Vintage box of "Menthol Cocaine-Borate Pastilles"

Superb lithographed tin box, typical of pharmacopoeias from the turn of the 20th century. Labeled "Antiseptic and anesthetic lozenges – Menthol, Cocaine, and Borate," this preparation Cocaine-based medicine was prescribed for throat ailments, hoarseness, and laryngitis. On the back, the audacious advertisement for Pharmacie Principale H. Canonne , a famous Parisian pharmacist, boasts of being "the largest and best-stocked in the world."

✦ Origin: France, Paris
✦ Estimated period: Circa 1900–1910
✦ Dimensions: 9 × 6 × 2.5 cm
✦ Material: Lithographed metal
✦ Condition: Very good original condition, slight signs of wear, red and silver tints well preserved

This box perfectly illustrates the era when products based on borated cocaine were used as mild anesthetics before their gradual prohibition in the 1910s. An exceptional graphic piece, emblematic of pharmaceutical marketing of the Belle Époque.