Fine Porcelain and Pottery - 15th September 2015
Lot 59
An early English delftware dry drug jar dated 1663
Estimate £1,500 - £2,000 | Hammer £1800
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Description
An early English delftware dry drug jar dated 1663, simply painted in blue with a ribboned banner bearing the inscription 'DIASCORDIUM' and the date 1663, a clean repair, some chipping, 20cm.
Diascordium is a preparation using the dried leaves of teucrium scordium (water germander) as the primary ingredient. It had a variety of uses including the promotion of sleep and the treatment of the plague. In his London Dispensatorie of 1654, Nicholas Culpeper wrote, "it is a well composed Electuary, a something appropriate to the nature of women, for it Provokes the Terms, hastens their Labor, helps their usual sickness at the time of their Lying-in, I know nothing better... It may be safely given to young children ten grains at a time, ancient people may take a dram or more".