{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O128957"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128957/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT0730/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT0730/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT0730","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JV3785","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O128957/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O128957","accessionNumber":"C.908-1936","objectType":"Drug jar","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The dissemination, during the Middle Ages,of pharmacopoeias and <i>antidotaria</i>, listing the ingredients, preparation and medicinal properties of hundreds of natural rememdies, brought about an increasing demand for appropriate storage vessels. Pharmacies were, subsequently, a major market for maiolica. The pharmacies and dispensaries of monastic orders, hospitals and noble families required large numbers of jars to store their various herbs, roots, syrups, pills, oinments and sweetmeats. These were sometimes marked with coats of arms or other heraldic devices. The production of drug jars inscribed with their contents began in the middle of the fifteenth century, although, non-inscribed vessels continued to be used enabling their contents to be changed as required.\r\nA 'lohoch' (a word ultimately from the Arabic<i> laʿiqa, '</i>to lick') was a thick, sweet, syrupy preparation. A 1566 Italian treatise on drugs and potions describes the preparation of 'lohoch of fox lung' to treat internal ulcers and fortify the lungs. Ingredients included dried fox lung (previously washed in good, sweet, white wine and left to dry in a low oven), fennel and sugar mixed with water.","physicalDescription":"<i>Albarello</i> (drug jar). On the front in a rectangular panel flanked by criss cross pattern scratched through a blue band, a fox washing the head of an ass which sits in a chair, with a towel round its neck, holding a basin beneath its chin; below, the name of the contents, 'LOCH DE PVL[MONIS] VVLPIS (Latin, '<i>lohoch</i> of lung of fox'). At the back, M in a panel with shaded border, trellis scratched through a blue band.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"earthenware","id":"x29356"},{"text":"tin glaze","id":"AAT233436"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Tin-glazed earthenware","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Earthenware","id":"THES48964"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2008BT0730","2017JV3785"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"62","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"CA9","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Jar","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Castelli","id":"x37675"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"possibly"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1520","earliest":"1515-01-01","latest":"1524-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"13","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1.02","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'LOCH DE PVL[MONIS] VVLPIS'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"Latin, '<i>Lohoch</i> of lung of fox'","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Formerly in the Henry Wallis Collection.\nThe depiction of a fox washing the head of an ass relates to the contemporary proverb: \"He who washes the head of an ass wastes his effort\". A plate, made in Deruta ca.1550-1560, with a similar theme of a man washing an ass's head, is in the V&amp;A (6665-1860) and another can be found in The Metropolitan Museum, New York. Drug jars were frequently decorated with such moralising scenes relative to the sickness and fallability of the world.","historicalContext":"The dissemination, during the Middle Ages,of pharmacopoeias and <i>antidotaria</i>, listing the ingredients, preparation and medicinal properties of hundreds of natural rememdies, brought about an increasing demand for appropriate storage vessels. Pharmacies were, subsequently, a major market for maiolica. The pharmacies and dispensaries of monastic orders, hospitals and noble families required large numbers of jars to store their various herbs, roots, syrups, pills, oinments and sweetmeats. These were sometimes marked with coats of arms or other heraldic devices. The production of drug jars inscribed with their contents began in the middle of the fifteenth century, although, non-inscribed vessels continued to be used enabling their contents to be changed as required.","briefDescription":"Albarello (drug jar), made in Castelli, Abruzzo region or The Marches, ca. 1540","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Drey, R. <u>Apothecary Jars: pharmaceutical pottery and porcelain in Europe and the East 1150-1850</u>. London, 1978"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Rackham, B. <u>Italian Maiolica</u>.  London: Faber &Faber, 1952"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Rasmussen, J. <u>Italian Maiolica in the Robert Lehman Collection</u>, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Watson, Wendy M, <u>Italian Renaissance Ceramics From the Howard I. and Janet H. Stein Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art</u>, exh.cat. Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Wilson, Timothy. <u>The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting</u>. Turin: 2018."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Massing, Jean Michel. 'Washing the Ass's Head': Proverbial and Allegorical Prints of the Sixteenth Century'. In: <u>Print Quarterly</u>, vol. 28, no. 3 (September 2011), pp. 298-305."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"See Ceramics and Glass Collection Object Information file for comments on place of manufacture of the drug jar."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Borgarucci, Prospero. <u>La fabrica degli spetiali</u> (1567)"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["C.908-1936"],"accessionNumberNum":"908","accessionNumberPrefix":"C","accessionYear":1936,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Rackham (1977)","id":"THES56972"},"number":"241"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LR6316","2019LV2030","2019LV9168"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-11-03","availableToBook":false}}