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Maker/s

Unknown (pottery)

Category

tin-glazed earthenware
maiolica (sub-category)

Name

jug

School/Style

maiolica arcaica

Description

Eathenware partly lead-glazed and partly tin-glazed and painted in black and green with a coat-of arms flanked by applied pine cones

Pinkish-buff earthenware (little visible); the interior is lead-glazed yellowish-brown; the exterior is tin-glazed pale beige. Painted in black and green. Shape 19. Squat piriform body with short cylindrical neck, expanding towards the rim which is pinched at the front to form a lip; loop handle of shallow D section. The front is decorated with a relief shield bearing a saddle-backed boar and above it the letters `A' (or `R') and `n', between two relief pine-cones. On each side of the handle there are oblique dashes between vertical black lines. Below are two horizontal black bands; on the neck, a green chain with two black bands above; and on the handle, horizontal stripes of alternate colours.

Production Place

Orvieto (maker) (city)

Umbria (maker) (region)

Italy (maker) (country)

Italian (maker) (nationality)

Technique Description

pinkish-buff earthenware (little visible); the interior is lead-glazed yellowish-brown, the exterior is tin-glazed pale beige, painted in black and green.

Dimensions

height: (whole): 12.4 cm
diameter: (base): 7.1 cm
diameter: (body): 10.2 cm
width: (whole): 10.6 cm

Period

13th Century
14th Century
Medieval

Date

circa 1275 to 1375

Provenance

bequeathed: Harris, F. Leverton, The Right Hon. 1927 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Presumed excavated in Orvieto; Elia Volpi, Florence; Durlacher Brothers, London, from whom purchased in November 1920 by F. Leverton Harris.

F. Leveton Harris Bequest, 1926.

Inscriptions/Marks

1. mark
   Position: on the base
   Method: in black
   Content: 18
   Description: or 78
   

Documentation

1. Borenius, Tancred (1931) The Leverton Harris Collection, London: Privately printed
   [comments: Publ. pl. XIV]
2. Satolli, Alberto Le vecchie collezioni di ceramica orvietana medievale, [page: p. 55]
   Source title: Vasellari, Rivista di storia della tradizione ceramica (1997)
   [comments: Publ. p. 55]
3. Poole, Julia E. (1995) Italian Maiolica and Incised Slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Press [page: pp. 45-6]
   [comments: Publ. pp. 45-6, no. 66]
4. Mazzucato, Otto (1977) L'araldica nella maiolica laziale XIII-XVIII sec., Rome
   [comments: Cf. pl. XVI, no. 22]
5. Satolli, Alberto (2008) Cotto & Biscotto, il porco cinturello in carne e. . . ossidi, Orvieto: Comune di Orvieto [page: p. 11]
   [comments: Publ. p. 11 mentioned, and illustrated p. 10, pl. IVc. Cf. a larger jug with similar shield, pl. IVa . The author notes the association of St Anthony with a saddle-backed pig (porco 'cinturello') in two frescos in Orvieto pl. II a-d., and suggests that the initials on the jug with the shield might indicate an association with a confraternity of St Anthony (confraternita di Antoniani)]

Other Notes

Although the animals which occur in shield-shaped and oval panels on the front of jugs of this form are heraldic, it is not clear whether they were intended for arms or not. It is possible that some were crests, such as the eagle, stag, dog, and snake representing branches of the Monaldeschi of Orvieto. A shield charged with a saddle-backed boar and the initials 'A' (or 'R') and 'D' above was identified tentatively by Mazzucato as that of the Cancellieri family.

Accession Number

C.47-1927 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 47233; Input Date: 2002-05-03 / Last Edit: 2010-01-19)