Small albarello drug jar for spermaceti, Italy, 1701-1800
- Science Museum, London
Available online
License
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
You can use this work for any purpose, including commercial uses, without restriction under copyright law. You should also provide attribution to the original work, source and licence.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) terms and conditions https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Credit: Small albarello drug jar for spermaceti, Italy, 1701-1800. Credit: Science Museum, London. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
About this work
Description
Spermaceti is the oily substance from the head of a sperm whale. It was once used in large amounts as the base in medicinal ointments as well as cosmetics and moisturisers. A full-grown sperm whale may yield one tonne of spermaceti. However, because it is difficult to obtain the oil is very expensive. The jar used to store the oil is thought to be from Italy. maker: Unknown maker Place made: Italy
Contributors
Subjects
Identifiers
We’re improving the information on this page. Find out more.