Sonnenleder Case homeopathic travel pharmacy

Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, owned a large travel pharmacy similar to the one offered here. It is displayed in the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart nowadays. (The smaller version can be used as an emergency chemist's shop and because of its modest dimensions it fits in a handbag or backpack.) The brown glass tubes (Length 5.5 cm, Ø 0.5 cm) held in the cases with rubber bands are intended to be filled with globules. Each tube holds about 1.5 g or about 150 size III globules.

Sonnenleder in Bodman-Ludwigshafen on Lake Constance in the Hegau region stands for consistently purposeful, pure design. The meticulously working company maintains the most traditional method of leather production: pit tanning. Solely hides from southern German cattle find their way into the pits of the company. The tanning agents used by Sonnenleder contain, for the most part, decoctions from bark, roots and fruits. The hides undergo the tanning process in twelve pits with tanning broths slightly rising in concentration; the tanning agents transform the protein fibres of the hides into leather fibres in six to twelve weeks. In the next step, the tanned, then air-dried hides get a fatliquoring finish in a rotating barrel; the composition of the high-quality grease is a well-kept secret recipe. The finished leather thus has a characteristic, slightly light brown-reddish hue (hence the term “red-tanned”), which looks different in each piece. Day-to-day use and exposure to the elements change the shade and result in a patina, a form of natural protection on the surface. Eventually, the leather gains an unmistakable appearance over time. Even the thoroughly imbued leather acquires a shiny patina with use.