£8,750
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art | 588
Auction: 5 February 2020 at 10:00 GMT
with short cylindrical neck and tubular spout united by a single twisted rope of clay, fitted with a thick handle of flat joined bands decorated with green stripes, above the bulbous body with pharmacy label inscribed SYo. DEISAP. O and a gadrooned urn, decorated throughout with polychrome grotesque decoration of stylised dolphins, birds and flowerheads on an orange ground, within characteristic bands of interlaced ornamental knotwork, incised L6 d ?2 to the base, (for ‘libbre’ (pounds) and ‘once’ (ounces) likely equating to 2095.2gm, its modern weight when empty)
Provenance: Property from Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian
Note: This jar belongs to a small group of recorded surviving jars from Siena with characteristic shapes and handles made circa 1500-circa 1530 for various pharmacies. All known survivors were made and labelled to contain syrups. Two (one in the V&A and one in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche Faenza) are decorated on a dark blue ground and one, very similar to this example, (in a private collection) on a dark orange ground (see Mario Luccarelli and Anna Migliori Luccarelli, ‘L’evoluzione della maiolica senese dall’immaginario medievale al ‘capriccio’della grottesca’, in La ceramica a Siena dalle origini all’Ottocento, ed. Margherita Anselmi Zondadari and Paolo Torriti,2012, figs 90-91, p68-69.). This orange ground was popular with early 16th century Sienese maiolica potters. The group relates in decoration and colour to tiles made in Siena in particular to those made for the Santa Caterina Oratory of 1504-5. This drug jar here also relates to a group of smaller dark orange grounded albarellos made from 1500 and in particular to one dated 1515 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (see Timothy Wilson, Maiolica - Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016, cat22, p96-7.).
For reference to the weight of the jar please see Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics. A catalogue of the British Museum Collection, 2009, vol 2, cat249, p427-8.
We are grateful to Celia Curnow for writing these entries and to Dr Elisa Sani for confirming her attributions.