Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Hutton Collection
Lot 104
A rare English delftware pill jar, circa 1700-20
19 November 2025, 10:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£3,000 - £5,000
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Fergus Gambon
Director
Jim Peake
Head of Department
A rare English delftware pill jar, circa 1700-20
Of small size and ovoid form with a neat flared foot, painted in blue with a strapwork label inscribed 'P. FAETIDAE', surmounted by songbirds flanking a basket of fruit, a winged cherub's head below with pendent swags, 9.8cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With Prior Chemist, Stamford
With G Peck and Son Ltd, Chemists, Cambridge
Agnes Lothian Collection
Hutton Collection
Pilulae Foetidae were pills made from asafoetida and other ingredients. As the Latin name suggests, this resin was famously foul-smelling or 'fetid' but had a wide range of uses including the treatment of digestive issues, asthma and women's reproductive ailments. The London Dispensatory, published in 1694, suggests that 'Fetid Pills' might be taken 'two scruples, or a dram...at a time'
This would appear to be a rare contents label, not commonly found on delftware drug jars, a fact which would have been of great interest to Agnes Lothian, in whose collection this lot belonged for many years. For an interesting discussion of Agnes Lothian's career as Librarian at the Pharmaceutical Society and her many contributions to the academic field of delftware drug jars, see Briony Hudson (ed), English Delftware Drug Jars: The Collection of the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (2006), pp.13-21.