Antique Blue and White Quintal Flower Vase, Delft, Holland, circa 1850

This stunning lidded urn might have once been found in a 19th century Italian apothecary. The front of the shaped urn body has the hand-painted phrase “C. Violaru”, which is the heavily abbreviated form of the Latin word for violet (violaceum). Up until the mid-1700’s, apothecaries would make syrups from violets and use it to treat kidney ailments. Above the Latin wording is a whimsical musical scene with a man blowing a horn leading a couple who is holding hands over rocky terrain lined with shrubbery. A large house and trees can be seen behind the trio with a pair of mountains in the distance. On the opposite side of the urn is a floral display with a bird perched on a rock. Beneath the bird is a geometric design, possibly a stylized sun with radiating beams of light. Both scenes are segmented by a pair of thin quarter round moldings that encircle the entire vase. Other hand-painted motifs include floral and foliate margents, geometric patterns, and Vitruvian waves that are infilled with horizontal fluting. The sides of the urn have a fish-scale background beneath two mustachioed mascarons. Both men have been styled in grotesque fashion, with a pair of spiraled horns emanating from their heads. In between the horns is a looping handle that is affixed to the body in similar tight spirals. The domed lid has three scrolled arms that merge in a geometric finial. The base color of the urn is white, with illustrations in a monochromatic cobalt oxide blue, reminiscent of Delft blue pottery...

During the 17th through 19th centuries, highly skilled artisans in Savona, Italy, produced beautiful tin-glazed earthenware known as maiolica (majolica). These blue and white lidded vases with serpentine handles, from circa 1800, are such an example. Early Savona offerings were painted cobalt blue on a white background, as seen on these vases. Because the scenes depicted on the main bodies are distinct, they are considered a near pair, although their dimensions do not vary. Both illustrations contain country houses surrounded by tall trees and fronted by vegetation emerging from rocky terrain. In each scene, people can be seen in front of the houses, with one having two citizens and the other having four. One of the renderings is bordered by roundels at the top and by a leafy vine at the bottom; the other vase does not have any surrounding motifs. The sides opposite the pastoral images are distinct as well: the one with the borders has curled vines surrounding the Savona Lighthouse (a production mark of studios from this region), while the other vase has the lighthouse above a pair of small foliate margents. Both vases have domed, removable lids with a conical finial emerging from a painted sunburst. Curled leaves have been painted along the circumference above a solid blue ring. The two curvaceous handles are each comprised of a pair of snakes bound with a ribbon. Our blue and white lidded Savona vases...

Inspired by the Delftware products that became world renowned in the mid-17th to mid-18th centuries, this pair of cobalt blue and white cylinder vases were hand-painted in Holland (Netherlands) in the early 1900’s. The vases depict two distinct scenes, which were interestingly painted by different artists. One vase has a farmhouse scene signed by “E. Lombart”, with a thatched roof house set near two large trees. In front of the house is a woman watching over a cow and three chickens as they gather near a stone feeding trough...

Rouen, located in the region of Normandy, just outside of Paris, has been at the center of French faience production since the mid-1500s. This lovely hand-painted jardiniere (circa 1...