February Hanky and Headache Headvase

Here we are in the last week...7 days...of February, and true to the 'Leap Year' calendar history, it ends on the same day of the week as it began...Monday.  You can read about February's Leap Year history and calendar oddities in my first post of this month...February 2016...An Uncommon Solmonath.   Along with the extra day on the calendar, February seems to be a month of confusion concerning it's traditional/appointed flower, birthstone and color.

 

For instance, most of us associate February with Roses, Ruby and Red when in truth February's flower is the Violet, birthstone is the Amythest and the color is Lavender.  It's enough to give anyone a headache...especially if one's birthday is on February 29th.

 

From my collection of vintage hankies, the Violet Rose Bouquet hanky is a lovely example of February's flowers without the headache worries of having to chose one or the other for traditions sake.  Now about the Headache Headvase. 

 

Dubbed 'Headache' by, no doubt, a collector trying to come up with a title to sell one.  Although, I never thought of her in that way, it does kind of fit and works for the theme/thread of this post. 

For the sake of a title less painful, I will call her Heddie.  She has been in my collection for thirty years or so, and wears the original hat of red net and 1950's plastic roses.  I have always imagined that she was a Valentine Gift from a florist shop.  Afterall, that was what Heddie was made for....a vase.

In 1913, L.Batlin and Son started an antique company which eventually became a Japanese import company during the mid 1900s called Tilco.  Heddie's foil sticker bears the Tilco made in Japan stamp.  Tilco, although quite Japanese sounding was a combination of L. Batlin's wife and daughters names...Tillie and Sonia.

For her headache in February Leap Year 1952, Heddie's choice of relief would have been 2 Anadin tablets.  Advertised as the tablets to give you the power to stop pain...fast and safe...with Phenacetin to increase and prolong the action of aspirin, tonic element of caffeine and a trace of quinine for an immediate sense of well-being and to counteract depression. 

February 29, 1952 was on a Friday when Pharmacies were closed for Leap Year and the recall of all products containing phenacetin and quinine. And that is how and why Heddie came to be known as the Headache Headvase.