Collection of more than 900 pharmacy boxes, late 19th - mid-20th century.

Collection of more than 900 boxes of pharmacy, late nineteenth-mid twentieth century.
In lithographed tinplate, porcelain and glass.
With marks of use and wear.
Fouls, dirt and some damage.

Huge collection of medicinal boxes from the last third of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. All of them are made of tinplate (a light and resistant material). Most of them keep in good condition the decorations, elegant typographies, bright colors and illustrations that show the evolution of the brands and the advertising aesthetics linked to health. Pain pills, throat candies, vaginal ovules, calcium supplements... are some of the products that are advertised on packages that, for their part, were made in a diversity of typologies: cylindrical and rectangular, large and small, flat and stylized... These little boxes have become highly valued collector's items.

Tin boxes were used for the first time in Europe, in England, at the end of the 19th century. Before the diffusion by audio-visual media, tin boxes were a fundamental advertising claim. The contents of the box were as important as the colorful design on the outside. With industrial progress, the tinplate box was introduced as an essential means of preserving medicines and foodstuffs that needed insulation from heat and cold. Chromolithography on metal had a decisive importance in the beginning and diffusion of advertising communication, as we understand it today. Between 1870 and 1890, progress in laminating and printing techniques allowed the rise of decorated and lithographed cans to contain consumer products, including medicines.