Mercury Chalk – Treatment for Syphilis
Antique amber glass bottle, with a boxwood and cork stopper.
Handwritten label, pen inscription ‘Mercurial Chalk’, neat calligraphy with its thick and thin strokes.
Bottom band ‘TO BE SEPARATED’, instructing the pharmacist to store it 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.
Period: Judging by the handwriting, late 19th century
EMPTY
Mercury Chalk – Treatment for Syphilis
Antique amber glass bottle, with a boxwood and cork stopper.
Handwritten label, inscribed in pen with ‘Mercury Chalk’, in neat calligraphy, with its thick and thin strokes.
Lower band reading ‘TO BE SEPARATED’, instructing the pharmacist to store it exclusively in the cabinet for toxic substances, the infamous poison cabinet.
Mercury, and therefore mercurial chalk, was for a very long time the primary treatment for syphilis; there were no other alternatives. Yet it was completely ineffective... . And it caused the patient untold suffering.
The protocol aimed to reach the toxicity threshold; patients then suffered excruciating side effects: profuse salivation of several litres a day, severe mouth ulcers, tooth loss and necrosis of the jaws. The medical profession at the time interpreted these signs of poisoning as proof that the remedy was ‘expelling’ the disease.
Mercury was still in use by some doctors as late as the 1930s.
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.
Height of the bottle: 12cm with stopper
Period: Judging by the handwriting, late 19th century
EMPTY
Soap box SAPOCETI GUERLAIN
Whale white soap
Decor 1920-130 with the stylized whale - Art Deco
Sold empty, without the soaps
Antique pharmacy bottle from the 19th century
Balsamum Fioravanti - Balm of Fioravanti
Human jaws in porcelain mounted on a blackened wooden base
Anatomical dental model for dentists
19th century
Cumin Epicea Pill - Pil: Cum Picea
Antique blown glass pharmacy jar
Apothecary
An antique absinthe topette (decanter)
4 Beaded Topette
Hypophosphite de Calcium
Antique pharmacy bottle
EMPTY
Glycérine pure officinale
Pure pharmaceutical-grade glycerine
Antique BLUE glass pharmacy bottle
EMPTY
Cremor tartari sol - Cream of tartar
Potassium bitartrate
Pharmacy jar - Herbalism - Apothecary bottle
Late 19th century
Antique sodium chloride infusion bulb
500cm3
in its original box - Still full
The Apothecary’s Little Drawer
Small antique wooden apothecary’s drawer that can be used as a storage box – Trade drawer
To be diverted on the shelf or niche for your curiosities
Handcrafted using traditional methods, with dovetail joints and a turned wooden handle
Width: 26cm - Length: 15.5cm - Height: 5.5cm
All the drawers are different, with stains and varying signs of age on each one
Sold empty, without accessories
Myrrh
Antique pharmacy bottle - Wide-mouth apothecary jar.
19th-century mouth-blown glass
There is still some product left inside
A fascinating artifact from the history of pharmacology
Aqua Piris - Pear water
Antique pharmacy jar
Apothecary
Antique labels in a pharmacy box for cures made of canvas cardboard
TOXIC label - Do not exceed the prescribed dose
The pharmacist used his boxes of medicine to put away the labels he would then put on the bottles that he would resell to his customers.
Camphorated oil
Antique pharmacy bottle
Apothecary vial
EMPTY but cap is blocked and bottle will not open
Iode Bi-Sublimé - Bi-Sublimated Iodine
Antique 19th-century blown-glass pharmacy jar
EMPTY
Bibliothèque Choisie de Médecine - Volume 8
Selected Library of Medicine
By François PLANQUE - 1750
Complete original edition with 10 fold-out plates
Mercury Chalk – Treatment for Syphilis
Antique amber glass bottle, with a boxwood and cork stopper.
Handwritten label, pen inscription ‘Mercurial Chalk’, neat calligraphy with its thick and thin strokes.
Bottom band ‘TO BE SEPARATED’, instructing the pharmacist to store it 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.
Period: Judging by the handwriting, late 19th century
EMPTY
