'The Itinerant Apothecary', print by George Spratt, London, England, 1830

Print. Personifications, scenes showing people [men, women] constructed of artefacts embodying their character. G. Spratt. Pub. C. Tilt, 1830, printed G.E. Madeley, Wellington Street, Strand, [London]: THE ITINERANT APOTHECARY / G. Spratt del. ; Printed by G. E. Madeley, 3 Wellington Stt Strand. Tilt, Fleet Street, nd. [1830]. lithograph, handcol; trimmed to 27x22cm upon sheet 30.5x23.5cm. Man fashioned from ceramic jars, pestle and mortar hat, bottles, lozenge and pill tins for feet.

George Spratt was a man-midwife who is better known for his ‘personifications’, in which a person is made up from the tools of their trade or the objects they are normally associated with. Here, an apothecary has a thigh and a hat made from a pestle and mortar, a measuring cylinder as a lower leg, bottles of treatments for arms and boxes of pills for feet. A pill cutter also forms part of his coat.

Spratt collaborated on a number of these drawings with the lithographer G E Madeley (active 1826-1854) and English bookseller and publisher Charles Tilt (1797-1861).