Bronze Nesting Apothecary Weights

The nested cup weights were designed to make the transport of weights, essential items in most commercial transactions, more convenient. The idea of nesting weights, which dates back to Roman times, was to increase the portability of weight sets by compacting an entire group of weights into a container. In the nested cup form, a series of weights shaped into cups are set one into the other, forming a stack which is stored within a house vessel. Each of the cups fit precisely into the next, larger sized cup, which each larger example weighing exactly twice that of the one previous. Furthermore, the weight of the house was made to equal the total weight of the cup stack. In this manner, systems of weights were created that allowed for precise and flexible measurements, and could be contained within organized conveyable units.