Lot Essay
For a pair of similarly decorated armorial albarelli formerly in the collection of Henry Wallis and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see Anthony Ray, Spanish Pottery 1248-1898, London, 2000, p. 85, nos. 181 & 182. Another example is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, museum no. WA1967.44, and a pair from the Charles Gillot Collection were sold by Christie's Paris on 4-5 March 2008, lot 366A. The appearance of a similar Hispano-Moresque drug-jar in a late 15th century altarpiece 1<\sup> not only confirms the importance and luxury status of such jars, but also that they could have other uses. The central panel shows a similar drug-jar in use as a vase with lilies.
1. The altarpiece (now in the Uffizi, Florence) was commissioned by the Florentine Tommaso Portinari between 1473 and 1482 and painted in Bruges by Hugo van der Goes.
1. The altarpiece (now in the Uffizi, Florence) was commissioned by the Florentine Tommaso Portinari between 1473 and 1482 and painted in Bruges by Hugo van der Goes.