Lot 42 : Sold for £285 hammer

Estimate £300-£500

An late 17th to early 18th Century Delft dry drug jar, probably Bristol, painted with a label inscribed E:MITHRIDATO: between a scallop and cherubim flanked by two demi-angels, circa 1700, height 19.5cm From the 14th Century onwards, poison was the murder weapon of choice. Fearing for one's life, one went to the Apothecary for an antidote, the most famed of which was electuarium mithridatium. The formula given in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1618 details fifty ingredients. The name Mithridate is derived from Mithridates VI, King of Pontus (132 - 63 BC), who was believed to have rendered himself proof against poisoning.

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