50 assorted French Drug Jars

Can be purchased in sets of 2, 3, or 12, or, in some cases, individually.

The drug jar is a vessel made specially to hold medicaments, spices, herbs, and other preparations held in stock in the shops of apothecaries, who in past centuries sold items now available from both chemists and grocers. They were usually made of tin-glazed earthenware, sometimes known as faience, with richly-coloured, or blue, designs on a cream ground. Most of the preparations contained in drug jars were plant-based, using the herbs and spices we know today, and many more: cardamom, chicory, borage, mint, hellebore, sage, and of course, roses.

The name of the preparation would be written on the jar in Latin, generally in abbreviated form, for example: C.hiacint., A.Menthae.

Medical schools were founded in Italy and France from the thirteenth century, but the pharmacy came later, spreading into most towns and cities by the 1600s. Many drug jars have survived, particularly those of French make. Some can be seen in their original setting in traditional pharmacies preserved in museums, or in old monastic hospitals, where their decorative quality becomes clearly apparent.

 

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Binocular Microscope in case
with many accessories, signed: Husbands Bristol.

Late 19th century

The Victorian period was the great age of the microscope. Fundamental optical improvements had made it a fully professional instrument, yet it had lost none of its popularity with the amateur. The typical Victorian microscope is a superb piece of engineering, a massive base supporting the optical tube, or tubes, the construction of gleaming brass, and a comprehensive range of accessories, packed into a fitted mahogany case.

Massive is the only word for this microscope, whose brass-bound case takes two people to lift it. It came originally from the physics department of Bristol University, which clearly believed in supporting local business. Luckily, there was an established firm in the city from which a microscope could confidently be bought.

Thomas D.King had a good reputation among microscopists in the earlier years of the nineteenth century, and in 1858 his firm was succeeded by Husbands & Clarke, at the same address, 1 Denmark Street, Bristol. Various moves followed over the years, and the second name was dropped in signatures. The instrument trade was still centred in London, and this microscope has many of the features typical of the great metropolitan firms; a prism by Browning is included among the accessories. But it is of particular interest to find such an impressive instrument from one of the few quality provincial makers.

 

 

 

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Mechanical Orrery in case by R.B.Bate c.1820

A particularly fine and complete example of the portable orrery, used for teaching astronomy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The model is housed in its mahogany case, which bears on the inside of the door the trade card of the maker, and a listing of “The Major Planets”. The coloured earth globe is by Cary. A spare ivory earth globe, and replacement planet balls are provided, neatly fitted at the top corner of the door, and even a oil lamp is included, so that an eclipse of the Moon can be demonstrated on the lunarium.

Robert Brettell Bate was the maker of this fine instrument, with its mechanical operation, silvered calendar plate, and attachments to demonstrate the Earth/Sun system, the tellurium; and the Sun/Earth/Moon system, the lunarium; and the movements of the planets, the planetarium.

Bate was one of the most prolific and best known of the London scientific instruments makers of the early nineteenth century. Born in Stourbridge in 1782, the son of a banker, Robert was first apprenticed to his uncle as a haberdasher in London. He became an instrument maker through his wife, who was the daughter of Bartholomew Sikes, the inventor of the hygrometer that bears his name. Robert Bate won the commission to make hygrometers for the Excise Office, and from this his business developed, until he was selling every kind of scientific instrument from his premises in Poultry, near the Royal Exchange.

 

 

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Elton’s miniature transparent orrery, dated February 1817

This is a very different type of orrery from Bate’s superb mechanical model, but is of great interest, because it shows that there was also a market for inexpensive devices to teach astronomy, a subject that appealed to a vast public. This attractive device consists of a roller blind, set in a mahogany frame with gilt brass mounts and feet. The blind is pierced with charming illustrations of the constellations and the heavenly bodies, and can be illuminated from behind by a window or a lamp. This very complete example still has the wooden back-board with its advertisement and dedication.

This orrery was produced by a publisher, not an instrument maker, and was dedicated to a successful lecturer in natural philosophy, as science was then described. Deane F.Walker (and interestingly, his “family”) had promoted “the Sublime Science of Astronomy”, and had devised the prototype of this orrery. Following the fashion for giving such teaching models elaborate Greek names, Mr Walker had called his device the Eidouranion.

Elton’s name for it, the transparent orrery, is sensibly explicit, and he provides the firm’s address: Princes-Street, Cavendish-Square, with the exact date, February 1817. Written in ink on the backboard are the names of various owners throughout the nineteenth century.

 

 

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The Battle of Cape St Vincent

Oil painting, signed R.B.Spencer II, 63x105cm

Nelson, Cape St Vincent, battleships under full sail – all are full of high drama that has lost none of its appeal today. This superb marine painting, rich in colour and movement, yet subtly detailed, depicts Nelson attacking two Spanish men of war in a successful engagement that resulted in his being appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath and Rear Admiral.

Robert Spencer was a successful ship portraitist of the mid-nineteenth century, a number of whose paintings are to be found in the collection of the National Maritime Museum as well as museums at Salem and Newport in the United States. He was equally at ease with paintings of individual ships, and battle scenes.

 

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Versatile Ivory: Model of the human eye in ivory (17th century), and decorative examples of ivory turning (19th century)

Stephan Zick of Nuremberg made remarkable anatomical models from ivory in the second half of the seventeenth century. Some were of complete human figures, but one of the most remarkable shows the structure of the eye, with parts that fit together into a socket on an ivory stand. The eight components comprise items made of wood and glass, as well as ivory.

Ivory turning was the hobby of kings and princes in the eighteenth century, and its popularity has continued, since this hard and durable material is comparatively easy to work, and supremely beautiful in the finished form. A pair of notably graceful examples of the ivory turner’s art have been mounted on wooden stands.

 

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BOOK list

 

The Gallery Offers an exclusive list of books on historic scientific instruments, some out of print (marked with an asterisk) and therefore difficult to obtain, others hot off the press. Below is a selection of the titles available.

Antique Dental Instruments	by Elizabeth Bennion*	£60.00
Antique Hearing Devices	by Elizabeth Bennion	£50.00
Collecting Microscopes	by G. L’E. Turner*	£50.00
Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers	by G. Clifton	£65.00
The Divided Circle	by J. A. Bennett*	£125.00
Drawing Instruments	by Maya Hambly*	£120.00
Elizabethan Instrument Makers	by Gerard L’E Turner	£79.50
The Geometry of War	by Jim Bennett & Stephen Johnston	£20.00
Globes of the Western World	by Elly Dekker & Peter van der Krogt*	£60.00
Globi Neerlandici	by Peter van der Krogt	£400.00
Globes at Greenwich	by Elly Dekker	£90.00
The Great Age of the Microscope	by G. L’E. Turner	£75.00
Ivory Sundials of Nuremberg	by Penelope Gouk*	£25.00
The Illustrated Longitude	by Dava Sobel & William J. H. Andrewes	£25.00
Marine and Pocket Chronometers	by H. Von Bertele	£100.00
Mathematical Instruments in Antiquity and the Middle Ages	by A. J. Turner	£55.00
Measure of Time		£10.00
Trevor Philip & Sons 25th Anniversary Catalogue Mémoire de Sabliers	by J. Attali	£65.00
Nautical Antiques	by R.W. D. Ball	£35.00
Public and Private Science (George III collection)	by A. Morton & J. Wess*	£125.00
The Quest for Longitude	edited by William J. H. Andrewes	£55.00
R B Bate of the Poultry 1782-1847	by A. McConnell	£10.00
Scientific Instruments 1500-1900	by G. L’E. Turner	£25.00
Sphaera Mundi	by Edward H. Dahl & Jean-Francois Gauvin	£50.00
Vulgar & Mechanic (Scientific instrument making in Ireland)	by J. D. Burnett & A. Morrison-Low	£70.00
Western Astrolabes (Adler Planetarium, Chicago)	by R.& M. Webster	£65.00
Sphaera Mundi	by Edward H. Dahl & Jean-Francois Gauvin	£50.00

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FIFTY ONE THIRTY.

Issue 4.

© Trevor Philip and Sons