Museum and Library After-Hours: The History and Design of English Delftware Jars

Thursday 28 September 2023, 6.00pm - 8.00pm

Location: RPS Museum and Library, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1W 1AW

Pipe-smoking men, angels with outspread wings, cherubs and trumpets: English delftware drug jars

Would you like to learn more about the history of pharmacy? The RPS Library and Museum are opening their doors for the first After-Hours evening event!

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum holds an important collection of English delftware drug jars and pill tiles dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. They include the earliest known dated English drug jar, examples that give us an insight into successful apothecaries, and pots that held substances as unfamiliar as oil of fox, and as familiar as powdered almonds.

This talk will provide a beginner's guide to these beautiful yet practical vessels and show how contemporary books, many held in the RPS Library, shed light on their contents. By placing them in their wider historical context, our speaker, Briony who is previous Keeper of the RPS Museum, will also demonstrate that delftware drug jars have an undervalued role to play in understanding medical practices in the centuries in which they were made.

Join us for an evening of history with a glass of wine or soft drink amongst like-minded peers!

Wine, soft drinks and nibbles included in the ticket price.