A WET DRUG JAR | Christie's

A WET DRUG JAR

Details

A WET DRUG JAR
MONTELUPO, 17TH CENTURY

Of balaster form with loop support around the spout and strap handle, painted in yellow, blue, ochre and green with groteschi centering the label for AQVA DI EVFRAIA surmounted by a praying saint within a medallion, a pharmacy cipher below the handle, the underside inscribed in red with Sackler number 79.5.11 (tip of spout and chips to mouth restored, wear to footrim, test drill holes to underside)--9 5/8in. (24.4cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby & Co., London, May 22, 1973, lot 18
With Cyril Humphris, london

Lot Essay

Cf. Cora, plates 344, 345 for other drug jars with the same unidentified pharmacy cipher which can be loosely read as a 'P<' surmounted by a '4'. The decoration follows on from that popularized in Urbino at the Patanazzi workshop based on Raphael's designs for the Loggia which were in turn based on decoration excavated at Pompeii in 15??.

Sold with thermoluminescence certificate 381r57 dated September 1985 from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, stating that the sample tested was last fired between 300 and 460 years ago (1525-1685).