We’re having home repairs done. One of the workmen found this bottle of Johnson’s Car Nu ‘in a corner’. Since it was ‘in a corner’, and since they’ve taken the siding off of the house, I assume it was inside of a wall; although it could have been under the house somewhere. (If it was simply under the house, I expect it would have been found on any of the several occasions someone was under there.)
Can anyone give me an idea as to how old this artefact is?
I would guess the 1940s - perhaps during the war since it is a glass bottle - all the ads from a google search show steel cans. I would contact S.C. Johnson and ask them. Might be unique enough that they would want it.
I’ve confirmed that the bottle was found in an exterior wall. I’m pretty sure the laundry room and bathroom are an addition, but I don’t know when they were built.
Mrs. L.A. smelled the contents of the bottle and said, ‘I think it’s still good!’ I said I should play a joke and put a new label on it that says ‘hot sauce’.
Definitely you should try it on your car and have before and after photos ready to post (and maybe to send to Johnson Wax - they might be able to use them in an ad campaign and hire you to be their spokesman).
I used to drive past the buildings shown in the first few seconds of that video. They still look exactly the same. All those buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
I suspect that a previous owner found the bottle when they bought the house, and decided to wall it up as a ‘time capsule’ when they added the laundry room and bathroom. (I’m guessing that in 1934 there was no bathroom, and that this is a later addition.)