This paper tries to clarify some issues concerning the ceramic pottery of Renaissance pharmacies when it was necessary to drugs’ storage. The first issue concerns the inscriptions, from the wonderful gothic typeface to the simpler but elegant square capital letter. Another problem is the relationship of the drug with its container. As a matter of fact no one document preserved in the historical archives mentions how to make vases according to the very different drugs they were bound to contain. Arms or family emblems are frequent: they can help to identify the chemist shop and the town where it was located. Yet the question remains as to when the change from user needs to collectionism took place. As in Italy a real rush to buying artworks developed in the late XIX century Grand Tour, Roccavaldina offers the most ancient whole collection of more than 200 vases from Urbino dating back to 1690. This extraordinary collection is still in situ as “Pharmacy-Museum” in the small town dominating Messina from above. The different artistic typologies can therefore be admired.