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Workshop: Pompei workshop
Maiolica spouted pharmacy jar, painted in blue, green, yellow, and orange, with a bust of a bearded old man, the inscription of the drug `Oymel composito', loose spirals, stripes, and honeysuckle.
Earthenware, tin-glazed except for the base. Painted in blue, green, yellow, and orange. Dragon-spouted baluster jar with strap handle.The spout is surrounded by a truncated heart-shaped panel, enclosing a bust of a bearded old man three-quarters to left, pointing with his right hand to a flaming brazier. The space above is filled by blue and white honeysuckle on a partly yellow and partly orange ground, bordered by two vertical stripes: green and orange on the left of the spout, and green and yellow on the right. The drug name `Oymel composito' is inscribed in gothic letters on a label with curled ends between yellow horizontal bands which encircle the lower part of the jar. On the back there are loose blue spirals, and on the handle and between the ends of the label, blue diagonal stripes. The projecting rim is decorated with orange scallops on a dark blue band with a pale green band below.
History note: A. Wylie; F. Leverton Harris (1864-1926)
F. Leverton Harris Bequest, 1926
Height: 25.9 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1927) by Harris, Frederick Leverton
16th Century
Renaissance
Circa
1545
CE
-
1555
CE
Label text from the exhibition ‘Feast and Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500–1800’, on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 26 November 2019 until 31 August 2020: Early modern ‘pharmacy jars’ often had painted labels to indicate their contents. These inscriptions frequently used the specialised vocabulary of published medical texts and ‘books of secrets’. This pharmacy jar, formed as a spouted pitcher, is labelled: ‘O[x]ymel composito’. Made with vinegar and honey, Oxymel was a therapeutic sweet- and-sour concoction known from ancient Roman sources, used to treat asthma as well as conjunctivitis. The warming nature of the remedy is alluded to by the old man who points at a flaming brazier.
Made in the workshop of Orazio Pompei in Castelli. Pharmacy jars of this type were formerly attributed to Faenza or Deruta before an excavation in Castelli revealed matching waste sherds from the workshop of the Pompei family.
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( blue, green, yellow, and orange)
Base
Diameter 10.3 cm
Rim
Diameter 12.1 cm
Widest Part
Width 23.5 cm
Body
Spout
except base
Tin-glaze
Earthenware
Accession number: C.64-1927
Primary reference Number: 75726
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2023) "Pharmacy jar" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/75726 Accessed: 2023-12-06 16:03:56
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/75726
|title=Pharmacy jar
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2023-12-06 16:03:56|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-75726
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<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa9/C_64_1927_281_29.jpg"
alt="Pharmacy jar"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Pharmacy jar</figcaption>
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Accession Number: C.181-1991
Accession Number: C.2187-1928
Accession Number: EC.26-1945
Accession Number: C.889-1927
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