This image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Earthenware pill tile, tin glazed, square and standing on four short legs, decorated with arms of a cardinal, Italian, 18th century
Pill tiles are used to make pills and mix ointments. Pills were cut from a large long roll of a drug mixture. The dosage could be worked out by measuring the length of the roll and dividing it by the number of pills that would be cut from it. Once cut, the segments would be rolled into a spherical pill shape on the tile.
This pill tile has the coat of arms of a cardinal in the centre, suggesting it came from a monastic pharmacy.
On display
Science Museum: Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
If you are visiting to see this object, please contact us in advance to make sure that it will be on display.
Details
- Category:
- Pharmacy-ware
- Object Number:
- A96436
- Materials:
- complete, earthenware (tin glazed), paper (fibre product)
- type:
- pill tile
- credit:
- Ferrando
Cite this page
Rights
We encourage the use and reuse of our collection data.
Data in the title, made, maker and details fields are released under Creative Commons Zero
Descriptions and all other text content are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence
Download
Download catalogue entry as json
Download 
manifest IIIF
Our records are constantly being enhanced and improved, but please note that we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information shown on this website.
