SYP CHAMOM

1700 - 1799

This teapot-shaped majolica syrup jar has a tin lid and a white tin glazed background with yellow, blue and black decorative motifs including the unusual addition of the staff of Asclepius, a familiar symbol of the medical profession. A blue glazed rectangle in the center of the container is marked “SYP CHAMOM” in the cold paint technique. The jar would have contained the syrup of chamomile, used as a tonic, diaphoretic, antiseptic, digestive, and aperients a mild laxative. Urdang attributes the jar to Offenbach in the Rhine River Valley of Germany.