Lot 8
ITALIAN MAIOLICA APOTHECARY SYRUP JAR WITH MATCHING COVER
PESARO OR CASTEL DURANTE, DATED 1579
Auction: 26 June 2013 at 12:00 BST
Description
the ovoid body with flaring neck, short spout, broad strap handle and domed lid, painted in green, blue, ochre and yellow with an oval panel of the female figure of Fortune standing on a sea monster holding a billowing sail aloft, on the broad strap handle, all on a dark blue ground with musical and armorial trophies, the date 1579 inscribed on a musical trophy on the lower foot, bearing an inscription on a band below the handle 'O.D.CODOGNE', possibly for Olio di Codium (poppy-head oil)
Dimensions
19cm diam, 25.5cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
Property of a Gentleman of Title
In the collection of the family of the present owners since the late 19th / early 20th century. Entries in the family archives suggest that maiolica was acquired between 1894 and 1916 from three different sources: from G. Donaldson in 1894 (with two items bought from the Spitzer Collection) in 1896 and in 1897; from H.A. Peto in 1899 and from S.M. Crossley in 1908 and in November 1916.
Note:
For identical jars see this catalogue and jars (dated 1579 and possibly from the same series) in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, in Rudolf Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, cat. 24D, p. 61 and Jeanne Giacomotti, Catalogue des Majoliques de Musees Nationaux, Paris, 1974, cat.84, p.321. See also lot 2 of this sale for a pill pot from the same series.
See Wendy Watson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics - The Howard I. and Janet H. Stein Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2001, p.209, cats 80 A and B for overall discussion of this series decorated with the female figure of Fortune
See R.E.A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978), p.195 for reference to these contents