Drug jar
Category
Ceramics
Date
1510 - 1530
Materials
earthenware, tin-opacified lead glaze, polychrome pigments
Measurements
230 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Deruta
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 540396
Summary
Drug jar (albarello), earthenware with tin-glaze (maiolica), cylindrical, slightly waisted, made in Deruta, Italy, c. 1510-30; painted with a coat of arms above a banner inscribed ‘Ispo.Humido’ in gothic letters, within a berried laurel wreath.
Full description
The Latin inscription,“Is[o]po.Humido”, refers to wool fat or lanolin, see Rudolf Drey, Apothecary Jars (London, 1978). The jar was formerly in the collection of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), 9th Bt., of Keir, Perthshire, and later also of Pollok, near Glasgow, Scotland. Much of the Stirling and Maxwell family wealth came from West Indian plantations with enslaved African labour, for which they received compensation in 1833. Stirling-Maxwell formed the largest collection of Spanish art in Britain, some of which remains at Pollok House, as the contents were gifted to Glasgow Corporation in 1967. Highlights of his maiolica collection were sold by his grandson Lt. Col. William Joseph Stirling (1911-1983) of Keir, Perthshire Scotland, Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of Fine Italian Majolica, 18 June 1946, lot ’83 A Deruta Albarello with a blue and yellow wreath enclosing a coat-of-arms in the upper part, flanked by cornucopiae, cherubs’ heads in the lower part, the drug legend in blue on a white ground “I Sapo Humido”, ribbon ties at the back in blue, 9in., circa 1505’. The lot purchased for 40 guineas (£42 0s. 0d.) at the sale by "Sir J Amory", Sir John Heathcoat-Amory (1894-1972), 3rd Bt., of Knightshayes Court. The house, part of the collection, the garden Sir John and Lady Heathcoat-Amory created, and part of the estate were bequeathed to the National Trust by Sir John Heathcoat-Amory in 1972. The maiolica was later given by Joyce, Lady Heathcoat-Amory (1901-1997), née Wethered, a celebrated golfer.
Marks and inscriptions
on exterior 'Japo humido'