apothecary | Collect Medical Anitques
 

Advertising

Many wonderful advertising posters and trade cards were printed to promote patent medicines beginning in the mid nineteenth century. 

Dr. Drake's Universal Pill
There were no restrictions in advertising regarding safety and efficacy until the early part of the 20th century. The large and small print of this advertisement says everything.
Old Sachem Bitters
The use of "Indian remedies" was very popular in the 19th century.
Dr. Roback's Stomach Bitters
Lawrence and Martin's Tolu
Dr. D. Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge
Ayer's Sarsaparilla
Horsford's Acid Phosphate
Sanborn's Kidney Remedy
Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy
Ayer's Sarsaparilla
Brown's Iron Bitters
Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup
Hunt's Remedy
Hunt's Remedy
Sanford's White Pine Balsam
Dr. Wm Hall's Balsam
Mustang Linament
1922 Swamp Root Almanac
Foley's Almanac, 1909-1910
Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, 1896
Dr. Jayne's Medical Almanac and Guide to Health, 1888
Lekarsky Kalendar, Dra. J.H. McLean-A, 1917

The Apothecary Shoppe

Apothecary shops became a recognized part of most communities during the eighteenth century as manufacturers began to produce medications for national distribution. These shops required ways to attract customers and equipment to prepare these new products. 

Italian tin-glazed earthenware jar, or albarello, containing theriac (ca. 1641)
Drug jars were used to store pharmaceuticals for thousands of years. Shapes varied, and the popular albarello jars date back to the eleventh century when they were common in the Middle East, remaining popular in Europe into the eighteenth century. The term meant “little tree” and this jar was cylindrical in shape with inner curving sides and an open top that was covered with parchment. In the fourteenth century, containers began to be made with a mixture of tin, lead, and potash though porcelain was very popular in the manufacture of drug jars, particularly in France at the end of the eighteenth century. Theriac was an ancient magical curative that contained up to one hundred ingredients.
Sixteenth to seventeenth century earthenware jar
Sixteenth to seventeenth century earthenware jar
Sixteenth to seventeenth century earthenware jar
seventeenth century gallipots
Earlier types were called “gallipots” since they were brought to England from the Mediterranean in ships' galleys.
species jar, ninetenth century
This is a large container found in some apothecary shops with rather fragile script on the inside.
late nineteenth century variety of labeled glass pharmacy bottles
Glass containers for storing different chemicals and medications came in many different styles.
European powdered mummy container (ca. 1600–1800)
Artifacts from the departed were sure to provide mysterious and powerful cures. In the twelfth century, Western physicians prescribed mummy powder for conditions including nausea, seizures, headaches, paralysis, and as an antidote for poisoning.
Spanish Fly or cantharides (Lytta vesicatoria)
Cantarides was a urethral irritant and was marketed as an aphrodesiac.
Genoese medicine chest of governor Vincenzo Giustiniani (ca. 1565)
There were many ways for medications to be stored at home throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and cabinets ranged from small portable cases to large ornate medicine chests. The latter came in many shapes and were used to hold liquids and powders in labeled bottles and canisters. There was often a “secret” compartment in the rear to hold poisons while drawers in the front held all the necessary accessories, including a mortar and pestle, graduated cylinder, medicine spoon, and scales.
early British medicine chests
(left): medicine chest with hand-held scales (ca 1860); (right): late nineteenth century triptych style apothecary chest
calomel bottle from a medicine chest
Mercury is an ancient medcation that was used as a purgative and as a treatment for syphilis. There were risks to its use including salivation, hair loss, and renal failure.
early items used in the manufacture of pills and suppositories (late nineteenth century)
(left): marble and brass pill machine; (top right): Stoke’s suppository machine # 3 by Whitall and Tatum, (middle): pill silverer (The formed pills were coated with mucilage such as acacia and syrup and then shaken in the pill silverer with gold or silver leaf.), (middle bottom): pill rounder, (right): pill tile by Wedgewood with a vaginal and rectal suppository brass molds, (bottom right): brass urethral suppository mold
portable Buggy Bag (ca. 1875)
This portable collection of medications allowed physicians to take a small pharmacy with them to treat their patients.
Hoff's saddle bag
This is another way doctors in the western United States were able to bring medications with them on their home visits to patients.
Harprer's Weekly and the doctor's saddle bags
early nineteenth century earthenware Janus
Janus was a Roman god and guardian of doorways that often could be found hanging outside the apothecary shop, its two faces used to demonstrate the “before and after” beneficial effects of the powders, lotions, and ointments inside. Incidentally, Janus was also the god of “beginnings”, marking the start of an endeavor, and was the genesis of the name for the first month of the year, January.
standing show globes
Apothecary show globes have been associated with the pharmacy trade for centuries, and they appear to have originated in the British Isles, but their purpose remains open to much speculation. Some believe that alchemists of the sixteenth century placed strangely colored liquids in glass containers to lend an air of mystery and magic in order to attract customers. Others speculate that the red color warned passersby of plague or other diseases inside the city, while green was a sign of safety. The red and blue colors may also have represented arterial and venous blood. These wonderful works of art were available in either hanging or standing styles. (left) “art deco” (ca. 1930), others late nineteenth century, probably by Whitall, Tatum, and Co.
hanging show globes, late nineteenth century
(left): stained glass show globe with gargoyle bracket by Banks Druggist’s Fixtures, Co.; (right): hanging show globe by Whitall, Tatum, and Co. with lion bracket
hanging show globes
(left) by Whitall, Tatum & Co.; (right): globe by Clark, Woodward, and Co. (ca. 1909)
a British carboy
This is a large British show globe; a similar type was made in the United States.
large British beam scale (ca. 1880) by W. and T. Avery
Scales used for weighing medications were first seen in Egypt in about 1500 B.C. and by the nineteenth century, those found in apothecary shops were often quite large and ornate. Physicians, however, frequently carried small sets of scales to individually measure medications in their offices or at the bedside. This is a large British beam scale (ca. 1880) by W. and T. Avery.
bronze mortars with pestles
The mortar and pestle remain the modern symbols of the apothecary shop, and pharmacists have used them for grinding and mixing medications for hundreds of years. Composition varied and included vessels made of wood, stone, bronze, Wedgwood, porcelain, and glass. At the turn of the last century, pharmacists rightfully stopped using metal for fear that some of the material might be escaping into the medications. (left) late fifteenth-century in the Gothic style with ribbed handles; (right): Burgundian mortar and pestle (1638)
African mortar and pestle
This is an elephant vertebral body and rib used as a mortar and pesrtle by a Maasai witch doctor in Kenya (nineteenth century?).
crocodile cork press
The crocidile has had a relationship to medicine dating back to the Egyptians and its form can be seen in various medical settings into the nineteenth century.

Patent Medications

Most medications in the United States prior to 1880 came from England and Europe where heads of state regularly gave “patents” to their favorite manufacturers. “Patent medicines” are those with disclosed ingredients and were initially imported with great success since production in the colonies was limited.  

Old Indian Liver & Kidney Tonic
Home remedies and "Indian cures" were very popular during the end of the nineteenth century.
Blackhawk’s Rattlesnake Oil (ca. 1880)
The whole era is represented by the now famous snake oil. This liniment was popularly used for musculoskeletal complaints with the advertised expectation that the reptile’s flexible nature could be transferred to the patient by topical application.
Over-the-counter controlled substances (ca. 1900)
Dangerous substances could be easily purchased without prescription: (left to right) heroin cough remedy, cannabis for children’s diseases, opium for abdominal pain.
Renovator with dangerous ingredients
This medicaton included a number of dangerous ingredients including strichnyne and arsenate in 10% alcohol.
Harter's fever Ague and Neuralgia Compound
This preparation contained 45% alcohol with the first doses to be given to children at the age of 2 years old. Alcholol containing preparations were obviously very popular.
Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound (ca. 1890)
Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound for the treatment of women's diseases was extremely popular and her face was the most recognized likeness in the United States in the late nineteenth century
Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound (ca. 1890)
13 1/2% alcohol (as a preservative)
late nineteenth century patent medications related to diseases of the kidney
This is an array of turn of the century patent medicines that were offered for the treatment of renal diseases.
Dalton's Sarsaparilla and Nerve Tonic
Smilax regelii is a vine that is native to Central America and was thought to have medicinal properties including an early treatment for syphilis. Other claims included its effectiveness for the treatment of eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, herpes, and leprosy.
Burdock Blood Bitters
Bitters were patent medications flavored with herbs that contained alcohol but no sugar, and thus the designation "bitters." They were primarily to be used as an aid in digestion.
Unusual early nineteenth-century ingredients
These medications had no experimental basis for their use but were regularly sold over-the-counter (from left to right): X-ray liniment, electric blood purifier, magnetic oil, radium radia; (bottom): ozone, magnetic pills, radioactive salve
Vin Mariana (with cocaine)
Vin Mariani was a very popular wine and coca product invented by Corsican chemist Angelo Mariani that was sold in both Europe and the United States. It was so popular that American John Pemberton manufactured a similar product that he called French Wine Coca. Because of the temerance movement at the time, Pemberton removed the alcohol and his product evolved into the modern day Coca Cola.
Vin Mariani advertisement from The Cosmopolitan magazine
Vin Mariani with endorsement of the Pope
Vin Mariani received numerous testimonials from the rich and famous, including Thomas Edison, Queen Victoria, and three Popes. In fact, Pope Leo XIII awarded the coca containing Vin Mariani a gold medal “in recognition of benefits received from the use of Mariani’s tonic.”
Belle of Marion prescription whiskey (ca. 1930)
During prohibition, alcohol could be distributed by prescription "for medicinal purposes only."
AIDS, a buffered antacid (ca. 1980)
This antacid was introduced just months before discovery of the AIDS virus and quickly failed, an example of unlucky marketing.

Early Pharmacy and Theories of Therapy

Long before recorded history, medical practitioners were treating patients with potions, herbs, and incantations.  

the Eye of Horus, or udjat
Horus was the falcon-headed Egyptian god of health and prosperity. The left eye had special meaning for the Egyptians, and they used each part of the symbol to measure not only food and land, but ingredients in their medical preparations. The left eye signified the restoration of health and may have evolved into the present Rx notation.
Manuscript page from The Canon of Medicine (fifteenth century copy) by Avicenna (980–1037)
The first recognized pharmacists practiced in the seventh century in the Middle East, and Arabian apothecary expertise subsequently influenced medical care in Europe for hundreds of years.
De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (1543) by Vesalius
One early belief suggests that evey disease was treatable by a plant or herb similar in appearance to the affected organ. The walnut was therefore a good therapy for diseases of the brain.
a walnut that resembles the human brain
orchid
The orchid root resembles testicles, so orchid roots would be a good treatment for orchitis.
orchid root
gensing
The gensing root resembles the human form so has been a very popular Chinese treatment for thousands of years as a stimulent and an aphrodesiac.
Dr. Munyon, homeopathist
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) concluded that drugs causing the original symptoms of a disease could be curative if given in smaller amounts, an idea he expressed in his hallmark phrase similia similibus curantur, or “like cures like.” Homeopathists, like Dr. Munyon, thus produced vials containing small doses of drugs that caused symptoms similar to the diseases they were supposed to cure.
Homeopathic sets, top one by Boericke and Tafel (ca. 1890)
(top): homeopathy set by Boericke and Tafel (ca. 1890)

Pharmacy

The disgrace of medicine has been that colossal system of self-deception, in obedience to which mines have been emptied of their cankering minerals, the vegetable kingdom robbed of all its noxious growths, the entrails of animals taxed for their impurities, the poison-bags of reptiles drained of their venom, and all the inconceivable abominations thus obtained thrust down the throats of human beings suffering from some fault of organization, nourishment, or vital stimulation.

                                                  Oliver Wendell Holmes, MD (1861)

(Chapter Sections below, additional Pictures left)

two Paris porcelain portrait vases a devanture (ca. 1850) with portraits of Hippocrates and Galen
These exhibition pieces would have been displayed by pharmacists in storefronts to attract customers.
Subscribe to apothecary