Tin-glazed earthenware painted in colours with a bearded mask and a scroll intended for a drug name. Possibly made by Masseot Abaquesne. France, Rouen, about 1544-1550

Drug-jar of tin-glazed earthenware painted with colours. Nearly cylindrical with incurved sides and sloping shoulders. Decorated in two wide bands, above and below which are borders of devices composed of a cross and four dots. In the upper band is a bearded mask in the middle of a scroll, and below it in the lower band is a scrolled cartouched for the names of the drug. The remaining portion of both bands is filled in with foliage symmetrically arranged on curved stems. The painting is mainly blue, with details in yellow and bands of green, orange and manganese-purple.

Given by Sydney Vacher

Made in imitation of an Italian arbarello.

Masseot Abaquesne's name appeared for the first time in archives (Rouen, Normandy) in 1526: He lived in Rouen and was called “emballeur” which means that he dealt with packaging all sorts of goods in Rouen harbor. He married Marion Durand, daughter of a potter. In 1538, he becomes godfather of Matiot Le Court, son of a stained-glass painter: He was then referred to as an “emballeur et esmailleur en terre”. He has obviously begun working as a ceramist.
In 1542, Anne de Montmorency, constable of France, commissioned a pavement for his castle at Ecouen from Abaquesne who created thousands of tiles bearing the arms of his commissioner and his wife, Madeleine de Savoie. The V&A displays some of them. Abaquesne hires potters (Pierre Roullart in 1543) to help him and must have had a quite important workshop in Sainte-Sever at Rouen, the potter’s area.
In 1545, he was awarded a contract to supply Pierre Dubosc, an apothecary from Rouen, with thousands of drug jars and jugs. In 1546, Abaquesne was in Paris where he seems to have had another workshop (he hired Jehan Godin to help him make a stove). In 1551, he delivered another pavement for Ecouen with patterns close to the designs of Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau (scrolls, arabesques, sphinges).
Some other tiles, maybe wall tiles, can be attributed to him: three panels depicted The Flood (Renaissance museum, Ecouen, France) and two depicted Marcus Curtius and Mucius Scaevola (Condé museum, Chantilly, France).
His last well-documented commission is the pavement of the chapel of La Bastie d’Urfé (1557) made for Claude d’Urfé, the king’s ambassador at the Trent Council in Italy. Abaquesne died before 1564 as his wife is called widow in an archive dated 1564.

Style
We don’t know where and with whom Abaquesne was trained as a potter and how he learned to make tin-glaze earthenwares. It is possible he trained abroad, in Italy or in Antwerp, or worked with Italian or Dutch ceramists in France. His work betrays the influence both of Italian and Netherlandish tin-glazed earthenwares. That’s why many Netherlandish pavements have been attributed to him (château de Polisy, Chapelle sainte-Croix, cathédrale de Langres ; Château de Fère-en-Tardenois ; tiles from Colombier de Boos ; tiles from Logis du Roi au Havre…).
Portraiture is a common motif on Italian drug jars at the time. The little waves on the neck and bottom part can be seen on some Netherlandish wares as well (see C.302-1938) and their shape is also quite similar (see. 1093-1905). The portrait is roughly painted with large brushstrokes.
How can we make the difference between a French and Netherlandish item? Their clay and glaze are not similar (see Dumortier’s book). The glaze of Antwerp pieces is whiter than Abaquesne’s ones. Chemical analyses could tell us more about that.

Masseot Abaquesne's name appeared for the first time in archives (Rouen, Normandy) in 1526: He lived in Rouen and was called “emballeur” which means that he dealt with packaging all sorts of goods in Rouen harbor. He married Marion Durand, daughter of a potter. In 1538, he becomes godfather of Matiot Le Court, son of a stained-glass painter: He was then referred to as an “emballeur et esmailleur en terre”. He has obviously begun working as a ceramist.
In 1542, Anne de Montmorency, constable of France, commissioned a pavement for his castle at Ecouen from Abaquesne who created thousands of tiles bearing the arms of his commissioner and his wife, Madeleine de Savoie. The V&A displays some of them. Abaquesne hires potters (Pierre Roullart in 1543) to help him and must have had a quite important workshop in Sainte-Sever at Rouen, the potter’s area.
In 1545, he was awarded a contract to supply Pierre Dubosc, an apothecary from Rouen, with thousands of drug jars and jugs. In 1546, Abaquesne was in Paris where he seems to have had another workshop (he hired Jehan Godin to help him make a stove). In 1551, he delivered another pavement for Ecouen with patterns close to the designs of Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau (scrolls, arabesques, sphinges).
Some other tiles, maybe wall tiles, can be attributed to him: three panels depicted The Flood (Renaissance museum, Ecouen, France) and two depicted Marcus Curtius and Mucius Scaevola (Condé museum, Chantilly, France).
His last well-documented commission is the pavement of the chapel of La Bastie d’Urfé (1557) made for Claude d’Urfé, the king’s ambassador at the Trent Council in Italy. Abaquesne died before 1564 as his wife is called widow in an archive dated 1564.

Style
We don’t know where and with whom Abaquesne was trained as a potter and how he learned to make tin-glaze earthenwares. It is possible he trained abroad, in Italy or in Antwerp, or worked with Italian or Dutch ceramists in France. His work betrays the influence both of Italian and Netherlandish tin-glazed earthenwares. That’s why many Netherlandish pavements have been attributed to him (château de Polisy, Chapelle sainte-Croix, cathédrale de Langres ; Château de Fère-en-Tardenois ; tiles from Colombier de Boos ; tiles from Logis du Roi au Havre…).
Portraiture is a common motif on Italian drug jars at the time. The little waves on the neck and bottom part can be seen on some Netherlandish wares as well (see C.302-1938) and their shape is also quite similar (see. 1093-1905). The portrait is roughly painted with large brushstrokes.
How can we make the difference between a French and Netherlandish item? Their clay and glaze are not similar (see Dumortier’s book). The glaze of Antwerp pieces is whiter than Abaquesne’s ones. Chemical analyses could tell us more about that.

417-1906