Ewer: C.81-1927

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Orvieto pottery (Probably)

Entities

• Ewer

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware

Description

Late Medieval, maiolica ewer, painted in copper-green, turquoise-green and manganese with panels containing stylised foliage, rhomboids and knots, surrounded by cross-hatching and shields.

Pale buff earthenware, the foot lead-glazed yellowish-brown, the rest tin-glazed ivory; the glaze on the neck has a pock-marked surface and differs in colour from that on the body. Painted in copper-green, turquoise-green and manganese.
Shape15. Bulbous ovoid body with restriction round the widest part; moulded, solid pedestal foot; long slender neck, the rim pinched slightly at the front to form a lip; loop handle of triangular section, the lower end of which runs down the shoulder and terminates in an outward curling scroll.
On the restriction, there is a band of guilloche ornament. The rest of the body and neck are divided into panels containing manganese rhomboids, knots or stylised foliage, surrounded by cross-hatching, and, on the shoulder, two unblazoned shields. In the middle of the neck there is a turquoise-green chain. The handle is decorated with manganese ogee lines, each with a dab of green at its apex, and roughly drawn Vs on either side. Below the handle, there are narrow horizontal lines of alternate colours.

Notes

History note: Presumed excavated in Orvieto; Elia Volpi, Florence; Durlacher Brothers, London, from whom purchased in November 1920 by F. Leverton Harris.

Legal notes

F. Leverton Harris Bequest, 1926

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1927-12) by Harris, F. Leverton, The Right Hon.

Dating

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

Note

Ewers with very tall, narrow necks are uncommon in comparison with other late medieval forms from Orvieto and elsewhere in central Italy.

This ewer, or its components , were presumably excavated in Orvieto, as it can be seen, numbered 4, in the ninth of a group of photographs taken there c. 1909-10, which were given by David Whitehouse to the British Museum 's Department of Medieval and later Antiquities in 1986, together with a manuscript of Alessandro Imbert's 'Ceramiche orvietan dei secoli xiii e xiv' written in the hand of Prof. Percale Perali. The photograph is inscribed 'Volpi' near the jug, for the collector and dealer, Elia Volpi of Florence.

School or Style

maiolica arcaica