Bottle (Schraubflasche)

c. 1660–80

Bottle (Schraubflasche), c. 1660–80. German, Bavaria, Kreussen. Salt-glazed stoneware, applied and impressed decoration, pewter; overall: 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Charles G. King, Jr. 1918.327 Bottles or jars (kruken) of this type of six-sided form are most often associated with the ceramic tradition found in Kreussen (now Creussen) in the Bavarian region of Germany during the mid to late 1600s. With a threaded neck fitted with a pewter screw top and ring, they were ideal vessels for medicinal liquids as they could be easily connected to a belt for transport to the patient. Applied decoration depicting the twelve apostles, as on this example, allude to the spiritual nature of healing. The applied decoration on this bottle depicts the twelve apostles.