Gallipot

A gallipot is a small jar, traditionally of glazed earthenware, used by apothecaries for holding ointment or medicine.^[1] In the 21st century, gallipots are available in plastic as well.

Top view of a modern gallipot

The term gallipot, recorded from the 15th century, may derive from the idea of pots originally imported in galleys,^[2] and has also been used for small pots used for other purposes – such as preparing an individual portion of custard^[3] or melting wax while making fishing flies.^[4]

The Gallipot Inn

The 16th-century Gallipot Inn in Hartfield, Sussex, England, is said to take its name "from the small glazed earthenware pots made to contain medicines and ointments that were once produced on-site".^[5]

Gallipots in a variety of shapes are held in several museums.

• 
  c. 1760, an English tin-glazed earthenware gallipot
• 
  Kangxi period (1662–1722) Chinese porcelain gallipot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art^[6]
• 
  18th-century Chinese ivory gallipot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art^[7]