Lot 1
LATE MEDIEVAL COPPER ALLOY LAVER
14TH CENTURY
Auction: Lots 1 - 335 | 04 September at 10am
Description
the ovoid body with a ribbon handle and a bridge spout with slight moulding at the mouth, standing on tripod legs, with a note at the bottom reading: Found by Mr J. Wight Shepperd. Hyndhoe - Ettrick, Selkirkshire, August 1909
Dimensions
26.5cm high, 15cm diameter
Footnote
Note:
Hand washing played an important role in medieval life:
Christian ceremony required that at each Mass, the deacon would pour water from a pitcher to help wash the priest's hands twice; before donning his vestments and in preparation for the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacrament in which bread and wine are believed to become the body and blood of Christ.
Secular rites also included hand washing. Meals began and ended with hand washing, as it was still customary to primarily eat without cutlery. A jug like the present one would most likely have been used in this context. The moulding at the mouth of the spout is a progression of the earlier zoomorphic type of aquamanile, which would have been in the form of lions or dragons.
See a similar example in the British Museum, inventory number 1910,1220.1
For similar please see; The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 52.46.11