This small ceramic jar would have been used to store medicine like ointments, salves, or powders. It could have belonged to a household, or to a professional apothecary. Surgeons and physicians tended to the sick, but apothecaries made and sold medication. Many people working in the medical professions were middling in status. Either educated at school or university (physicians) or through an apprenticeship (surgeons and physicians), a significant amount of learning and knowledge was required to treat the sick. To become an apothecary, you had to train for roughly seven years, as was the case for many trade and craft apprenticeships. This kind of learned skill, honed through books as well as practical engagement, was a feature of new professional middling identities. <br /> <br /> Port towns like Bristol, with excellent trade links to the rest of the world for raw materials, boasted several apothecaries – for instance Richard Woodson of St Thomas parish in Bristol left ‘Instruments of silver and trimmed with silver’ worth £3 18s 4d, with ‘all his other Instruments of all sorts’ worth 50s and ‘all his books belonging to Chururgery’ at 30s, when he died in 1623. In the same town in 1642, Richard Brace, ‘Gent and Practioner in the Art of Phisique’ had a ‘still house’ for distilling medicinal waters, and owned silver instruments, chests of glass bottles, boxes of cordials, chemical oils, chemical salts, other tools including lances, syringes and a pair of scissors, and ‘one Frame of Gallipotts’ like the one above. In addition to 120 books in his study (£6), he also kept Gerrard’s Herball and ‘Romulinus his Anotomie’ with his equipment, priced separately (30 and 8s respectively).<br /> <br /> Many of the treatments prescribed to patients were natural remedies like herbs or animal products. This meant that households often had their own ointment jars filled with salves and balms to help against all manner of illnesses and injuries. Drug jars ranged in sizes and decoration depending on their use. Those owned by the professional apothecaries could be very elaborate indeed. Often imported from Italy, the most fashionable vessels were the brightly decorated majolica jars from Venice. Most people of middling status would have been familiar with these jars, either from their own supply of medicine, or through the medication provided by an apothecary.
Drug jar (Jar), 1600-1799

Back to Occupation Collection icon

Drug jar

Drug jar (Jar), 1600-1799

This small ceramic jar would have been used to store medicine like ointments, salves, or powders. It could have belonged to a household, or to a professional apothecary. Surgeons and physicians tended to the sick, but apothecaries made and sold medication. Many people working in the medical professions were middling in status. Either educated at school or university (physicians) or through an apprenticeship (surgeons and physicians), a significant amount of learning and knowledge was required to treat the sick. To become an apothecary, you had to train for roughly seven years, as was the case for many trade and craft apprenticeships. This kind of learned skill, honed through books as well as practical engagement, was a feature of new professional middling identities.

Port towns like Bristol, with excellent trade links to the rest of the world for raw materials, boasted several apothecaries – for instance Richard Woodson of St Thomas parish in Bristol left ‘Instruments of silver and trimmed with silver’ worth £3 18s 4d, with ‘all his other Instruments of all sorts’ worth 50s and ‘all his books belonging to Chururgery’ at 30s, when he died in 1623. In the same town in 1642, Richard Brace, ‘Gent and Practioner in the Art of Phisique’ had a ‘still house’ for distilling medicinal waters, and owned silver instruments, chests of glass bottles, boxes of cordials, chemical oils, chemical salts, other tools including lances, syringes and a pair of scissors, and ‘one Frame of Gallipotts’ like the one above. In addition to 120 books in his study (£6), he also kept Gerrard’s Herball and ‘Romulinus his Anotomie’ with his equipment, priced separately (30 and 8s respectively).

Many of the treatments prescribed to patients were natural remedies like herbs or animal products. This meant that households often had their own ointment jars filled with salves and balms to help against all manner of illnesses and injuries. Drug jars ranged in sizes and decoration depending on their use. Those owned by the professional apothecaries could be very elaborate indeed. Often imported from Italy, the most fashionable vessels were the brightly decorated majolica jars from Venice. Most people of middling status would have been familiar with these jars, either from their own supply of medicine, or through the medication provided by an apothecary.

Object Type Jar
Year 1600-1799
Material Ceramic, earthenware
Owned By Museum of London 25210
Keywords making; acquiring; storing; occupation; belief; medicine/health; domestic; ceramics; provisioning
Image Credit Jar, Museum of London 26210, Reproduced with permission of and © Museum of London.

Back to Occupation Collection icon