Returned After 100 Years!

When I picked up a prescription on Tuesday I noticed that the chemist had a window display of artefacts dating back to the creation of the business in 1899 by Joseph Cowper FCS, known as the Chemist of the North of England.

Now for well over thirty years I've had these little bottles, I used to have them on display in my last house, but for the last 30 years they have been in a box on the loft. I couldn't bear to part with a piece of local history, until today, that is! So, last night, after The Man had done a lot of standing around on one leg, I sent him up the loft ladder to look for them. The Mother saw them and offered to rub some beeswax into the lids before I took them along to the Chemist today.

As soon as I handed over the little bottles the Chemist put them into the window, they had no others like them and because they not only had the shop name but also the initials FCS (Fellow of the Chemical Society) they would have belonged to the original Chemist.

As I went to the car park after work the present Chemist was keen to tell me that they had discovered paperwork of 1909 saying they were Chemists to the King, that would be Edward VII.

This was just a bit more special than my usual glass recycling so it's my blip today!