SOLD – Hand Blown Medicinal Leech Jar

Description

Heading : Hand blown apothecary leech jar
Date : 19th century
Colour : Clear
Rim : Invertly folded
Body : Ovoid
Features : Fern engraved with a small capstan stem
Pontil : Snapped
Glass Type : Lead
Size : 3 3/8 inches tall and approx. 2 ½ inches in diameter
Condition : Excellent
Restoration : None
Weight : 95 grams

Additional Information : A oddity for the 19th century glass or apothecary / medical collection or simply a good conversation piece. A bowl shaped leech jar with its distinctive wide. folded lip. Smaller than the more elaborate porcelain jars of period apothecary shops from which the leeches would be transferred. Jars such as this one were provided by the apothecary to hold your purchased leeches and sealed with a piece of gauze tied over the mouth to facilitate passage of air and preventing escape of the precious leeches. They could keep a leech good condition and ready for a bloodlettting for months without further attention. The first few decades of the 18th century gave rise to “leechmania”. the cure for everything.