CIRCA 1480, POSSIBLY PESARO

It is not clear which family the arms are for. A mid-15th century Florentine jug in the Victoria and Albert Museum has a shield with similar arms (azure, three pales argent). Rackham notes that if the azure is intended to represent sable, then the arms may be for the Giuochi family of Florence.1 It is possible that the arms which appear on a two-handled Deruta vase of circa 1510, also in the V&A Museum, could be related.2

This albarello is related to the albarelli of the 'Farmacia Aragonese' which Guido Donatone has suggested were made under royal patronage in Naples, either for use at Court or for use at the Duke of Calabria's residence in Castelcapuano.3 The decoration of the present albarello shares similar elements with the Aragonese group, such as the gothic foliage on the reverse and the outcrop below the arms on the front, which has curved edges and tufts of stylised grass. However, the quality of the decoration of this albarello is more sophisticated, and the colours are brighter, suggesting a different origin of manufacture.


1. Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue, London, 1940, Vol. I, p. 20, no. 79 and Vol. II, pl. 12.
2. See Rackham, ibid., Vol. I, p. 140, no. 408 and Vol. II, pl. 61. 3. The Duke was heir to the throne. See Guido Donatone, La maiolica napoletana del rinascimento, 1993. For the albarello of 'Farmacia Aragonese' type in the British Museum, see Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A catalogue of the British Museum collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, pp. 82-84, no. 52, where they note that there has yet to be a discovery of a 'substantial body of fragments of the period from the city centre of Naples', which would confirm that the 'Farmacia Aragonese' group were definitely made there.