DELFTWARE Apothecary and 
               Hygiene-Related Wares 
 
Storage. Apothecary. Syrup, and Ointment Pots 
 
 
D407. SYRUP POT 
Probably London 
Dated 1717 
 
 
H.: 7 5/8" (19.4 cm); 
Diam. (body): 5 3/4" (14.6 cm); 
Diam. (handle-spout): 8 5/8" (21.9 cm) 
 
BODY CLAY: Fine-grained pale buff. 
TIN GLAZE: Slightly greenish white. 
Overall, excluding most of bottom. 
 
SHAPE: Thrown. Handle convex on 
interior, concave on exterior, with 
curled lower terminal. Wide, flattened 
edge on bottom of base. 
DECORATION: Painted. Apollo sur- 
mounting cartouche composed of 
foliage, scrolls, and serpent. Inscribed 
"J7J7 [1717]" and "S HEDER T." 
 
 
he unusual form of Apollo decoration shown here occurs with different 
details on a small (dry) apothecary pot fragment inscribed "P. AGARICO"
(a pill 
used "to clense the Brest and Lungs of flegm") excavated at the
Vauxhall pro- 
duction site.' Two syrup jars, one inscribed "S. AuRANT./MK" and
the other 
"DIASCORD/MK," display a cartouche and Apollo very like those on
the the Long- 
ridge and are dated 1717 in the same location. The "MK" pots' spouts
differ 
greatly from the Longridge one's in form, however, and the numerals are paint-

ed in different enough styles to indicate that the vessels are not from a
set.' No 
other dated pots with similar decoration are recorded, but two undated tall

"dry" pots in the dispensary of Saint George's Hospital, London,
are inscribed, 
respectively, "C:CYNOSB." and "C.E.CORT:ALI" within the
same type of Apollo 
cartouche.1 "S HEDERT" on the Longridge pot likely refers to a
syrup made from 
Hedera terrestris, or ground-ivy.' 
 
 
1. Cockell, Vauxhall Cross, p. 232, citing      2. Lipski and Archer, Dated
Delftware, no. 1666 
Culpeper's Phurmacipoeia Londinensis (1661);    (also Howard, Drug Jars,
pl. 13, nos. 44, 43, for 
pl. 131d, also illustrating a detail of more    similar decoration on an
undated dry pot), 
closely matching decoration on an example       1666A. For related ornament
on an undated 
("u:NICOTI") sold at Sotheby's.           syrup pot, see Austin,
Delft, no. 463. 
                                          3. Lothian, Apothecary Vessels,
p. 5, nos. 29a&b. 
                                          4. Drey, Apothecary jars, p. 205.

 
 
454 The Longridge Collection