Pair of Pharmacy Bottles (c. 1500–1510): Art, History and Details

Pair of Pharmacy Bottles (c. 1500–1510) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The inscriptions on these two pharmacy bottles suggest that they held medicinal and domestic remedies. One bottle reads SCABIOS, or “scabious water,” which may refer to a teasel root compound that was used to clean and decontaminate velvet. Inscribed on the other bottle is the word CAPILLV, which was a liquid extracted from a fern-like plant commonly referred to as “maiden’s hair water.”

Object facts

• Title: Pair of Pharmacy Bottles
• Date: c. 1500–1510
• Culture: Italy, Papal States, Faenza
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Overall: 38.8 cm (15 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1943.52

A detail from the museum

During the Renaissance, aristocrats tested the speed and agility of their greyhounds in a sport called “hare coursing.”

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. "Italian Majolica." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 1 (January 1944): 7-15. Only Pharmacy Bottle (1943.52.2) reproduced.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Only Pharmacy Bottle (1943.52.1) mentioned and reproduced.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Only Pharmacy Bottle (1943.52.1) reproduced.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.