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Lot Essay
The original contents of this syrup-jar would have been a syrup made with currants.
This syrup-jar, and the following lot, are both part of a group of pharmacy bottles, albarelli and other vessels which were originally thought to have come from one pharmacy in Rome, but which are now thought to have come from more than one pharmacy. Although the association of jars of this type appears to be with the Orsini family, they have come to be called 'Orsini-Colonna' type after Bernard Rackham used the term in relation to the two-handled pharmacy bottle in the British Museum which shows the emblem of the Orsini family, a bear, embracing the Colonna family device of a column, accompanied by the inscription ET SARRIMO BONI AMICI ('and we shall be good friends'). The Orsini family connection is uncertain as the Orsinis were the feudal Lords of Castelli until 1526, and there are persuasive reasons to believe that the jars are a little later, but as a number of pieces bear the Orsini arms and emblems it is 'entirely possible that at least part of the production may have been under the patronage of members of the Orsini family'.1
It has only recently been discovered that these jars were made at Castelli; having previously been attributed to most of the great maiolica centres. Excavations at the site of the Pompei workshop in Castelli in the 1980s uncovered a large quantity of fragments of kiln waste which relate to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars, and the findings were exhibited at Pescara and published. Comparisons with ceiling tiles formerly in the local church of San Donato showed further similarities, and in combination it demonstrated that most, if not all, jars of this type were made at Castelli. Vincenzo de Pompeis proposed a stylistic chronology for the jars having made careful detailed comparisons with the church tiles (the characteristics of this jar fall into his second group).
Only Orazio Pompei's signature has been found on the surviving jars, but not all of the jars are attributable specifically to him. There were at least five members of the second generation of the Pompei family who could have been involved, among others. The features and handling of the woman's face on this syrup-jar are particularly close to a syrup-jar in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, illustrated by de Pompeis et al., ibid., 1989, p. C61, no. 391. Another similar jar in the Courtauld Collection (Gambier-Parry Collection) is illustrated by de Pompeis et al., ibid., p. C154, no. 376 (and p. C48, where it is listed as no. 375), and also by Rudolf E.A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, p. 65, fig. C.
1. D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. II, p. 542.
This syrup-jar, and the following lot, are both part of a group of pharmacy bottles, albarelli and other vessels which were originally thought to have come from one pharmacy in Rome, but which are now thought to have come from more than one pharmacy. Although the association of jars of this type appears to be with the Orsini family, they have come to be called 'Orsini-Colonna' type after Bernard Rackham used the term in relation to the two-handled pharmacy bottle in the British Museum which shows the emblem of the Orsini family, a bear, embracing the Colonna family device of a column, accompanied by the inscription ET SARRIMO BONI AMICI ('and we shall be good friends'). The Orsini family connection is uncertain as the Orsinis were the feudal Lords of Castelli until 1526, and there are persuasive reasons to believe that the jars are a little later, but as a number of pieces bear the Orsini arms and emblems it is 'entirely possible that at least part of the production may have been under the patronage of members of the Orsini family'.
It has only recently been discovered that these jars were made at Castelli; having previously been attributed to most of the great maiolica centres. Excavations at the site of the Pompei workshop in Castelli in the 1980s uncovered a large quantity of fragments of kiln waste which relate to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars, and the findings were exhibited at Pescara and published. Comparisons with ceiling tiles formerly in the local church of San Donato showed further similarities, and in combination it demonstrated that most, if not all, jars of this type were made at Castelli. Vincenzo de Pompeis proposed a stylistic chronology for the jars having made careful detailed comparisons with the church tiles (the characteristics of this jar fall into his second group).
Only Orazio Pompei's signature has been found on the surviving jars, but not all of the jars are attributable specifically to him. There were at least five members of the second generation of the Pompei family who could have been involved, among others. The features and handling of the woman's face on this syrup-jar are particularly close to a syrup-jar in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, illustrated by de Pompeis et al., ibid., 1989, p. C61, no. 391. Another similar jar in the Courtauld Collection (Gambier-Parry Collection) is illustrated by de Pompeis et al., ibid., p. C154, no. 376 (and p. C48, where it is listed as no. 375), and also by Rudolf E.A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, p. 65, fig. C.
1. D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. II, p. 542.