Lot 13
A large Neapolitan maiolica pharmacy jar from the San Martino Cloister in Naples, dated 1702
7 December 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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A large Neapolitan maiolica pharmacy jar from the San Martino Cloister in Naples, dated 1702
Of baluster shape with two looped handles, decorated with a finely painted scene of Saint Martin tearing up his cloak for a beggar, set in an Italianate landscape, the handles with grotesque-head terminals, inscribed at the base: Aqu. Ros: Persic (Persian Rose Water), inscribed in blue on the reverse with a cipher and date 1702, 51cm high (restored at the rim)
Footnotes
See Teodoro Fittipaldi, Ceramiche, Castelli, Napoli e altre fabbriche (1992), p. 187, cat. no.439 a-b, for a discussion of the type. Fittipaldi notes that the pharmacy of the San Martino monastery in the city of Naples suffered a great deal during the French invasion of Naples at the very end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. What was not sold off in 1799 by the Neapolitan King Ferdinand IV in a desperate attempt to assemble funds to fight the French, was looted by the French from 1806. Many of the pieces are thought to date to the 19th century and although there certainly are 19th century examples of this type (see, for example, a pair owned by the Costaguti family, sold in these Rooms, 9 December 2009, lot 19), this vase differs radically from the more crudely painted 19th century copies.
