AN ITALIAN MAIOLICA ALBARELLO
AN ITALIAN MAIOLICA ALBARELLO

CIRCA 1460-80, PROBABLY PESARO

Details
AN ITALIAN MAIOLICA ALBARELLO
CIRCA 1460-80, PROBABLY PESARO
The waisted body painted with three registers divided by blue bands, the central register with a band of 'peacock feather eye' ornament divided by ochre and blue-dot flowerheads and blue scrolls, the upper and lower registers with bands of ochre and blue-dot flowerheads, the tapering neck with a band of blue 'San Bernardino rays' (cracks from base to lower part, horizontal crack to centre through 'peacock feather eye' ornament, very slight minor chipping to rim)
10 5/8 in. (27 cm.) high

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Dominic Simpson
Dominic Simpson

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Lot Essay

For an almost identical albarello, presumably once from the same pharmacy, see Joseph Chompret, Repertoire de la Majolique Italienne, Paris, 1949, Vol. II, p. 49, 369, where it is recorded as being in the Weinberger Collection. For the albarello in the Fitzwilliam Museum with related flowerhead decoration, see Julia E. Poole, Italian maiolica and incised slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 282, no. 356.

Tall waisted albarelli decorated with registers of gothic foliage, 'peacock feather eye' ornament, San Bernardino rays and flowers have traditionally been attributed to Faenza until Berardi published the findings of excavations at Pesaro which uncovered sherds decorated with this type of decoration.1 Julia Poole notes that 'without further evidence, in the form of sherds from a kiln site, or from comparative analysis of sherds of this type with others from both centres, it is not possible to give a conclusive attribution, but Pesrao seems the most likely place of origin'.2

1. Paride Berardi, L'antica maiolica di Pesaro dal XIV al XVII secolo, Florence, 1984.
2. Poole, ibid., 1995, p. 282.

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