MID 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY LONDON, BLUE X MARK TO UNDERSIDE

Details

AN ENGLISH DELFT BLUE AND WHITE DRUG-JAR
MID 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY LONDON, BLUE X MARK TO UNDERSIDE
Of conventional form, named for U:CÆRUL:MIT. within an elongated rectangular label surmounted by a shell flanked by winged putti, supported by a winged masks suspending swags of flowers (small footrim chip)
7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous; Bonham's, 8 June 1988, lot 285.
With Windsor Antiques, Woodbury, CT.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Jody Wilkie

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Lot Essay

Unguentum Caeruluem, 'The Blue Ointment', a preparation made from mercury, hog's lard and turpentine used as an anti-venereal agent. MIT is an abbreviation for mithridatium and is a general term for a preparation derived from Mithridetes, King of Pontus, who developed an antidote against poisons.

For another similar drug-jar with an X mark to base, see Michael Archer, Delftware, The Tin-Glazed Earthenware of the British Isles, London, 1997, pp. 384-395, fig. K.8.

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