Item #6121 R. B. Folger’s Medical Pharmacy, No. 3 1/2 Chamber Street, two doors from Chatham Street. The Medicines selected for this Establishment are of the best quality, and the utmost care will be used in dispensing the same.

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R. B. Folger’s Medical Pharmacy, No. 3 1/2 Chamber Street, two doors from Chatham Street. The Medicines selected for this Establishment are of the best quality, and the utmost care will be used in dispensing the same.

New York, [ca. 1840]. Endicott lithographer. Lithograph, 9.8” x 15”, plus margins, with applied addition of a sign to the face of a building.

A delightful early advertising lithograph for a New York City pharmacy and adjacent tool store, showing these shops ensconced in a bustling neighborhood.

Situated on Chambers St. next to Begbie & Wright (importer of “Laces & British Goods”), Dr. R. B. Folger’s Pharmacy advertises “Drugs & Medicines” on a sign above the entrance. Four medicine bottles are displayed in the shop window, and a sign between the second and third floor windows reads “Medical Capsulery of H. Planten.” Interestingly, this sign was manually applied to the print subsequent to printing, either because it was accidentally left out when the image was drawn on the stone, or (and perhaps more likely) because the ‘capsulery’ was established subsequent to printing. Adjacent to Begbie & Wright, and more prominent in this image, is T.J. Wood’s Tool Store, “Importer of Carpenter’s & Other Mechanics Tools,” with its bold signs and numerous tools in the windows and leaning up against the building on either side of the doorway. In the lower right corner, a horse drawn carriage is shown delivering a package to T. J. Wood. Given the prominence of the tool store, the print creates the impression of being a joint advertising venture.

The following note appears in an 1897 volume of The Pharmaceutical Era a few years after Folger died: “Dr. R. B. Folger, who died only a very few years ago…manufactured a line of proprietary remedies which he used to place with store keepers all round the country.”

Endicott & Co. was established in New York by George Endicott (1802–1848) of Massachusetts in the 1840s and operated until the late 1880s. The firm’s building was twice destroyed by fire and rebuilt each time. The company produced prints, sheet music covers, advertising posters, city views, portraits and more. The print offered here appears to date from the period when George Endicott was working on his own, from 1834 to 1844.

No copies recorded in OCLC.

REFERENCES: Last, Jay T. The Color Explosion, pp. 76-77; The Pharmaceutical Era, Vol. 17 (New York: D.O. Haynes & Co., 1897), p. 7.

CONDITION: Good, one letter effaced at bottom line of title, two letters partially effaced; recently mounted on Japanese tissue, repairing old folds and separations.

Item #6121

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