Lachrymatory
Hello all! Today, we're going to look at something that I stumbled on by chance: a Lachrymatory! What is a Lachrymatory? A Lachrymatory or tear catcher is precisely that, a vessel to catch or keep tears in.. A Brief History ... Lachrymatories go all the way back to ancient Rome and Greece, starting as terracotta vessels that contained oils and perfumes, supposedly where mourners could collect their tears. The word Lachrymatory is derived from the Latin word lacrima which means tear. Most older Lachrymatories were shaped like a bulb with a long neck and a bulbous base and while terracotta was mostly used to make them, other materials such as glass and other ceramics were also used. However, there is no concrete evidence from these time periods to support the use of Lachrymatories as tear catchers during this time. Due to so many being found in tombs, the idea of them being used to catch and hold tears was popularised during the Victorian era, where des...