Ewer: C.67-1991

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Orvieto pottery (Probably)

Entities

• Ewer

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica

Description

Late Medieval maiolica ewer, painted in black and green with three panels containing a knot flanked by half leaves and cross-hatching.

Earthenware, thrown. The interior, foot and base are lead-glazed brownish-yellow; the rest is tin-glazed pale beige. Painted in black and copper-green. Shape 16. Elongated piriform body with small pedestal foot, tubular spout and broad strap handle with a longtitudinal ridge.
On each side of the handle and spout, there are three black vertical lines forming three panels. In each side panel there is a knot flanked by half leaves reserved in cross-hatching, and in the panel under the spout, a leaf on a stalk reserved in cross-hatching. Below are two horizontal black bands; above, two green bands flanked by black, and, under the spout, four green horizontal lines. On the neck, there is a green chain; on the handle, pairs of green horizontal stripes alternate with one black.

Notes

History note: Signor Avvocato Marcioni or Cavaliere Capitano Lucatelli; Sotheby's, 16-17 February 1914, Catalogue of the collections of early Italian pottery formed by Signor Avvocato Marcioni and Cavaliere Capitano Lucatelli of Orvieto, lot 56 & pl. II. Purchased from Kerin, London, on 9 December 1933 by H.S. Reitlinger (d.1950); the Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead, from which transferred in 1991.

Legal notes

H.S. Reitlinger Bequest, 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1991-04-29) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Dating

13th Century
14th Century
Medieval
Circa 1275 CE - 1350 CE

Note

This ewer seems likely to have been made in Orvieto because it appears with a cover, in a photograph in the Biblioteca Comunale, Orvieto, showing maiolica in the possession of Cavaliere Capitano Ferdinando Lucatelli collection c. 1909 (see Documentation, Satolli 2003). But vessels of this form has also been found in butti (rubbish pits) at Tuscania in Lazio, and have also been attributed to Viterbo.

School or Style

maiolica arcaica