The containers in the Pharma section

[ReneZ]

Lathe turning was quite well developed by the time the Voynich MS was written.

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The shapes of the pharma containers are largely compatible with this production technique. Feet could/would have been added separately, though I would say that some of them really look as if they are metal - e.g. the ones shown by Marco just before. Would this be pewter?

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The various forms of the containers all appear in the same context in the MS, so whatever they are, they have the same role.
Even when some of them look like early microscopes or rather opera glasses, the majority clearly aren't.
Similarly, even if some are similar (graphically) to the canons of Alfonse of Aragon, as drawn by Pisanello in the mid 15th C, they clearly are not guns.

I like JKP's mention of candle holders, as the objects we see in the MS could just possibly even be that, and their shapes are not at all out of the ordinary for candle holders. (Though I have seen only very few images of candle holders with lids).

These points show to me, however, that the shapes are not out of the ordinary for the time of the MS.

Possibly, similar illustrations exist, but have not yet been found or published.
Similar shapes (for the more elaborate containers) may be found in later times, by a century or more, in lathe-turned ivory. These are objects of art. Rudolf II had some, which had an oval rather than circular ground form, but still lathe-turned. These were 'stacked boxes' (my tentative translation for Stapeldosen). 
I don't know if such stacked boxes existed in the 15th C, but their purpose was to have many different containers.

The pharma section containers could well be different because some of them were supposed to contain single herbs / drugs, others several different types of herbs / drugs, and others still liquid drugs (which should not be made of wood....)