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Colour card advertising Ayer's Sarsaparilla showing a young woman in a field or garden wearing a long, red dress with white frills and yellow bows running up the centre. She has a child sitting on her right shoulder. Ayer's Sarsaparilla was supposed to cure scrofula and all mercurial and blood disorders, lassitude and debility - and presumably anaemia. It was made from sarsaparilla root, mandrake, yellow dock, iodide of potassium and iron.

Drug advertising. Box 13.

Ayer's Sarsaparilla gives health and sunny hours / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.

58 pages, 2 unnumbered pages ; 8vo (19 cm)

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; : with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

1 print : engraving, with watercolour ; platemark 24 x 18.3 cm

A cudweed plant (Gnaphalium species), mandrake plant (Mandragora officinarum) and breadfruit tree (Artocarpus atilis). Coloured engraving, c. 1827.

An adaptation of the painted portrait of Dioscorides that appears in the Juliana Anicia manuscript of his writings (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis medicus Graecus 1, fol. 4v, dated to the 6th century AD). In the manuscript, Dioscorides (identified by his name in Greek) sits on the left, gesturing towards a mandrake plant (labelled "mandragora" in Greek) held by a seated woman on the right: the woman is a personification of Discovery, as indicated by the word "Heuresis" in Greek inscribed above her. In a second identification inscribed near the top of the sheet, Dioscorides' name is repeated, but the woman is identified as "hē sophia", or a personification of wisdom. In the present painting, Board has turned the allegorical subject of the Juliana Anicia portrait into a narrative scene, and has added a man on the left who is creatng a brush-drawing of the mandrake plant
A similar depiction had been produced in 1866 by E. Tournois, whose composition was engraved on wood by C. Laplante and published by Louis Figuier in his Vies des savants illustres, Paris 1866, facing p. 354: it may have served as a reference source for the present painting by Ernest Board

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 61 x 92 cm

Dioscorides describing the mandrake. Oil painting by Ernest Board, 1909.

Witches using cords to pull up a mandrake plant growing near the foot of the gallows

1 painting : gouache on paper ; paper 31.2 x 45.8 cm

Three people plucking mandrake. Gouache by Robert Bateman, 1870.

The roots of mandrake and ginseng are used in medicine. The tuberous root of mandrake has a fancied resemblance to human form and the plant allegedly screams when pulled from the ground

1 print : engraving ; platemark 32.5 x 21 cm

Mandrake roots in the form of human figures, both naked and clothed; the mandrake plant itself (Mandragora officinarum L.); and a root of ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.). Engraving.

Further information on the subject is filed with the prints
In the background are two scenes which symbolize two subjects complementary to medicine. The first is surgery, represented as an anatomical dissection, and the second is pharmacy, represented by physician presenting a pharmacist with a recipe outside his shop

1 print : line engraving with etching ; platemark 20.5 x 24.6 cm

Panacea, daughter of Æsculapius, examining a urine flask and surrounded by medical paraphernalia. Engraving by P. Galle (?).

Above, the sun, the signs of the zodiac, and a large mortar-like urn from which Iris (winged) dispenses water (rain, or water from the Styx). Below, Flora holds plants of the world, including a prominent cactus. Left, Aesculapius, holding his staff, stands before an offering of mandrakes. Right, a Janus-faced winged man with a scythe runs away

1 print : mezzotint, printed in blue ; platemark 32 x 20.3 cm

Iris, Aesculapius and Flora routing death. Mezzotint by J.J. Haid, 1737, after J.W. Baumgartner.

Eighteenth Century collections online

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

The mandrake contains hyoscyamine and had former medicinal uses. The mandrake of western literature allegedly screamed when pulled from the ground and deafened human gatherers so that dogs were supposed to extract them

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 36.9 x 22.4 cm

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Ayer's Sarsaparilla gives health and sunny hours / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; : with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

A cudweed plant (Gnaphalium species), mandrake plant (Mandragora officinarum) and breadfruit tree (Artocarpus atilis). Coloured engraving, c. 1827.

Dioscorides describing the mandrake. Oil painting by Ernest Board, 1909.

Three people plucking mandrake. Gouache by Robert Bateman, 1870.

Mandrake roots in the form of human figures, both naked and clothed; the mandrake plant itself (Mandragora officinarum L.); and a root of ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.). Engraving.

Panacea, daughter of Æsculapius, examining a urine flask and surrounded by medical paraphernalia. Engraving by P. Galle (?).

Iris, Aesculapius and Flora routing death. Mezzotint by J.J. Haid, 1737, after J.W. Baumgartner.

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum L.): flowering plant with separate fruit, seed and sectioned fruit. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1772.

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Ayer's Sarsaparilla gives health and sunny hours / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; : with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

A cudweed plant (Gnaphalium species), mandrake plant (Mandragora officinarum) and breadfruit tree (Artocarpus atilis). Coloured engraving, c. 1827.

Dioscorides describing the mandrake. Oil painting by Ernest Board, 1909.

Three people plucking mandrake. Gouache by Robert Bateman, 1870.

Mandrake roots in the form of human figures, both naked and clothed; the mandrake plant itself (Mandragora officinarum L.); and a root of ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.). Engraving.

Panacea, daughter of Æsculapius, examining a urine flask and surrounded by medical paraphernalia. Engraving by P. Galle (?).

Iris, Aesculapius and Flora routing death. Mezzotint by J.J. Haid, 1737, after J.W. Baumgartner.

A critical dissertation on the mandrake of the antients; with some observations on the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman literature, botany, and medicine. In a letter to a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum L.): flowering plant with separate fruit, seed and sectioned fruit. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1772.

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