Antique British Betel Nut Toothpaste Apothecary Jar with Gilded Border carved Walnut When I was in Nashville

When I was in Nashville in February

Varnished and green painted wood

but the knowledgable dealer I purchased it from classified it as a card case

it is possible it is a sea lion

all who appear to have been born in the 1830s-50s

Antique British Betel Nut Toothpaste Apothecary Jar with Gilded Border carved Walnut When I was in NashvilleI love these old late 19th c. transfer printed porcelain apothecary jars, most of them made for toothpaste, which, by the 1880s, most pharmacists were making formulating their own recipes for. This one, for Bell's Betel Nut Toothpaste (the betel nuts, also known as areca nuts, presumably imported from Southeast Asia) was produced by Ferris and Co in Bristol, England, "Chemists to the Queen"and is fairly rare in featuring a gilded border. 3 3 8" in