The German apothecary William, Baron Schwanberg (c.1686 – 1744) was the inventor of such 18th century ‘cure all’s’ as ‘Liquid Shell’, ‘Universal Powders’, and a cure for the disease scurvy called the ‘Aurum Horizontale Pill’. Claiming himself a Baron, Baron Schwanberg sold his medicines as ‘most powerful, safe, and efficacious’.The advertising of patent medicines began at the same time as the creation of the public sphere, in which newspapers first became available and read in the new phenomena of coffee houses. In fact the early marketing of early medicines through their ‘letters patent’ (royal approval) fueled the circulation of early papers. Many advertising and sales techniques were pioneered by patent medicine promoters. To keep patent medicines in the early public sphere, they began to use distinctive bottle shapes, and also claim in their advertising that no disease was beyond the cure of their medical formulae. This ofgraveconcern original artwork is influenced by the medical advertising of the early 18th century.