Drug Jar thumbnail 1
Drug Jar thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 143, The Timothy Sainsbury Gallery

Drug Jar

1450-1475 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Jars of this type were used in wealthy households for the storage for dried fruits such as raisins. They were sealed with a piece of parchment tied around the neck with a piece of string. The waisted sides make it easier to grip the jar.

Lustre-decorated ceramics were exported in quantities to Italy. From about 1450, Italian potters copied decorative motifs and shapes from Valencian imports. Initially they used orange or purple alongside blue to achieve similar colour combinations and designs until they fully mastered the lustre technique around 1500.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration
Brief description
Drug jar, made in Valencia, Spain, about 1450-75 or later, tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration
Physical description
Tall waisted drug-jar. Tin-glazed earthenware, decorated with an ivy leaf pattern painted in blue and lustre.
Dimensions
  • Height: 29.1cm
  • Diameter: 13cm
Gallery label
Drug jar Made in Valencia, Spain about 1450-75 or later Tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration 10-1907 Formerly Henry Wallis Collection(16/07/2008)
Object history
Purchase. Formerly Henry Wallis Collection.
Production
ca. 1450-75 or later. Three drug-jars of this type are in the Musee de Cluny (inv. nos. 2778, 2756, 2757), see Montagut, 'Reflejos de Manises', Valencia 1996, p.82. They are similarly decorated with the blue and lustre ivy leaf motif in horizontal bands, separated every two lines by horizontal lines of blue. Montagut dates them to the last quarter of the 15th century.
Summary
Jars of this type were used in wealthy households for the storage for dried fruits such as raisins. They were sealed with a piece of parchment tied around the neck with a piece of string. The waisted sides make it easier to grip the jar.

Lustre-decorated ceramics were exported in quantities to Italy. From about 1450, Italian potters copied decorative motifs and shapes from Valencian imports. Initially they used orange or purple alongside blue to achieve similar colour combinations and designs until they fully mastered the lustre technique around 1500.
Bibliographic reference
Ray, Anthony. Spanish Pottery 1248-1898 : with a catalogue of the collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum London, V&A Publications, 2000 187
Collection
Accession number
10-1907

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Record createdJuly 16, 2008
Record URL
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