Antique Apothecary Jars
A tin-glazed earthenware jar made to hold drugs, syrups and ointments on a pharmacy shelf, usually painted with an abbreviated Latin name for its contents.
Antique Apothecary Jars
Apothecary jars are ceramic containers made from the late medieval period onwards for the pharmacy shelf: dry simples in straight or waisted jars, syrups and liquids in spouted ones with a handle. The tin glaze gives an opaque white ground, and the painted inscription tells you what the jar was meant to hold. The two long-established shapes, the waisted albarello and the spouted wet drug jar, were made across Italy, the Low Countries, France and England.
The version you'll meet most often on Sellingantiques is a single 18th-century delft jar, plainly titled, usually with no maker and often with no painted name carried into the title. Of 64 listings, 41 have "18th" in the title and 29 say "delft". The dating is century-level more than exact: 23 listings say only "18th Century", and the 1750s is the busiest decade recorded, with 13.
Italian maiolica is the next largest group, roughly one in six, with albarelli and drug jars named to Savona, Nove and Naples. Savona is the only Italian centre to appear more than once. Pairs and sets turn up regularly, from a pair of large delft jars to a set of six chemists jars, a group of five French medicine jars and a run of fourteen large Italian jars dated around 1910.
A smaller run sits in the 19th century and later: French chemist jars dated 1900, a gilt-labelled pottery jar, a Victorian porcelain jar. The dealers' dating across the whole category runs 1700 to 1920. The two earliest pieces recorded are 17th century, one a Japanese Arita jar of about 1690 described as Dutch-decorated, the only East Asian origin in the sample.
What Sets Them Apart
Size does a lot of the work. "Large" appears in 13 of the 64 titles, nine of those paired with "18th", and the large delft jars sit well above the plain cylinders. Number of pieces does more: pairs and sets cluster at the top of the range, and the fourteen-jar Italian group is the largest recorded here.
After that it's what the jar can be pinned to and what it says. A named pottery centre, Savona, Nove, Naples, or a named factory, lifts a jar clear of the unattributed "18th C delft apothecary jar" that makes up the bulk of the archive. So does a legible drug label: CONF:CARDIAC, S: BALSAM, S CAPPILLO and Cannabis Sativa are all quoted straight into the titles, and the inscribed English delftware jars are among the highest-priced singles.
Form counts at the margins. Spouted wet drug jars and decorated pieces, such as a delftware wet drug jar with cherubs and a shell, sit above the plain cylinder cluster. Not everything shelved under the heading held medicine: one English jar was labelled for tobacco shag.
Antique Apothecary Jars Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for apothecary jars, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The largest group recorded on Sellingantiques is a run of fourteen big Italian jars dated around 1910. Pairs and sets of five or six turn up too.
The Antique Apothecary Jars Glossary
- Delft
- Tin-glazed earthenware, white-glazed and usually painted in blue. After the century, it's the commonest word in these titles, and it appears as delftware too.
- Tin glaze
- The opaque white glaze laid over earthenware that gives the painting its surface. Written in titles as "tin glazed" or "tin glaze".
- Albarello
- The waisted cylindrical drug jar, made for dry goods. Named in several of the Italian listings, and spelled "arbarello" in one of them.
- Maiolica
- The Italian term for the same tin-glazed ware, appearing in eight titles, nearly always alongside "Italian". Often spelled majolica.
- Wet drug jar
- A jar for syrups and liquids, commonly with a spout and a handle. Both "spouted" and "wet drug" turn up in titles.
- Inscription
- The painted or gilt cartouche naming the contents, usually an abbreviated Latin drug name, and quoted in the title when it's legible.
Antique Apothecary Jars: Frequently Asked Questions
What period do most of these date from?
The 18th century dominates. Of 64 listings, 41 carry "18th" in the title, and 23 are dated simply "18th Century" with no closer year.
The 1750s is the single busiest decade, with 13 listings. Across the whole category the dealers' dating runs from 1700 to 1920, and only 25 of the 64 commit to a clean year.
Are pairs and sets common?
Multiples are a real part of the category, around a tenth of it. Pairs of 18th-century delft jars recur, and the samples include a set of five, a set of six chemists jars and a group of five French medicine jars.
The largest group recorded is a run of fourteen large Italian jars dated around 1910. Pairs and sets sit at the top of the range.
Which countries made them?
England and the Low Countries account for the delft and tin-glazed jars that make up about half the listings. Italy is the most-named foreign origin, with Savona appearing three times and Nove and Naples once each.
France shows up in the later chemist and medicine jars. One Japanese Arita jar of about 1690, described as Dutch-decorated, is the only East Asian piece in the sample.
Do apothecary jars carry maker's marks?
Not in this category. The dominant listing is a plainly titled 18th-century delft jar with no maker given, and no pottery or factory recurs often enough to be treated as a category name.
What does get named is a place rather than a firm: Savona, Nove, Naples. An attribution to a pottery centre sits higher in the range than an unattributed jar.
What do the painted inscriptions mean?
They're abbreviated Latin names for the contents, painted or gilded into a cartouche on the front. Titles here quote CONF:CARDIAC, S: BALSAM and S CAPPILLO.
Not every label is medicinal. One jar carries a gilt "Cannabis Sativa" label and another was made for tobacco shag.
How often do these come up for sale?
Roughly six a year on Sellingantiques, spread across fifteen different dealers.
No single dealer holds the category, and the 64 listings in the record are split between the 18th-century delft group, Italian maiolica, and a smaller run of 19th-century and later chemist jars.