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Maker/s

Unknown (pottery)

Category

tin-glazed earthenware
maiolica

Name

jug

School/Style

maiolica arcaica

Description

Late Medieval jug, painted in manganese and green, with pine-cones on stems, applied in relief, surrounded by contour lines and cross-hatching.

Jug. Cream earthenware, the interior, exterior of the foot, and most of the underside are lead-glazed dark yellow; the rest is tin-glazed greyish-white. Painted in manganese and copper-green. Shape 17. Elongated ovoid body with short cylindrical neck expanding towards the rim which is pinched at the front to form a lip; solid pedestal foot; loop handle of D section. On the front, five pine-cones on stems, applied in relief, branch upwards from a low central point. The stems are surrounded by contour lines and the background is cross-hatched in manganese. On each side of the handle, there are S hooks between two groups of three vertical lines. Below are two manganese bands; on the neck, a green chain between pairs of horizontal manganese bands; and on the handle, oblique stripes of alternate colours.

Production Place

Orvieto (pottery) (place)

Umbria (pottery) (region)

Italy (pottery) (country)

Technique Description

cream earthenware, the interior, exterior of the foot, and most of the underside are lead-glazed dark yellow; the rest is tin-glazed greyish-white; painted in manganese and copper-green.

Dimensions

height: (whole): 29.1 cm
diameter: (foot): 9.8 cm
diameter: (body): 15.7 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. Leverton Harris Bequest, 1926.

Documentation

1. Borenius, Tancred (1931) The Leverton Harris Collection, London: Privately printed
   [comments: Publ. pl. XIV]
2. Rackham, Bernard (1935) Guide to the European Pottery and Porcelain in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge (Cambs.): The Fitzwilliam Museum
   [comments: Publ. pl. 12]
3. Whitehouse, David The medieval glazed pottery of Lazio, [page: p. 72]
   Source title: Papers of the British School at Rome (1967)
   [comments: Publ. p. 72, note 132]
4. Bojani, Gian Carlo (1998) Artigianato in Umbria, Il lavoro ceramico, Milan [page: p. 132]
   [comments: Publ. p. 132, pl. 3, on left]
5. Poole, Julia E. (1995) Italian Maiolica and Incised Slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Press [page: p. 43]
   [comments: Publ. p. 43, no. 62]
6. Satolli, Alberto (1997) Le Vecchie Collezioni di Ceramica Orvietana Medievale, Rome: Edizioni Kappa [page: p.55]
   Source title: Vascellari: Rivista di storia della tradizione ceramica (1997)
   [comments: Publ. p. 55]

Other Notes

This jug is shown numbered 1 on the tenth photograph in a group believed to have been taken in Orvieto c. 1909-10, given by David Whitehouse in 1986 to the BM's Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities.

Accession Number

C.90-1927 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 47321; Input Date: 2002-05-08 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)

Related Object

C.65-1991