Medicinal water bottle, with contents, from Bagneres de Bigorre, France, 1928

This bottle of medicinal water (second on the left) was collected from the hot spring of Saleus at the spa town of Bagnères de Bigorre in south-west France. Hot springs and mineral waters were popular in a number of ancient cultures – including Greek and Roman. Centuries later, a renewed interest in the healing and medicinal properties of these natural waters reached a peak in the Victorian period with hundreds of sites across Europe packed with visitors coming to ‘take the waters’ in the hope of a cure.

The handwritten label gives the date, “17 March 1928”, the temperature of the spring, “50ºC” (122ºF), and indicates that it is to be used for the throat. Once cooled the water was either drunk or applied to the body. The bottle is shown here with three others from the same region of France (A103802, A103805, and A103807).