine Worm Candy”), as well as the sale and manufacture of “Elliot’s Patent Saddlebags”, produced for the traveling physician and fitted with 24 glass medication bottles. In addition to being the sole proprietor for Elliot’s Patent Saddlebags (very popular with the western physicians still traveling by horseback), Mellier had an extensive jobbing business as well, and sold surgical sets and instruments. As already noted, I think it unlikely that his firm actually manufactured the instruments, most likely he had them made for him and then sold the kits under his name. In 1887, his two sons became part owners and the firm was re-organized as the Mellier Drug Co., under which auspices it continued to do business until after the turn of the century.