Vintage Apothecary Bottles

Amber glass bottles in the antique store were labeled in faded copperplate script, names like tincture of gentian and spirits of camphor. The proportions of the bottles themselves were more elegant than anything on a modern pharmacy shelf. Slightly uneven in thickness, the glass caught the light differently on each side, and the stoppers were ground glass that fit with a satisfying resistance. I did not buy 1 but I stood there for a while thinking about the era when medicine and craft occupied the same space. When a pharmacist mixed preparations by hand and the container was part of the authority of the product. These bottles were designed to communicate trust through materials and lettering at a time when regulation was minimal and the packaging had to do the work that an FDA label does now.