- Museum number
- 1855,1201.167
- Description
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Stoneware; jug; long-necked; double ring handle; bulbous body; flat base; thick streaks of off-white ash-glaze; remains of thick opaque glaze; attached pewter lid-mount; 3 large applied medallions on belly, framed in blossom wreath; right - Woman of Samaria drawing from well, opposite radiant Christ; centre, Annunciation in garden, Virgin holding horn to mouth; left, Annunciation, Virgin kneeling at lecturn; inscription; date.
- Production date
- 1559 (on applied medallion)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 7.80 centimetres (base)
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Height: 21.50 centimetres (max)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Gaimster 1997
Flask
Medallion dated 1559
Bulbous body with long tubular neck and double ring handle; the base flat. White stoneware with thick streaks of off-white ash-glaze running down the body. Rim with pewter lid and linked thumbpiece; stamped on the upper side of the lid with the letters ‘IW’ above a shield containing an eagle.
The body is applied on three sides with moulded roundel medallions: with the Prefiguration of the Annunciation (L): the Archangel holding a distaff with scroll with the inscription ‘Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum’, and the Virgin kneeling and reading at a prie-dieu, with the date 1559, and the Roman initials ISA below (a reference to Mary reading the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14); below the figures another scroll with the inscription in Gothic letter ‘Luce.1’ (Luke 1); with another Annunciation scene , this time with the virgin seated in a walled garden (the hortus conclusus), along with the Porta Clausa, Rods of Aaron, the Tower of David and Unicorn (the latter two symbols of the Virgin’s chastity) (C); and with Christ and the Woman of Samaria drawing the bucket from the well, the letters ‘IOH 4’ (John 4:1-30) on the right of the seated Christ (R).
H: 215 mm
BIBL: Bernal Sale 1855, Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art … of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal, Christie’s, London, 5 March – 30 April, lot 3040; Solon, M. L. 1892, The ancient Art of Stoneware of the Low Countries and Germany or ‘Grès de Flandre’ and ‘Steinzeug’, 2 volumes, London, I, figs 57-9.
LIT: Lipperheide, B. 1961, Das Rheinische Steinzeug und die Graphik der Renaissance, Berlin, pp. 30-1 and figs 38-40, for sources of the Maria in hortus conclusus scene also referred to as the Einhornjagd (C), attributed to the Lower Rhineland c. 1450-65; Walther, K. 1992, ‘Die szenischen Auflagen auf Pullen und Trichterhalsbechern’, in E. Hähnel ed. (1992), 169-92, (184). See Schreiber, W. L. 1926-30, Handbuch der Holz- und Metallschnitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, cat. 2481, for version in BM Department of Prints & Drawings (Fig. 15 (C)). The medallion is a reversed view of the original engraving.
COMP: von Falke, O. 1908, Das Rheinische Steinzeug (2 volumes), Berlin (reprint Osnabrück 1997), I, fig. 80, for same form; Lipperheide 1961, fig. 38 for identical medallion to (C); see also Hähnel, E. 1992c, ‘Zu einiger Siegburger Gefässtypen der Renaissance’, in E. Hähnel ed. (1992), 133-68, 143 (ZNr 102aM14.22); and Hähnel, E. ed. 1992, Siegburger Steinzeug, Bestandskatalog, Bd 2, Führer und Schriften des Rheinischen Freilichtmuseums und Landesmuseums für Volkskunde in Kommern, 38, Cologne, cat. 1070 for similar versions of the same medallion, including one with the initial ‘F’ for ‘FT’ (initials of the mould-cutter Frans Trac). See van Dam, J. C., ‘De jacht op de eenhoorn: een middeleeuwse plaquette in Gouda’, Antiek, 31:2, 82-5 for ceramic plaquette with Einhornjagd excavated in Gouda, Netherlands.
- Location
- On display (G46/dc5)
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1855,1201.167
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: BL.3040 (Bernal Collection)
