Medicine chest by Burroughs Wellcome, owned by Sir James Reid, physician to Queen Victoria from 1881 until her death.

Sir James Reid (1849-1923) was personal physician to Queen Victoria from 1881 until her death in 1901. The leather chest contains a range of medication, including opium-based painkillers, laxatives and Dover’s powders, which were a remedy for colds.

The drugs and medicine chest were made by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co, who supplied a wide range of medicine chests and first aid kits often to influential people and explorers in a shrewd attempt to promote the product. It is pictured here with another Burroughs, Wellcome & Co chest (1981-1008).