19th Century Apothecary

Written By Museum of Croydon

Collections Volunteer, Katherine continues to share her research on 19th Century Apothecaries. Read below for part two of three blogs, focussing on the apothecaries’ system of weights and the history of the company who produced the Museum’s Apothecary kit …

 

The Apothecaries’ System

Weight kits such as these would have used the ‘apothecaries’ system’, a historical system of mass and volume units.

The system uses imperial system units such as the pound and ounce and historical units of measurements such as the drachm, which is equivalent to around 3.888 grams, the scruple, which is equivalent to 1.296 grams, and the grain, which is equivalent to 64.799 milligrams. Within the Apothecaries’ System the pound is divided into 12 ounces, an ounce into 8 drachms and a drachms into 3 scruples or 20 grains. Overtime a number of different versions of the system have been used, this motivated the 1850 Irish pharmacopoeia which unified all apothecary weight systems and subdivided a new apothecaries’ pound. This linked the apothecaries system to the avoirdupois system, another historical measurement system and made the apothecaries’ pound the equivalent of 12 avoirdupois ounces or 340.2 grams but this wasn’t widely adopted. 

 
 
 
 

The 1858 Medicinals Act, however, was more radical and prescribed the avoirdupois system to the UK and Ireland, with all the traditional subdivisions removed. However, the original system did not completely fall out of favour and remained in practice until it was abolished by the Weights and Measures Act of 1976. The small, thin metal weights in the kit correlated to the weight of a grain with the numbers of sides on the shape they had been formed into indicating the number of grains they weighed.

 

What does our Apothecary weights kit tell us?

 

This particular kit in Croydon Museum’s collection is dated to the year 1890, a time when traditional apothecaries were falling out of popularity and replaced with more modern pharmarcy. As the kit was produced after 1858 when the Medicinals Acts prescribed the avoirdupois system to the UK and Ireland, it is more likely to have used this than the previous apothecary system

 
 

Apothecary Weight Kit in the museum’s collection.

Object Ref: E0026 ©Museumofcroydon

 
 

De Grave, Short, Fanner & Co. Makers

 

The company who was produced the kit was De Grave, Short, Fanner & Co. Makers, a British weight making company from London. From 1845-71 they were based at 58 Martin le Grand, but by 1890 they were operating from 13 Farrington Road, where this object was most likely produced. It is not quite certain where the company began with one engraving on a scale they produced stating it was founded in 1670, however, the earliest confirmed date the founder, Charles De Grave was trading from is 1767 which is therefore believed to be around the time the company was established.

 
 
Credit An apothecary publically preparing the drug theriac, under the supervision of a physician. Woodcut. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

An apothecary publicly preparing the drug theriac, under the supervision of a physician. Woodcut. (Source: Wellcome Collection.

 
 

After Charles De Grave’s death in 1799 the company was ran by his wife, Mary until their son, Charles was able to succeed it in 1844. In 1845 Charles De Grave Jr. took on a partnership with Samuel Robinson Short which meant the company name was changed to De Grave, Short & Co. It was then shortly after changed again to De Grave, Short, Fanner & Co., as it appears on the apothecary kit, when William Fanner joined the company as a partner at an unknown date.

 

A trade card from a scale produced by the company indicates they won a range of awards and accolades and appeared at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the International Exhibition of 1862 and the International Inventions Exhibition in 1885. These appearances cemented the company’s reputation, with them receiving several Governmental and international commissions in the following 30 years. In 1911 the company became part of the Avery organisation, their former rival, the name Avery De Grave therefore appears on some standard weights. However, in 1922 the company was fully taken over by Avery.

 

- Katherine Dewar, Collections Volunteer

 

COMING SOON! Part three of three blogs inspired by 19th Century Apothecary…

 
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