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Materia Medica Cabinet, Known as the 'Oglander Collection', Compiled by Joseph Clutton, with separate Stand, London, 1729

Inventory Number 25401

Acknowledgement: © History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, inv.25401

Item type
Object
Provenance
Lent by New College, Oxford, in 1925. Made up in 1729 by the London apothecary Joseph Clutton for a gentleman client, Thomas Jobber. The collection was later owned by John Oglander, Warden (1768-94) of New College, Oxford, thereafter remaining in the College until its loan to the Museum in 1925.
Object type
Natural history collection
Dimensions
Height: 515mm Width: 692mm Depth: 450mm
Inventory No
25401
Accession Number
1925-44

Description

Wooden cabinet containing a materia medica collection made up in 1729 by the London apothecary Joseph Clutton for a gentleman client, Thomas Jobber. Also known as the Oglander Collection due to subsequent ownership by John Oglander, Warden of New College.

The six drawers are divided into labelled compartments for individual specimens, with some small specimens in pill-boxes and liquids contained in glass jars with brass caps. The subjects of the drawers are: flowers, seeds and fruits; roots; woods, resins, etc.; metals, precious stones and minerals; animal specimens (two drawers). The collection also includes a two-volume herbarium containing 460 pressed plants.

The collection contains a total of 1,032 specimens and is in a good state of preservation. Joseph Clutton's original invoice dated 1729 survives in the cabinet. The herbarium also contains an early example of 'nature printing' with contemporary (early 18th-century) manuscript instructions for the substances used to coat the specimens in order to form the impressions.

For the life and career of the supplier Joseph Clutton, see Christopher J. Duffin, 'Joseph Clutton, c.1695-1743: A Georgian apothecary', Pharmaceutical Historian 2018 Vol. 48 Issue 4 Pages 85-99.

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