"An apothecary's shop, the walls covered by jars closely ranged on shelves, a stuffed fish hanging from the ceiling. Behind a curtain (right) Death, wearing an apron, pounds at a mortar of 'slow Poison', looking gleefully in a mirror to watch the customers. The fat quack compounds medicines at the counter. A grotesque crowd of agonized patients enters through a doorway (left) inscribed 'Apothecaries Hall'. Two sit in arm-chairs. The jars are 'Canthar[ides]', 'Arsnic', 'Opium', 'Nitre', 'Vitriol', 'Elixir', with (right) 'Restorativ Drops'."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
I have a secret art to cure each malady, which men endure
Description:
Title from British Museum catalogue, taken from the heading to the printed page opposite the plate in The English dance of death., Couplet etched below image: I have a secret art to cure / each malady, which men endure., Attributed to Rowlandson in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark with loss of imprint from top margin and verses from bottom margin. Missing text supplied from impression in the British Museum., Plate from: Combe, W. The English dance of death. London : Published at R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts ..., 1815-1816, v. 1, opposite page 85., and Temporary local Medical Library subject terms: Skeleton as death -- Pharmacy, interior -- Apothecaries.
Publisher:
Pub. July 1- 1814, at R. Ackermann's, 101 Strand
Subject (Name):
Combe, William, 1742-1823.
Subject (Topic):
Death (Personification), Quacks and quackery, Skeletons, Interiors, Drugstores, Pharmacists, Mortars & pestles, Sick persons, Medicines, Shelving, Containers, and Mirrors
