‘Pharmacy. Alas! Has it Come to This?’, 1901

Description

Mounted pen and ink drawing entitled ‘PHARMACY. ALAS ! HAS IT COME TO THIS ?’ (original published title, Window-dressing), by the artist Richard Freshfield (“Fred”) Reynolds. Copy of the original published by the Chemist and Druggist in 1901.

This caricature illustrates the conflict between pharmacy as a profession and as a trade. It shows the window display of ‘CUTTEM AND SUBSTITUTE THE GREAT STORE CHEMIST’ offering customers a toy with every purchase of pills.

The window display features a pile of pillboxes around a child’s wooden toy with a showcard; “TO EVERY PURCHASER OF OUR PILLS etc. WE GIVE ONE OF THESE FREE OF ALL COST”. A bearded man looking at the window display holds his head in shame, in his left hand he holds the diploma of the Pharmaceutical Society.

A letter from the artist Fred Reynolds, on the original backboard, tells the story behind the sketch; ‘Talking the other day to a London traveller who had just worked Lancashire he informed me with great sadness of heart that he had see