Pair of Pharmacy Bottles
c. 1500–1510
Maker Unknown
Decorative Art and Design
Pair of Pharmacy Bottles, c. 1500–1510. Italy, Papal States, Faenza. Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica); overall: 38.8 cm (15 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.52 The inscriptions on these two pharmacy bottles suggest that they held medicinal and domestic remedies. One bottle reads SCABIOS, or “scabious water,” which may refer to a teasel root compound that was used to clean and decontaminate velvet. Inscribed on the other bottle is the word CAPILLV, which was a liquid extracted from a fern-like plant commonly referred to as “maiden’s hair water.” During the Renaissance, aristocrats tested the speed and agility of their greyhounds in a sport called “hare coursing.”
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Formatted Medium
- tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
- Medium
- tin-glazed, earthenware, maiolica
- Dimensions
- Overall: 38.8 cm (15 1/4 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: Written in lower ribbon band of 1943.52.1: A. SCABIOS. Written in lower ribbon band of 1943.52.2: A. CAPILLV.
- Departments
- Decorative Art and Design
- Accession Number
- 1943.52
- Credit Line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Exhibitions
- No existing exhibition history.
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 118 Italian Renaissance
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