Provenance: Italian private collection.

This tin-glazed earthenware jar has a waisted-form with a thick foot ring and cylindrical neck. The body of the jar is painted on the interior and exterior with a creamy off-white glaze ground. The exterior is decorated with four horizontal registers of alternating cobalt-blue and copper-lustre vine-leaf, fern and dotted patterns.

Albarello jars with this kind of vine-leaf pattern are generally attributed to Manises and may have been used in stately homes for storing dried fruits such as raisins. Quite similar to the ‘drug jar albarello’ used in pharmacies from this period, the waisted-form of these jars makes their handling easier.

An albarello of similar form and vine-leaf pattern can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, circa 1450-1475 (10-1907) and another similar one in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait (CER0706TSR). Two further comparative examples are in the Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia, and the Detroit Institute of Arts (63.358). A dish with vine-leaf decoration and depicting a Sicily coat of arms, 15th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (56.171.129).

Comparative Material:
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (10-1907);
Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait (CER0706TSR);
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (56.171.129).

Reference:
Dectot, X. Céramiques Hispaniques : Xiiè-xviiiè siècle, RMN, Paris, 2007.
Ray, A. Spanish Pottery 1248-1898, V&A Publications, London, 2000.