Large Italian Maiolica Albarello, Montelupo (Tuscany), late 17th / early 18th century c. 1690–1720

This impressive and well-proportioned Albarello from Montelupo c.1690-1720 is boldly decorated with a hand-painted heraldic shield, centred by a diagonal band featuring bird motifs and surmounted by a crown-like flourish. The shield is framed by flowing foliate scrolls, freely painted in warm ochre yellow, soft blue-grey and touches of copper green, all defined with manganese outlining on a creamy white tin-glazed ground.

The tall cylindrical body and gentle waisting characteristic of early Montelupo pharmacy jars, intended for practical use within an apothecary setting. The glaze displays the subtle pooling, pin-pricking and irregularities associated with hand-thrown Tuscan maiolica of this period.

The interior retains a heavily darkened glaze with a substantial consolidated accretion at the base. The result of long-term pharmaceutical use and the storage of resinous compounds such as balsams, pitches and medicinal preparations, which oxidised and hardened over time.

While the bold decorative armorial have occasionally led to Southern Italian attributions, the palette, glaze quality, clay body and painterly handling are firmly Tuscan and consistent with Montelupo Fiorentino workshop production at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Heraldic devices of this type were commonly employed as emblematic identifiers for civic or institutional pharmacies rather than as strictly genealogical arms.

Untouched condition, commensurate with age.