Drug Jar thumbnail 1
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 62, The Foyle Foundation Gallery

Drug Jar

ca. 1507 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This jar was used for storing drugs. It would have been part of a set of similar jars for different drugs, belonging to a pharmacy. The constriction just underneath the rim was used to close the pot off with a piece of parchment or paper and a string. A few more jars from the same set have survived, including one with a spout, for a liquid drug.
Pharmacies in the Renaissance period were usually run by a monastic orders as part of their hospitals, or by one of the leading local families. The badge of the order or the arms of the family can be found on many surviving drug jars. The flower on our jar would probably have had such a function.


Object details

Object type
Materials and techniques
Tin-glazed earthenware, painted in colours
Brief description
Drug jar, tin-glazed earthenware, painted in colours and inscription 'DIA CHASSIA', Deruta, Italy, ca. 1507
Physical description
Drug jar of tin-glazed earthenware, painted in colours. The inscription 'DIA CHASSIA' is painted on a horizontal label, cutting across a panel enclosed by a large oval wreath of green foliage and yellow fruit tied with green ribbons. Above the label is a youth in costume of the period seated on a bench braying drugs in a mortar; below it a monster swallowing a naked boy. The base is incised, possibly with a pharmacy mark.
Dimensions
  • Height: 22.4cm
  • Diameter: 13cm
  • Weight: 1kg
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'DIA CHASSIA' (The Latin inscription on the painted label refers to the original contents of the jar. Cassia is obtained from the pods of the tree Cassia fistula.)
    Translation
    electuary of cassia
  • £ 3 (Scratched mark on the bottom, possibly an indication of content measurement.)
    Translation
    3 pounds?
Credit line
Bequeathed by George Salting, Esq.
Object history
This jar belongs to the same set as 668-1884 (Rackham catalogue 404)
Salting Collection, lent to the Museum on 28 June 1899.
Bought by George Salting at the Bardini Sale Cat., Christie's, 5 June 1899, French ed., pl.6, no.105, lot 77, for £ 77
Castellani Sale Cat., Rome, 1 April 1884, Lot 84;
Historical context
This jar was used for storing drugs. It would have been part of a set of similar jars for different drugs, belonging to a pharmacy. The constriction just underneath the rim was used to close the pot off with a piece of parchment or paper and a string. A few similar jars, probably from the same set, have survived., one is dated 1507.
This pot depicts a youth in comtemporaty dress braying drugs with a pestle in a large mortar of the type which was used by apothecaries of the Renaissance period.
Production
A few similar jars, probably from the same set, have survived; some are dated 1507.
Summary
This jar was used for storing drugs. It would have been part of a set of similar jars for different drugs, belonging to a pharmacy. The constriction just underneath the rim was used to close the pot off with a piece of parchment or paper and a string. A few more jars from the same set have survived, including one with a spout, for a liquid drug.
Pharmacies in the Renaissance period were usually run by a monastic orders as part of their hospitals, or by one of the leading local families. The badge of the order or the arms of the family can be found on many surviving drug jars. The flower on our jar would probably have had such a function.
Bibliographic references
  • Ballardini, G., Corpus della maiolica Italiana,Vol. I, figs 34, 35
  • Bojani, G.C., C. Ravanelli Guidotti, A. Fanfani, La donazione Galeazzo Cora: ceramiche dal medioevo al XIX secolo, Milano, 1985, p. 182, cat 451
  • Biscontini Ugolini, Grazia (Ed), I Vasi da farmacia nella collezione Bayer: Pharmacy jars in the Bayer Collection, Milan, 1997, cat. 9, pp. 60-61
  • Falke, O. von, Pringsheim Collection, figs. 106-109, III
  • R. Drey, Apothecary Jars: pharmaceutical pottery and porcelain in Europe and the East 1150-1850, London, 1978, p. 39, fig. 11C
  • Fiocco, Gherardi & L. Sfeir-Fakhri, Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon: Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, no. 56-59
Other number
405 - Rackham (1977)
Collection
Accession number
C.2093-1910

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Record createdDecember 6, 2005
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