Apothecary bottle

Date1750-1780

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsOD: 4 1/2"; OH: 7 13/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1981-185,1

DescriptionCylindrical bottle with strong shoulder and cylindrical everted neck with rolled lip. The base is flat. The bottle is covered allover in a bluish tin glaze and the front is decorated in cobalt blue with typical cherub cartouche around the inscription "S:DE.RHAMNO". The base is also glazed and inscribed with the number "4".
Label TextSyrupus de Rhamnus was made from buckthorn berries.

Delft drug containers of this bottle form are rare. By the time these were made, glass bottles were replacing earthenware apothecary wares. These bottle-shaped wet jars were designed to complement cylindrical dry jars like CWF accession 1967-145. This particular jar is so similar in color and decoration to that vessel that they must have been made at the same time and may once have been part of the same set. The numeral 4 inscribed on the bottom of both jars is further evidence of such a possibility.
Inscribed"S DE RHAMNO" on the face; a 4 on the base.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceCapt. Theodore E. Waterbury
perhaps Mrs. Bessie Morgan (Elizabeth Wetmore Hunter) and the Newport Historical Society
Jonathan Horne Antiques Ltd., London