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Apothecary and 
I Hygiene-Related Wares 
D390, D391, D392. STORAGE POTS 
(D390) Probably Netherlands 
1570-1620 
(D391) London or Netherlands 
1625-1650 
(D392) London 
1650-1700 
(D390) H.: 4 3/8" (11.1 cm); 
Diam.: 3" (7.6 cm) 
(D391) Hm: 5 1/8" (13 cm); 
Diam. (approximate): 3 5/8" (9.2 cm) 
(D392) H.: 5 1/4" (13.3 cm); 
Diam.: 6 1/2" (16.5 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Buff. (D390, D391) Fine- 
grained, (D391) with inclusions, (D392) 
medium-grained with inclusions. 
TIN GLAZE: (D390) Grayish white 
with speckling. (D391) Tannish white 
with brown-stained cracks and blue 
speckling; interior has small poorly 
adhered patches, especially near rim. 
(D392) White with greenish gray speck- 
ling. (All) Overall, excluding majorities 
of bottoms and chamfered rims and 
bases. 
S H A P E: Thrown, (D390, D391) Bottoms 
with curved, linear indications (more dis- 
tinct on D390) of removal from wheel 
with a wire. (D392) Clearly identifiable 
throwing rings on interior. Slightly con- 
cave bottom with roughly finished edge. 
DECORATION: Painted. (D390) Over- 
lapping zigzags. (D391) Diagonal lines 
with voids filled with graduated curves. 
(D392) "Eye" motifs and graduated 
curves. (All) Borders variously composed 
of horizontal lines and rows of dots. 
Published- Home, Collection, ptr 12, 
nos. 319-320. 
Excavated: (D390, D397) "These . were 
found in the vicinity of Little Britain, an area 
just outside the city walls at Aldersgate"' 
                                              Storage, Apothecary, Syrup,
and Ointment Pots 
Storage vessels of the type shown here sometimes were referred to in the
sev- 
enteenth and eighteenth centuries as gcllipots. They have origins traceable
to 
medieval Middle Eastern drug pots and have long been associated with apothe-
cary use, though there is no reason to suppose they did not also do service
as 
containers fbr other materials. Such pots were made in many sizes and appear
typically to have been sealed with leather, bound and shrunk to shape, or
with 
cloth, parchment, or paper coated with wax. 
    Many early English pots in this group are so like the Netherlandish ones
that 
inspired them as to make them difficult to attribute (see D390, D391). Waisted
versions, like the first example shown here (D390), have been excavated at
Lon- 
don consumer sites but are rare at production sites there, perhaps indicating
that many jars of this form were imported from the Continent." Tallish,
straight- 
sided small pots (see D391) often postdate the waisted ones and, like them,
display 
a broad range of geometric motifs. Such vessels have been found at several
Lon- 
don production and consumer sites. The bottom of one example froin the 
Pickleherring (Southwark) site is initialed "EB."' Waisted and
straight-sided early 
pots also occur among archaeological material from colonial sites in America.'
   The largest vessel shown here (D392) resembles versions illustrated arranged
on shelves in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century apothecary shop views.
Such 
pots may represent a type identified as "stall jars" in contemporary
documents.' 
In the 1700s, jars somewhat like this one (D392) also occasionally are depicted
in 
non-drug-related contexts.' The same form-widish with a waisted mouth and
base-has been widely excavated at production and domestic sites in London."
The 
"eye" motif on the Longridge pot (D392) is a somewhat less common
motif than 
the sets of graduated curves and bordering rows of dashes interspersed with
hor- 
izontal lines. The latter types of ornament are found on seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century pots of various profiles excavated in London and the colonies."
1. As per Horne, Collection, pt. 12, nos. 319 320. 
2. See Grigsby, Chipstone, no. 91; Drey, Apothecary 
Jars, pp. 22 23, pis. IC, ID (13th- or 14th-century 
Syrian albarelli). For 17th- and 18th-century 
English delft apothecary wares, see Crellin, Well- 
come, pp. 7-49; Archer, V&A, pp. 377-380, 
3. Ray, Warren, p. 11 n. 27, cites A New Collection 
of the Most Easy and Approved Methods of Preparing 
Baths, Essences... (London, 1787), p. 63: "cold 
cream or pomatumn for the collection [should be 
kept in a] large gallipot tied over with a blad- 
der." For (late) creamware or whiteware pots 
with paper or parchment covers, see Crellin, 
Wellcome, no. 204. 
4. Stephenson comments (September 1998). For a 
rare biscuit example (1571-1600) from the 
Aldgate production site, see Noel Hume, London 
and Virginia, p. 115, fig. XIX, no. 5. For waist dec- 
orations, see Crellin, Wellcome, p. 12, fig. 2. See 
Austin, Dellt, no. 415, fbr tour examples resem- 
bling Longridge no. 164 but excavated at Farm 
Street, Aldermanster (London). 
5. For examples from London sites, see Noel 
Hume, London and Virginia, pp. 59-66, 115, 
fig. XIX, nos. 6-7; Archer, V&A, no. J.2; Britton, 
London, nos. 18-24 (various profiles, nos. 21 and 
24 resembling Longridge no. D391 in border 
motifs). For other waisted and straight-sided 
examples, see Archer, V&A, nos. J.1, J.3-J.5; 
Grigsby, Chipstone, no. 91; Austin, Delft, 
nos. 416 417; Crellin, Wellcome, nos. 3, 186-188. 
438 The Longridge Collection