Comments on: Barrett’s Mandrake Embrocation

By: Caro

Caro — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 11:10:27 +0000

What a great find! I’d love to see a picture of it.

By: PAUL GARBUTT

PAUL GARBUTT — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:03:11 +0000

I have a small farm just outside Snaith in Yorkshire, part of our land was once quarried for clay. I have regularly unearthed old glass bottles from a part of the quarry which at some period of history has been infilled. Today I unearthed a small green glass bottle in perfect condition embossed with the words ‘Barrett’s Mandrake Embrocation’. The picture of the mandrake is also embossed on the bottle. I was amazed to find through the google search the interesting history of this company which was right on my doorstep!

By: Caro

Caro — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:50:32 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone – have been away so apologies for the delay in replying.

Barrett certainly claimed that the products were made from mandrake root – top quality stuff that he grew himself – but I don’t know of any analyses that would confirm or disprove this.

By: Lilla Bruna Elk

Lilla Bruna Elk — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:49:00 +0000

Do we know what was actually in it? Did it have mandrake root in?

Great story!

By: JDM

JDM — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:57:56 +0000

You made me reach for my 1800s pharmacopoeia again…

Mandrake is another fun one.

By: Eric Stott

Eric Stott — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:23:06 +0000

Michael, thank you for mentioning “Man-Drake”- the meaning of that trademark never occurred to my my brain (perhaps I should inhale some embrocation)

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:30:02 +0000

After “Cameron the piss-prophet” I was hoping for something along the lines of “Clegg the piss-taking prophet”.

However, the manatid logo undoes my disappointment, and the ManDrake will go into my file of potential avatars.