Jug: C.89-1927

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Orvieto pottery (Probably)

Entities

• Jug

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica

Description

Late Medieval maiolica jug, painted in manganese and green with an ostrich-like bird, bands and stripes.

Jug. Pale yellowish-buff or cream earthenware. The interior and exterior of the foot are lead-glazed brownish-yellow, the base is unglazed, and the rest is tin-glazed ivory-buff. Painted in manganese and copper-green.
Shape 17. Elongated ovoid body with short cylindrical neck which expands towards the rim and is pinched at the front to form a lip; solid pedestal foot; loop handle made from a roll of clay.
On the front, an ostrich-like bird faces to the right, its neck and head curving down towards the ground in front of its feet. Above its head, a green lozenge-shaped bloom hangs from a branch. The handle is flanked by a vertical row of curved and hooked lines between two sets of three vertical manganese lines. Above and below are two horizontal manganese bands; on the neck, a green chain with two horizontal manganese bands above; on the handle, diagonal stripes of alternate colours.

Notes

History note: Presumed excavated at Orvieto; Elia Volpi, Florence; Durlacher Brothers, London, from whom purchased in November 1920 by F. Leverton Harris (1864-1926); bequeathed by him

Legal notes

F. Leverton Harris Bequest, 1926

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1927-12) by Harris, Frederick Leverton

Dating

13th Century
14th Century
Medieval
Circa 1275 CE - 1375 CE

Note

Birds of several types occur on pedestal jugs found at Orvieto and elsewhere in central Italy. They include peacocks, birds with outstretched wings, and long-legged birds bending down as if to peck.

This jug was presumably found in Orvieto as it is illustrated numbered 15. in the ninth photograph in a group believed to have been taken there c. 1909-10, given by David Whitehouse to the BM Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities.

School or Style

maiolica arcaica