Non-medical stock
Chemist shops, as the name implies, dealt in all sorts of chemicals and products that had a origin relating to chemical processes- hence photography, household cleaners, soap, insecticides and even alcoholic drinks.
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Many dry products came in cardboard cylinders with tinned steel tops and bases like this Sanitas Powder. It was a soap-based disinfecting cleaner for general use that first appeared in the 1890s. The Christopher pharmacy stocked several lines of cleaning products that might today be found in a hardware shop or supermarket.
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Keating’s insecticide powder was available from at least the 1860s, but the packaging here comes from the 1950s or 1960s.
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Many chemist’s shops had an off-licence to sell alcoholic drinks. The ceramic Buchanan’s “Black & White” whisky advertising came with the Christopher chemist shop. The chemists Thomas & Emanuel Taylor in Silver Street chose to pursue this side of the business and became wine and spirit merchants.
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To go with the whisky Christopher sold soda siphons and refilled them with carbonated water. This is a Schweppe’s soda water siphon with a decorative design etched into the glass. The Swiss Johann Jacob Schweppe (1740–1821) developed the first process for carbonating water and set up a business in Bristol and then in London in the early 1790s. The brand is known throughout the world now.
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