FISHER'S BEAUTY PILLS FOR THE LIVER
(Stage and Music Hall Celebrities)

Well, he has done it again! "Macca the Magician" has again produced a rarely seen little gem. This time it is "No. 46 - Maude Chetwynd", from the series - "Stage and Music Hall Celebrities" (A) issued by "FISHER'S BEAUTY PILLS for THE LIVER". This is the same set as the Will's Havelock set (Page 204 Skinners) but the card seems to be a tad smaller in size (34mm x 58mm) and, of course, features a different reverse. The set is mentioned on Page 83 of RB30 (the Grey Book) which notes there are two different backs to the series, which would appear to have been issued in the first decade of the 1900s.

Like many medicinal products of the late 1800s and early 1900s, these "pills" seemed to be the cure for just about every illness known to man, and boasted being:-

"Gentle, but absolutely cure(s) biliousness, torpid liver, constipation, sick-headache, backache, indigestion, sallow-skin, furred tongue and dizziness" - The Most Perfect Liver Pill Ever Made", and "The most perfect Liver Pills known to Medical Science."" and all this for just: "One shilling per bottle."

One wonders just what ingredients were used to produce such wonderful "results". It is well known that a good number of medicinal potions and "pick-me-up" tonics produced in this era, contained cocaine, so no wonder the users felt so good. These liver pills are not unlike the infamous Greathead's Mixture, which also boasted it could cure almost all incurable illnesses.

At the time there were a plethora of firms producing "little liver pills"; Reuters and Carters being two of the more well-known brands. Reuters, too, issued cards featuring actors and actresses of the era.

The Fisher's pills were produced by Fisher & Co, Chemists and Druggist of 337 George Street, Sydney, who, for almost two decades, from 1906 to 1924, advertised their magic little pills in excess of two thousand times in newspapers in every state of the Commonwealth. Most of these ads were purely text, but there were quite a number that featured illustrations, both comic and serious, each one extolling how beneficial the product was to "Man, Woman and Child".

As I have said on many occasions, trade-card collecting seems to be forever throwing up unexpected little gems, making our hobby so enjoyable.

Keep digging Macca.

Acknowledgements: Trove (NLA). Ian McCulloch.
ERIC PANTHER
OCTOBER 2020.

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