Oak desk card index cabinet - Antique pharmacy cabinet
Handcrafted
Period: 1910–1930
Oak desk card index cabinet - Antique pharmacy cabinet
An antique vertical filing cabinet, also known as a card index box, sourced directly from the storerooms of a former pharmacy.
A beautiful piece of professional equipment, ideal for a desk, a bookcase or as a charming alternative storage solution (for recipe cards, photos, mementos).
Found in the Parisian cellars that served as laboratories and storerooms for the pharmacist to prepare his compounded medicines from the 1900s to the 1950s, and which had remained in their original condition.
Material: Entirely made of oak, not plywood. Corners joined with straight dovetail joints. Fitted with its original brass stop compass, which allows the lid to be left open, even at a 45° angle. Small original guilloché metal pull tab on the side.
Period: 1910–1930. In the 1950s, the box would have been made of plywood.
Dimensions: Width: 15.5cm – Depth: 21cm – Height: 23cm - Weight: 1.15Kg
The box contains around ten period index cards. Some still bear their orange celluloid index tabs, inscribed in pen (Pills, Tablets, Syrups, Dragees), and list old-fashioned medicines (Ballotyl, Balsamol, Glycothymoline).
A little historical bonus: As evidence of the end of its career and its reuse in the 1940s, the reverse of several cards was used at the time to record the pharmacy’s handwritten accounts between 1946 and 1949 (staff costs, licence fees, and taxes linked to the introduction of the National Insurance scheme, etc.).
Indeed, as the pharmaceutical industry evolved rapidly in the post-war period, many traditional, homemade compounded preparations lost ground to standardised industrial medicines. With the formula sheets becoming redundant, they provided the perfect cardboard medium for administrative tasks. Particularly as shortages were rife in the immediate post-war period, reusing the reverse side of obsolete medical formula cards to create accounting drafts or annual balance sheets was common practice for the sake of economy.
The lid does not close tightly; as shown in the photo, there is a gap of approximately half a centimetre.
The Pharmacist's Dispensary Inkwell
Moulded glass safety inking pot - Late 19th century
sold without a pen
Antique mechanical date stamp with rotating discs
Light wooden handle and metal frame.
The metal mechanism is in working order, but the rotating rubber date bands are original, dry and cracked, and in some places broken (printing functionality not guaranteed).
Sold for decorative purposes.
Antique manual pharmacy stamp - BERTHIER Pharmacy
The rubber base, engraved in relief, reads: ‘Pharmacie de BERTHIER / rue de Phalsbourg / PARIS’.
Sturdy metal frame and ergonomic handle made from turned blackened wood
Naturalized Small-spotted catshark
Scyliorhinus canicula
Unprotected species - Old taxidermy: visible suture under the belly and on the left side near the mouth
Puldose Nasal Spray for aqueous solutions - Antique remedy
In its Plastic box
Used in otolaryngology, it was intended for nasal or oral sprays in the treatment of colds and antiseptic treatment of the respiratory tract.
Bulb for hypodermic injection - Camphor (circa 1920)
THERAPLIX
Pair of ebonite medical cannulas in their original cardboard box
Circa 1920–1930
Original stock from that period
Aqua Piris - Pear water
Antique pharmacy jar
Apothecary
Bundle of 100 stamps tied with string
Red 10 centimes stamp of the Semeuse type
Issued from 1903 to the end of the 1930s
Reseptine
Antique pharmacy bottle
EMPTY
A avaler aux repas To be taken with meals (as far as can be made out from the torn label)
Antique pharmacy bottle
Torn label
Antique mechanical date stamp with rotating discs
Light wooden handle and metal frame.
The metal mechanism is in working order, but the rotating rubber date bands are original, dry and cracked, and in some places broken (printing functionality not guaranteed).
Sold for decorative purposes.
19th century Herbalist's or Pharmacy crystal jar
Iris
Clastic Mannequin - Dr. Auzoux's anatomical skinned
Aconit leaves - POISON
Antique pharmacy bottle - Wide-mouth apothecary jar.
19th-century mouth-blown glass
Red POISON label
Signaling to the pharmacist that it is imperative to keep apart the other substances in the cabinet of toxic substances, the famous poison cabinet.
A fascinating testimony to pharmacology
It comes from an old cellar-laboratory in a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not moved since the late 1950s on the shelves. The cellar had served as a laboratory for medical analyses and a laboratory for magistral preparations of the pharmacy from 1900 until around 1950.
Pharmaceutical zinc sulphate
Antique amber glass bottle, with a boxwood and cork stopper.
Green label: SUBSTANCE TO BE STORED SEPARATELY – CODEX 1908
Indicating to the pharmacist that it must be stored separately from other substances in the cabinet for toxic substances, the famous ‘poison cabinet’.
It comes from the former cellar-laboratory of a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not been moved from the shelves since the late 1950s. The cellar had served as a medical analysis laboratory and a laboratory for the pharmacy’s compounded preparations from 1900 until around 1950.
EMPTY
Antique sodium chloride infusion bulb
500cm3
in its original box - Still full
Collodion élastique - Elastic collodion
Antique pharmacy bottle
This product was used in the 19th century as a liquid plaster: a solution of ether and powdered cotton which, once applied to the skin, left a flexible, waterproof protective film.
EMPTY
Oak desk card index cabinet - Antique pharmacy cabinet
Handcrafted
Period: 1910–1930
