Cleveland Museum of Art

Pair of Pharmacy Bottles

Date

c. 1500–1510

Medium

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Culture

Italy, Papal States, Faenza

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The inscriptions on these two pharmacy bottles suggest that they held medicinal and domestic remedies. One bottle reads SCABIOS, or “scabious water,” which may refer to a teasel root compound that was used to clean and decontaminate velvet. Inscribed on the other bottle is the word CAPILLV, which was a liquid extracted from a fern-like plant commonly referred to as “maiden’s hair water.” During the Renaissance, aristocrats tested the speed and agility of their greyhounds in a sport called “hare coursing.”

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