English Delftware Heart-Shaped Pill Tile with the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries Coat of Arms, 1670

Description

This English Delftware Heart-Shaped Pill Tile is decorated with the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries Coat of Arms.
Inscribed ‘1670 THOMAS FAVTRART OPIFEQUE: PER: ORBEM: DICOR’, it was made in Southwark, London in 1670 for a Thomas Fautrart.

Fact

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries’ coat of arms feature Apollo (a god of healing) killing the dragon of disease, supported by two unicorns (from King James’s royal arms) and with a rhinoceros as the crest (the powdered horn was believed to be medicinal). The motto ‘Opiferque Per Orbem Dicor’, from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, translates: “I am spoken of all over the world as one who brings help”.