The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

Pharmacy Bottle

Pharmacy Bottle

c. 1500–1510
tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Overall: 38.8 cm (15 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.52.2
Location: 118 Italian Renaissance

Did You Know?

The peacock feather design lining the bottom of this bottle was especially popular in Faenza, near Bologna, during the Renaissance.

Description

Pharmacy bottles that lined the shelves of Renaissance pharmacies often held medicinal herbs, spices, and ointments. The inscription on this bottle reads CAPILLV, which was a liquid extracted from a fern-like plant commonly referred to as “maiden’s hair water.”
  • (F. A. Drey, London).
  • Milliken, William M. "Italian Majolica." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 1 (January 1944): 7-15. Mentioned: p. 10, Reproduced: pp. 13-14 25141102
    Cole, Bruce. Italian Maiolica from Midwestern Collections. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1977.
    Published as Drug Bottle. Mentioned: p. 36, cat. no. 11; Reproduced: p. 37 library.clevelandart.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 39, no. 41
  • Italian Majolica from Midwestern Collections. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (September 4-October 8, 1977).
    No existing exhibition history.
  • {{cite web|title=Pharmacy Bottle|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500–1510|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.52.2