Drug jar
Category
Ceramics
Date
1585 - 1600
Materials
earthenware, tin-opacified lead glaze, polychrome pigments
Measurements
235 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Montelupo
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 540408
Summary
Wet drug jar, earthenware with tin-glaze (maiolica), of ovoid shape fitted with handle terminating with a mask and short spout terminating in a satyr’s mask, made in Montelupo, Tuscany, Italy, c. 1585-1600; painted with floral festoons at the neck above scrolling foliage with a stylized Bishop’s mitre, above drapery swags with winged cupid heads, and a gadrooned band above the foot.
Full description
This drug jar for pouring liquid ingredients used for medicinal purposes is part of a set originally made for the Pharmacy at the San Marco monastery in Florence (Farmacia di San Marco in the Ospedale Serristori di Figline, Firenze). For identical examples see the following: Victoria & Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 2411-1856 (see B. Rackham, ‘Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, Victoria and Albert Museum’, 1940, pl. 153, no. 953); musée du Louvre, Paris (chevrettes (2), Ex Rothschild Collection) inv. nos R203 and R204; International Ceramics Museum, Faenza; Marini, Marino, Maiolica e Ceramiche del Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Turin, Allemandi, 2023, p. 133, n° 172; Fausto Berti, La maiolica di Montelupo (Milan, 1986), fig. 94. Several of these are in Luciano Berti, Storia della Ceramica di Montelupo, III, (Florence, 1999), p. 299, Nos. 153, 154 and 155-6. From the large collection formed in the mid-19th century by the antiquarian Reverend Thomas A. Berney (1815-1895), of Bracon Hall, Norfolk; by descent to Miss Berney, sold at Sotheby & Co., London, Catalogue of Fine Italian Majolica, 18 June 1946, the first item of a group of four, lot 12 ‘A Montelupo Wet Drug Jar, with oviform body, short mask moulded spout and blue loop handle, the body decorated in polychrome with festoons, cherubs’ heads and a border of flowers, 10in., circa 1600; a Platter, painted with lovers in Rubenesque style, 10 in.; and two Salts with circular tops, supported by four winged caryatids, 6 in., Fontana Workshop, mid-16th Century. The lot purchased for 9 guineas (£9.08s.12d.) at the Berney 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 Heatcoath-Amory (1901-1997), née Wethered, a celebrated golfer.
Provenance
From Lady Amory