Plant pot (alfabeguer), made in Manises (Valencia), Spain, about 1642-79, tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration

Large, bucket-shaped pot with two ridges in relief and a flat base. Tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration. Cracked and repaired.

Ray notes that the arms are an incorrect and clumsy version of those of the Spanish Habsburgs. The rim decoration with finials was a traditional traditional feature - see the 15th century example in the Rothschild collection, on loan to Waddesdon Manor (Spallanzani p.291 Tav.74). A still life dated 1654 by the Valencian painter Tomas Hiepes in the Arango Collection, Madrid, shows a lustred vessel of similar size planted with a vine (Ray p.244). The word 'alfabaguer' translates directly as a pot for basil, which would have been used as a room freshener, but the word more generally refers to its use as a container for plants.

Dated by Ray on the basis that the cross of St. John of Jerusalem, on which the arms are charged, indicates that it was made for Juan Jose de Austria (1629-79), the illegitimate son of Philip IV, after he was appointed Grand Master of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Castile in 1642.

The Spanish name for this type of plant pot is 'alfabaguer', which translates directly as a pot for basil, but the word more generally refers to its use as a container for plants. Pots with fragrant herbs would have been used as a room freshener.
Valencia was one of the main production centres of fine lustrewares, at least from the late 15th-century onwards. The quality lustre pottery declined during the second half of the 16th century. During the 17th century, Valencian potters began to use less tin in their glaze and less silver in their lustre, resulting in strong but flat red copper lustre on a yellowish glaze.

104-1869