Live Auction 16091Reshaped - Ceramics Through Time
A MONTELUPO MAIOLICA TWO-HANDLED 'OAK LEAF' JAR OR VASO BIANSATO
Lot 11

A MONTELUPO MAIOLICA TWO-HANDLED 'OAK LEAF' JAR OR VASO BIANSATO

SECOND HALF OF THE 15TH CENTURY

Closed21 May 2019

Price Realised

GBP 18,750

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A MONTELUPO MAIOLICA TWO-HANDLED 'OAK LEAF' JAR OR VASO BIANSATO
SECOND HALF OF THE 15TH CENTURY
Painted in blue and edged with manganese, the front with a panther within a circular band cartouche radiating stylised oak leaves, the reverse with a hatched circle within a similar cartouche and foliage, each side with a manganese N below the handle
6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) high

Chompret Collection; Ader Tajan, Paris, 15 December 1976.

Specialist note

Excavations at Montelupo have unearthed fragments relating to this type of jar. The N marks are presumably for the name of a workshop or apothecary, but the significance has yet to be established. The panther is probably derived from a Roman panther, often associated with Bacchus, the god of wine.
This jar is part of a rare group decorated in zaffera diluita, rather than zaffera a rilievo, with panthers and with Ns below the handles. A very similar example in the Bargello, Florence, is illustrated by Giovanni Conti, Museo Nazionale di Firenze Palazzo del Bargello, Catalogo delle Maioliche, Florence, 1971, no. 232. Also see Marino Marini, Passione e Collezione, Maioliche e ceramiche toscane dal XIV al XVIII secolo, Casa Buonarroti, Florence, November 2014 - February 2015 Exhibition Catalogue, Florence, 2014, pp. 60-63 for two related examples. For further related examples, see www.christies.com.