Antique NOS Rexall Store Glass Leech/Goldfish Bowl Display Recreated Drugstore

  

The Rexall Drug Store brand was born in 1903, but the chain became famous beginning in the 1950s for its annual Rexall 1-Cent Sale. The gimmick was simple: during the sale, if you bought one product at full price, you could get another identical product for just a penny.

From a good deal, shoppers began stocking up in bulk because they were getting an incredible bargain. Some customers even bought items like toothpaste or aspirin in quantities that lasted for years. The absurdity reached a point where Rexall put limits on how many items could be bought under the penny deal, especially when customers started reselling their overstocked items at garage sales. The sale cemented Rexall's reputation even as competitors like Walgreens and CVS grew in prominence.

Despite the chaos it sometimes created with shoppers fighting over hemorrhoid creams, the sale was hugely successful in drawing in customers and became an iconic part of the company's identity. Glass bowls like this one are frequently represented as leech bowls. Although they are potentially suitable for such a purpose, leeches fell out of medical favor with the advent of the germ theory in the 1870s. Instead, they were likely intended for display in a front window or on a shelf. That makes them rarer because fewer bowls were made but less rare because they were better cared for than everyday merchandise.

We'll compromise and call this one just-plain rare. It measures approximately 4.5 x 5 inches (12 x 12.5 cm) at its widest point. It was blow molded with the mold lines visible on the sides and has imperfections like bubbles from the manufacturing process.

It is new, original stock (NOS) condition with no water stains, cracks, chips, dings, breaks, damage, etc. And likely has seen no or very light use.

The embossing is bold and crisp with the words "From the Rexall Drug Store/Trade Mark" highly visible. Ignore the other hype and get an original NOS Rexall leech bowl for your recreated country drug or general store or as an early 20th century period display piece. Also useful for your gold or Siamese Fighting fish, guppies, or other small pets. Could be used as a flowerpot, small tea candle, or catchall for pocket change and the like.

And yes, you could even keep leeches in it. We hear that you can find them at the bottom of faster-running creeks and streams, but none are included in this offer.