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Lot Essay
The decoration on this piece and the following lot is an example of the style later codified by Cipriano Picolpasso as a candeliere.
See Rudolf E.A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, p. 214, where he notes Micleta, electuarium was a 'polypharmaceutical preparation' which was 'used for arrestment of haemorrhages'. For a similar type of albarello painted with a moor's head and a candeliere decoration enclosed by a robbiana, see Wendy Watson, Exhibition Catalogue, Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and others in the U.S.A. and Canada, London, 1986, p. 67, Cat. 10.
It has been suggested that the incised marks on the base of albarelli of this period could refer to an albarello's weight when empty, see Nardelli, 2003,1 or to the weight of the contents, see Mazzucato, 2006.2 See Thornton and Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. II, p. 427 and p. 428, note 3 where these opposing views are noted and the suggestion that 'if a pharmacist knows the weight of a jar empty, he can, by weighing the whole, ascertain the weight of its contents without emptying them out' is made.
1. Giuseppe Maria Nardelli, 'L'importanza del peso nei contenitori da spezieria', CeramicAntica, anno 13, no. 11, December 2003, pp. 44-53.
2. Otto Mazzucato, 'Simboli alchemici per indicare in libbre ed once i prodotti della farmacopea', CeramicAntica, anno 16, no. 8, September 2006, pp. 28-39.
See Rudolf E.A. Drey, Apothecary Jars, London, 1978, p. 214, where he notes Micleta, electuarium was a 'polypharmaceutical preparation' which was 'used for arrestment of haemorrhages'. For a similar type of albarello painted with a moor's head and a candeliere decoration enclosed by a robbiana, see Wendy Watson, Exhibition Catalogue, Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and others in the U.S.A. and Canada, London, 1986, p. 67, Cat. 10.
It has been suggested that the incised marks on the base of albarelli of this period could refer to an albarello's weight when empty, see Nardelli, 2003,
1. Giuseppe Maria Nardelli, 'L'importanza del peso nei contenitori da spezieria', CeramicAntica, anno 13, no. 11, December 2003, pp. 44-53.
2. Otto Mazzucato, 'Simboli alchemici per indicare in libbre ed once i prodotti della farmacopea', CeramicAntica, anno 16, no. 8, September 2006, pp. 28-39.