Wet Drug Jar

Date1740-1770

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft / delftware)

DimensionsH: 7 3/8"; Diam: 5 3/4"; Diam+ Spout: 6 5/8"

Credit LineGift of Anne Galt Kirby Black and Eugene C. Black

Object number1978-357

DescriptionGlobular jar with high pedestal base, everted rim, and cylindrical spout. White tin glaze decorated in blue with standard cherub cartouche and inscribed "S LIMON." Base originally glazed.Label TextThis jar and two others from the same set with glaze mostly missing (as well as many other examples of apothecary supplies and equipment) came to Colonial Williamsburg with a clear history of ownership in the Galt family. The Galts were doctors and apothecaries in Williamsburg from 1775 to the nineteenth century. John Minson Galt purchased William Pasteur's already established apothecary shop at the east end of Duke of Gloucester Street in 1778. Fragments of delft drug jars, probably from the same set as this one, have been found unstratified on the site the Nelson-Galt House (9JA.0054), the Williamsburg home wherein the Galt family resided from 1812 until 1976.

Syrupus Limonum was made from lemons.Inscription(s)"S LIMON"Mark(s)NoneProvenanceDescended to the donor through in the Galt family of Williamsburg, and was originally used by Dr. John Minson Galt at his apothecary shop on the Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg.

An unstratified fragment of a drug jar including the lip and spout with the same lines and color was excavated on the Nelson-Galt House site in Williamsburg (shared number 9J). The Galts rented the house beginning in 1812 and purchased it in 1823.