• New

English Litharge - POISON - Lead oxide - Antique pharmacy bottle - 19th century in blown glass

€65.00

English Litharge - POISON - Lead oxide

Nineteenth-century medicine bottle with beautiful black and gold label

Blown glass

Description

English Litharge - POISON - Lead oxide

Nineteenth-century chemist's bottle with its beautiful black and gold paper label stuck to the inside of the bottle. Look at the illustrations around the label, the snake and mortar, the retort, the instruments.

Litharge is one of the natural mineral forms of lead oxide.

It was the main ingredient used in apothecaries and pharmacies to make plasters, a kind of solid ointment used to hold dressings in place, heal minor wounds, relieve joint or muscle pain, dry oozing wounds and promote healing.

Its highly toxic properties have been known for a very long time: the great apothecary Pomet wrote about it in his 1694 book: : Histoire Générale des Drogues: ‘Litarge is a poison, as many authors have remarked, which is not very difficult to believe, since experience and reason show us that our litarges are nothing but lead mixed with copper filth and waste’.

In blown glass, the trace of the cane's pontil remains under the bottle.

Stopper in sheet metal

Height 22.5cm with stopper Diameter: 7.5cm

There is still a little product in the bottom of the jar

The bottle has been cleaned on the outside but not on the inside to avoid damaging the inner paper label. So there is still some dirt, stains etc on the glass inside.

16 other products in the APOTHECARY - ANTIQUE PHARMACY