Description

An attractive group of printing artefacts: five small copper printing plates, one for a pharmaceutical label, one showing a pestle and mortar, one with a Royal coat of arms, and two indicating membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

These appear to be ‘unnoficial’ productions, as they have not been identified with any official Pharmaceutical Society ephemera. Moreover, the Coat of Arms does not match the RPS’s Arms, as granted in 1844: here the central panel is replaced with ‘Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain’, and Avicenna, rather than holding a staff, appears to be pruning plants that surround the crest. The subterranean scene – an extremely small detail here – shows a chemist (or perhaps better an alchemist) at work, with an alembic. This image is apparently derived from the RPS’s stained glass window.

The collection comprises:

1. Pestle and mortar, 82x45mm
2. Royal arms, 76x44mm
3. Royal Pharmaceutical Society arms, 86x49mm
4. ‘Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, with three bottles and a pestle and mortar, 86x50mm
5. Label for a pharmaceutical container, 66x98mm

Further research may reveal the source of the iconography, or possibly the final printed form and use of these labels. Aside from clues within the iconography, there are the tantalizing words “…SON” and “[5?]27” inscribed around the rim of the pestle and mortar. These may lead to an identification of the pharmacist who used these labels once printed.