What colours do these bottles come in?

Blue leads where colour is named, appearing in eight titles, with Bristol blue picked out repeatedly. Green, amber and dark green each turn up in individual titles. Amethyst is the outlier. It appears once in the whole archive, on a pair, and that pair sits at the very top of the range. Clear glass is common and, where nothing else is said about it, sits low.

Are they usually sold singly or in groups?

Singles lead, but not by much. Nine titles name a pair, and there are sets of three, five, eight and ten. Collections go further: groups of 11, 12, 13, 17 and one of 29 chemists' jars have all been listed. Those larger groups hold the upper end of the range.

How old are most apothecary bottles?

Broad dating dominates. "19th Century" and "Victorian" together cover more than half the 54 listings on Sellingantiques, so you're reading a century or a reign rather than a year. Only 12 listings carry a clean year, and those run from 1850 to 1920. Twentieth-century entries are real but thin, with a few Georgian, Regency and eighteenth-century pieces at the other end.

Which makers signed apothecary bottles?

No glasshouse or supplier name comes through in this archive. The dealer descriptions don't attach one. One listing does name the firm on its labels, and that's the only place in the category where a name appears at all. Everything else is identified by colour, label, size or form.

A very large glass vessel, used by chemists for bulk quantities. Four appear in the archive, and every one is titled large or very large. One is described simply as an outsize chemist carboy bottle. All four sit in the upper half of the range.

Do any listings include cases rather than loose glass?

A handful. A Victorian leather apothecary case and a Regency mahogany fitted apothecary's box have each appeared once. So has a bottle with its carrier, a gelatine jar and cover, and a silver-mounted flask with a pill box. France is the recurring foreign origin across the category, named on amber bottles, etched jars, blown glass pickling jars and a set of eight.

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Antique Apothecary Bottles

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Glass bottles and jars from the dispensing chemist's counter and shelf, made to hold drugs, tinctures and ingredients, many with the drug name painted straight onto the glass.