Lot 7
ITALIAN MAIOLICA DOUBLE HANDLED APOTHECARY DRUG JAR
CASTELLI, CIRCA 1550, PROBABLY WORKSHOP OF ORAZIO POMPEI
Auction: 26 June 2013 at 12:00 BST
Description
the bulbous body with a short neck with a short broad flaring rim and short spreading trumpet foot, twisted rope handles springing from the lower neck to the middle of the body, painted in blue, yellow, strong orange and pale green, with the portrait caricature of an old man wearing a beret set in a rectangular panel running to rim edge above an inscription that reads 'GRAS.D.GALL' probably for grasso di gallina (chicken fat), the panels surrounding the portrait head are infilled with scrolling foliage on an ochre ground; the reverse with thin scrolling lines flanked by circular whorl shapes; bearing collector's inscribed number 1863 and 8 in pen on the base
Dimensions
20cm diam, 18cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
Possibly ex Spitzer Collection
Property of Gentleman of Title
In the collection of the family of the present owners since the late 19th / early 20th century. There is some evidence from entries in the family archives to show that a jar possibly of this description was acquired by G. Donaldson from the Spitzer Collection in 1894. However, an entry matching this description can not be found in that sale.
Note:
For a similar double handled drug jar in the Musée Lyonnais des Arts Décoratifs, Lyons see Rudolf Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, cat. 18C, p. 49. See R. E. A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978), p.204 for reference to these contents.