Vintage Prescriptions

The signature of Goda Bordon's pharmacy. Courtesy of Antanas Bukauskas Regional Museum of the Šeduva Gymnasium.

The world of interwar pharmacy without this small sheet of paper would be like a party without music - unimaginable! In the past, medicines were made according to an individual doctor's prescription. This prescription, attached to the medicine bottle, is called a signature.

Signatures include the patient's and doctor's surnames and precise medication instructions.

Each pharmacy would order a tailored signature from the printing press. They would write the pharmacy's name, owner's surname, city, and telephone number.

Pharmacists could choose whether to order a custom, more expensive design or use the one the press offers. The most common symbols were a snake coiled around a cup, botanical motifs, and the Vytis (the knight on horseback from the Lithuanian coat of arms). The latter can be seen in the signature of Goda Bordon's pharmacy in Šeduva. It's not unique - the same symbolism was chosen for prescriptions in the Dusetos pharmacy.

Signatures had different colors. As seen in the photo, the yellow color indicated externally used medicines - in this case, eye drops; white indicated medicines for internal use, and blue indicated injections.