The Laboratory, c1842

Description

Framed mezzotint engraving entitled ‘The Laboratory’, engraved by John George Murray, based on a watercolour drawing by the artist William Henry Hunt, and published by Thomas McLean in 1842.

‘The Laboratory’ depicts the manufacturing laboratory at the rear of the John Bell and Company pharmacy at 338 (later re-numbered 225) Oxford Street, London. The seated figure in the centre of the picture is John Simmonds, who had been the superintendent of the laboratory since the pharmacy opened in 1798.

He is depicted sitting on a cask and stirring an ointment in a large pan. At one side stands a boy washing a mortar. Among the apparatus of the laboratory is a worm-tub and stills. Having a substantial manufacturing facility on-site meant every medicinal preparation that the shop sold could be made on the premises.