TRAC AROMAT

18th century

This blown and molded square-shaped bottle has a narrow neck with a round stopper. The baked white enamel shield is framed by stylized blue leaves and capped by a yellow crown. The label is marked in black <i>TRAC AROMAT.</i> <i>Aromata</i> is Latin for spices, and this apothecary jar would have held some sort of solution mixed with spices. Aromatic spices such as myrrh, cloves and various flowers were used to make the air clean and healthful. Reference: Paul Freedman, <i>Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination</i> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 81.