LAURUS NOBILIS apothecary uses

Bay laurel is an evergreen plant from the Mediterranean area and it has a long history among the classical civilizations. For the Greeks and the Romans it was mostly an ornamental plant used in gardens, for garlands and offered to the winners in sports or poetic competitions but also to heroic soldiers. The laurel wreath became a symbol of victory.

Both its leaves and berries were used for medicinal purposes as they contain an essential oil with a high concentration of eucalyptol. The plant has narcotic and carminative properties, calming abdominal pain and favoring the evacuation of intestinal gas. In apothecary works from Transylvania bay laurel was also recommended as a stimulant.

Ripe laurel berries

Dried laurel berries

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca includes five jars for pharmaceutical products obtained from the leaves and especially the berries of bay laurel. Three of the items are included in he monthly FOCUS display for April 2017, presenting the history of various apothecary ingredients.  One glass jar with the painted signature “Pulv. (alchemical symbol) Bacc. Lauri” (laurel berry powder) was used during the 19th century in the Molnar pharmacy from Oradea and there are also two jars made of wood. The one with the signature “Pul. Lauri a Bacc” (laurel berry powder) dates from the 18th century and was acquired through an older donation, while the one marked “Fruct Lauri” (bay laurel fruits) inside a cartouche with decorative ribbon and has been used in the Unicorn Pharmacy in Cluj.

19th-century glass jar for laurel berry powder, using the alchemical symbol for powder.

19th-cenury wooden apothecary jar with decorated cartouche

 

18th-century wooden apothecary jar inscribed Pulv. Lauri a Bacc (bay laurel berry powder)

Apothecary uses of nutmeg

 As the name indicates, nutmeg is the nut-type fruit of the tress from the Myristica fragrans species, native of the Molucca Islands in Indonesia, also knows as the Spice Islands. Nutmeg was used in India traditionally as a cooking spice, but also as a hallucinogen and an aphrodisiac. Arab merchants brought it to Europe in the sixth century, where it was well-known by the twelfth century. It increases blood circulation, fights sleepiness, and is also recommended for cardiac afflictions. The medicinal properties of nutmeg are based on the essential oil they contain and that has the following effects: stimulant, carminative (calms abdominal pain and favor the evacuation of intestinal gas) and in larger dosage narcotic. The oil is also often employed in hiding the unpleasant taste of other medicine.

Detail of nutmeg and blues apothecary glass for such nuts, from the temporary exhibition "The History of aphrodisiacs"

 

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca includes five jars for this products, apparently often for entire nuts (Nuces Moschatae) or their oil (Oleum Nucis Moschatae). The majority of the jars were once used in the old St. George’s pharmacy (two glass jars with painted Baroque signatures from the eighteenth century and one blue glass bottle with faceted glass stopper, from the beginning of the twentieth century). Another jar, made of porcelain, has a bilingual inscription – Latin and Hungarian – and was also used in Cluj, in the Mathias Corvinus apothecary shop. The wooden jar was used during the nineteenth century in a pharmacy from Baia Mare.

Eighteenth-century nutmeg oil glass jar. Signature in Baroque cartouche with vegetal volutes and crown.

Nineteenth-century porcelain jar with bilingual signature.

 The collection also preserves the stained glass shop sign of the Mathias Corvinus pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca. The work is signed and dated 1919 and it depicts the kneeling knight - king of Hungary born in Cluj. The cult of king Mathias was blooming in the city during the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, so it was only natural that a pharmacy located in the center would would depict him and bare his name.

 

Detail of Mathias Corvinus depicted on the pharmacy shop sign

The FOCUS exhibition thus for December 2016 displays these various apothecary jars for nutmeg, two actual nuts, and the apothecary sign discussed above can be seen in the basement where the laboratory of the old pharmacy is located.

 

 

INDIGO

The history of indigo is foremost that of a very valuable cloth dye. Its economical importance was due to the rarity of the natural substances from which blue hues could be obtained. Initially, the plant Indigofera tinctoria was used for such purposes in India and reached the Greek and Roman world as a luxury product called Indigo (from the Lat. indicum, Indian). Different European plants were also used during the Middle Ages, but the dye they produces was neither intense nor resistant. Thus, the discovery of wild indigo (Baptisia tinctoria) native of North America has generated an intense trans-Atlantic commerce with this new type of indigo. The Native Americans used the root of the plant medicinally as well, in the treatment of wounds that would not heal and of the infections of the mouth and throat. Indigo was thus added to the miraculous plants from the new continent, entering the European materia medica and used in healing numerous afflictions.

natural indigo dye

Baptista tinctoria - American wild indigo

 During the nineteenth century indigo started to be used in homeopathy as well, especially an immune system stimulant, in combination with other plants, but also in cases of localized infections. As an antimicrobial tincture, it is usually associated with Echinacea and wild cedar. 

            The History of Pharmacy Collection from Cluj-Napoca, includes five jars for indigo used in Transylvania apothecaries. The first two jars, made of wood, were obtained from the Unicorn pharmacy in Cluj; the first is dated to the nineteenth and the second to the eighteenth century. The third jar, also made of wood, was once used in the Bononi pharmacy in Recaş (Timiş County). The fourth container is a glass jar with the signature INDIGO printed on paper, part of the old Orient collection. The final item is a small bottle from a homeopathy set from the pharmacy in Baia Mare. 

wooden apothecary jars from the Unicorn pharmacy in Cluj with the signature INDIGO

 

apothecary jars for Indigo from Recas and an unknown location

Precious red coral

Corallium rubrum, or precious red coral, was used both as old apothecary ingredient but also in jewelry. Pharmacists used it as calcium supplement and cure against rachitism, but also as ingredient in several composite medicines, such as the anti-epileptic powders. Due to its preciousness, it is among the few organic materials included in the category of gems. Red coral thus features in the new temporary exhibition entitled "Gold and gems" that opens tomorrow, September 1st, at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca.

19th c wooden apothecary jar for red coral

19th century ceramic jar for red coral

natural red coral

Photos from the History of poison exhibition

As this is the first day of the temporary exhibition "History of poison" at the History of Pharmacy Collection and people seem genuinely interested in the topic, I will shared of my pre-opening photos. Feel free to drop by, the exhibition is fully bilingual as I have translated everything into English. You'll find out about cured for syphilis based on mercury and arsenic and that in German "poison" is "Gift" :)

 

Last preparations before poison :)

I am referring to the temporary exhibition to be opened on Saturday at the History of Pharmacy Collection that has captured the interest of the public and the press. Feel free to join the Facebook event and visit as the exhibition if fully bilingual.
See also recent article in press:
Clujul cultural, Monitorul de Cluj (using old photos of the interior), Faclia, Transilvania reporter, Actual de Cluj (so actual that the image is at least three years old and shows the currently retired museographer).
and previous blog posts HERE.

New apothecary jars linocut

The main part of the Print Day in May was dedicated to making new prints after the apothecary jars linocut I've prepared for the occasion. I have managed four new prints, due to their large size and the manual application of the inks. Another thing is that the paper was too large for my printing press - and it is anyway a bit off-balance and does not work well for large-size lino plates - so the printing itself was done by hand. After four prints my fingers and arms hurt, even if the actual pressing was done with grandma's old silver spoon :))

 

The more pictural effects were generated by the old black ink which got bad, with the pigment separating from the oil. It is somehow pure accidents that add that "extra something" to an art piece, the detail that makes people wonder how you did it. The paper I used was also a bit textured, and this also contributed to the antiquated, rusty look of the depicted jars - perfectly suggested their age and patina. I must confess I am happy with the results of this experiment.

 

I liked this third print best and thus made it available on my Etsy Shop HERE. Feel free to check the other linocuts there as well :)

 

Large linocut: apothecary jars

As I said I am constantly inspired by work - as museographer at the History of Pharmacy Collection. The largest part of the collection consists, naturally, of old jars and bottles, painted, with inscriptions and signatures in Latin, sometimes with the symbols of the respective pharmacies. I thus proceeded in making this over-sized linocut (40 x 65 cm). Rendering the signatures in reverse was a bit tricky, but I am not unhappy with the result. And the ink variations were left to suggest the age and wear of the historical artifacts in question. See more images of the work in progress on Facebook.