Eighteenth-century apothecary marketing - aphrodisiac drinks

Painted bottle for the Elixir of Love, at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca

The History of Pharmacy collection in Cluj-Napoca includes for small bottles for the Elixir of Love. Though the recipe was nothing more than mulled wine, the bottles, hand-painted and inscribed around the middle of the eighteenth century, are a good example of product branding and marketing. The depictions and the inscriptions on these containers are well adapted to the contents - flowers, doves, hearts (already used as symbols of romantic love) and fashionable people or couples, while the inscriptions, in German, indicate the date and equally romantic messages.

Read more about the exhibits HERE. 

This example of romantic heart is included in the special tour set for the Feast of Love - A History of the Heart, organized by the museum on February 25th. Read more about the event HERE. 

Detail of the red heart flanked by affronted doves

 

Baroque flower etching

The latest item listed on Etsy by the Transylvanian trove is a lovely small print after an original eighteenth-century plate. The central element is a heart-shaped composition of finely engraved flowers, an appealing Baroque decoration.

1772 engraving plate hand pulled in 2014

Under the central floral composition one can see on the left a small city vedutta  and the engraver's name and year: Josephus Vasarhelly (in Latinized Hungarian meaning Joseph from Vasarhellyi=Targu Mures) 1772. According to the artist's name, the city of fortification depicted is Targu Mures, in Transylvania.

Etching, numbered in pencil 9/I. This means it is one of the first prints in the series, with good-quality details.
Dimensions: 7.7 x 8.5 cm (3 x 3.3 inches), not framed, in good condition, reprint made in 2014 by the National History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca, Romania after one of the eighteenth century printing plates in its collection. According to the name, the author was a Hungarian master from Transylvania. The 2014 print, the ninth in the series, is hand-pulled in sanguin typographic ink on printmaking paper with the dry stamp of the museum. 

detail with the city vedutta and the marking "sc: Josephus Vasarhellyi" (made by Joseph of Targu Mures)

Apothecaries and cures in Early Modern Cluj

This is the title of my latest presentation delivered during the "Cluj/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg – 700" international conference held in Cluj-Napoca by the Sapientia and Babes Bolyai Universities. My presentation attempted to reconstruct the Early Modern history of apothecary shops and pharmacies of Cluj (i.e. between the 16th and the 18th century), identifying traits and developments in the field  (in comparison to the rest of Transylvania and Western Europe) and to verify is there are any novel strategies in marketing and retail employed by pharmacists to boost their sales. Until the article is finished for the collective volume of the conference, fell free to check my presentation on academia.edu HERE.

The full program of the conference is available in Romanian HERE.

One of the documents preserved at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj is an eighteenth-century manuscript, a tariffs project by Tobias Maucksch or Mauksch, the privileged pharmacist of Cluj, owner of the apothecary shop hosting the museum today.

Gilded pills - an apothecary tradition

Covering pills in gold and silver was practiced in Europe between the 17th and 20th century, erroneously attributed to Avicenna. The procedure was meant to make pills easier to swallow, coating their bad taste/smell and preventing them from disintegrating. Though Avicenna did talk about the properties of precious metals, in cauterizing, heart and lungs afflictions and bad breath, the first mention of pill gilding dates from 1626.

The procedure included the following steps: producing hard pills, coating them in syrup of Gum Arabic, placing them together with gold leaf inside a scatula deauratoria (two hemispheres made of wood or horn) and shaking well.

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca includes several jars for Gum Arabic, a natural gum made of the hardened sap of various species of the acacia tree. One such jar, made of wood during the eighteenth century and used in an apothecary shop from Târgu Mureş is exhibited in the "Gold and gems" temporary exhibition that can be visited until the end of this year.

 

18th c apothecary jar with painted cartouche and the signature PULV G: ARAB

Gum Arabic pieces and powder, by Simon A. Eugster - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.orgb/w/index.php?curid=48712562

Modern pills, gilded pills and gold leaf in the "Gold and gems" temporary exhibition in Cluj-Napoca

 

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" :)

 

Aurant cortex (orange peel)

Citrus fruits started to be used in Transylvania during the seventeenth century and in the subsequent century they were still rare imported goods. During the 1750s, when the Austrians introduced the first state sanitary measures, oranges, lemons and other spices sold also by the apothecary were excepted from border quarantine. In 1793 Tobias Maucksch, owner of the pharmacy in Cuj that hosts the museum, taught his son, a pharmacist to be, how to offer gifts to the good doctors in town for the New Year: doctors who enjoyed a certain reputation and wrote numerous prescription, he should offer six lemon, while doctors with less experience and activity should be content with receiving just three.

Bitter orange botanical drawing

 Oranges were highly appreciated by the apothecaries, in the form of peel extract of powder or as oil, syrup, and tinctures made from the plant’s flowers and peel. Such medicine was recommended for the tonic and antispasmodic effects and for various stomach troubles, but they were also used for the pleasant taste in mixed drugs (and even the Elixir of Love!).

pottery jar for orange peel syrup

 The History of Pharmacy collection in Cluj-Napoca includes 15 pharmaceutical jars, made of various materials, for products obtained from the peel or flowers of the „golden fruit” (Lat. aurant), attesting to their popularity:

§        wooden jar with the painted signature “PULV. AURANT. CORT.” (orange peel powder), 19^th century, from a pharmacy in Baia Mare

§        porcelain jar with the signature “EXTR. AURANT.” (orange extract), 19^th century, from the Engel Pharmacy in Iaşi

§        jar made of glazed pottery marked “Syr. Aurant. Cort.” (orange peel syrup), 18^th century, from the Velits Pharmacy in Turda

§        blue glass jar “OL. AURANT. FLOR” (orange flower oil), 20^th century, St. George’s Pharmacy in Cluj (hosted in the Maucksc-Hintz House, where the museum has been hosted for the last 60 years).

glass jar for orange flower oil