{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O129033"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O129033/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CA2901/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CA2901/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CA2901","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CA2902","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AT4667","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU4202","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O129033/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O129033","accessionNumber":"780-1868","objectType":"Jug","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This unusual salt-glazed stoneware jug is an elaborate version of the mass-produced Bartmann bottle, so-called because of its applied bearded facemask.  Here, though, the whole vessel is moulded in great detail to convey a three-quarter length figure of a man dressed in costume fashionable in the mid-sixteenth century.  The pewter lid, openable by flicking the thumbpiece attached to the handle, doubles as the man's hat. Such a jug would have been used to hold beer or wine at the table upon which might also be found other vessels such as those the man is depicted as holding - a rather more conventional Cologne stoneware jug and a facetted green glass drinking flute.  \r\nDespite a long earthenware potting tradition from the time of the Roman occupation, the Cologne stoneware industry began rather later than that of other Rhineland towns.  By about 1500, however, Cologne was producing small mugs and jugs with applied moulded botanical decoration. Although there were several thriving stoneware workshops in Cologne in the first half of the century, the city authorities were concerned about the fumes and fire risk.  Prohibitions and tax increases forced many potters to leave the city to set up instead in nearby Frechen.  \r\nThe jug was formerly in the Weckherlin Collection, objects from which formed the core of the South Kensington (now V&A) Museum's German stoneware collection on their acquisition in 1868.  The Weckherlin Collection was acquired by a fellow Belgian, the art dealer, publisher and patron of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, Jean Joseph Ernest Theodore Gambart who came to London in 1840 and took British citizenship in 1846.  He displayed the collection in his London house \"Rosenstead\",  Avenue Road, near Regent's Park, until a gas explosion caused him to reconsider the long-term security of his remaining pots - he sold 62 objects to the Museum for £800.  This jug was then worth £8-10s.","physicalDescription":"Grey stoneware jug with brown surface under a speckled salt-glaze.  It has a flat base in the form of the upper half of a man in sixteenth century dress, applied on the neck with a bearded facemask and modelled on the body with ruff, finely pleated linen shirt with band of smocking, embroidered flower-pattern doublet, slashed sleeves, jerkin open at the chest with pleated skirt, belt and cape.  The figure holds a stoneware jug of Cologne type in his right hand, of which the lid (intended as metal) has been pulled back by the thumbpiece, and in his left hand, a tall facetted late sixteenth century forest glass drinking flute known as a Stangenglas. A domed pewter lid sits on top of the man's head, and a small stoneware handle coming from the back of his head joins the body between his shoulders.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Salt-glazed stoneware with moulded detail, and pewter lid","categories":[{"text":"Stoneware","id":"THES48890"},{"text":"Drinking","id":"THES48965"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2009CA2901","2009CA2902","2006AT4667","2017JU4202"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"63 (VA)","id":"THES49737"},"free":"","case":"CA7","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Jug","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Cologne","id":"x28796"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1525-1550","earliest":"1520-01-01","latest":"1550-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"26.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"16.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"12.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1.4","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"formerly in the Weckherlin Collection","historicalContext":"Stoneware is a robust, non-porous and durable material.  German potters found these characteristics ideal for the manufacture of drinking and storage vessels which became indispensable to daily life in late medieval Germany. \r\nThe development of a true stoneware body  in the Rhineland was achieved by about 1300-50 by a process of careful experimentation entirely uninfluenced by Far  Eastern expertise.  The local clays became fully fused at 1200-1300°C, and early wares were unglazed or ash-glazed.  During the fifteenth century, potters discovered that salt thrown into the kiln would vaporise and form a pleasing tight-fitting glaze.  The colour varies from buff to dark brown but the glaze is easily recognisable from its 'orange-peel' appearance. Salt-glazing demanded vast quantities of salt for every firing.  This was imported through Cologne for sale to all the Rhenish potteries.  During the sixteenth century, German stoneware achieved huge economic success and attained a peak of technical and decorative refinement.  \r\nThis unusual and attractive jug is a version of the ubiquitous Bartmann bottle so-called because of its applied bearded facemask, but in this case, the whole vessel is moulded in great detail to convey a three-quarter length figure of a man.  He is dressed in fashionable clothes of the mid-sixteenth century and is intended to represent a wealthy merchant or noble. The jug would have been used to hold beer or wine at the table upon which might also be found other vessels such as those the man is depicted as holding - a more conventional Cologne stoneware jug and a facetted green glass drinking flute (Stangenglas).  The pewter lid, openable by flicking the thumbpiece attached to the handle, doubles as the man's hat.","briefDescription":"Grey stoneware jug with brown surface under a speckled salt-glaze, small handle and domed pewter lid.  In the form of a man in sixteenth century dress, applied on the neck with a bearded facemask and modelled on the body with costume and hands holding a stoneware jug and facetted drinking flute.  Germany: Cologne, 1525-50.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Vases en grès des XVI. et XVII. siècles composant la collection de M. W. de Weckherlin</i>, The Hague: Nijhoff, 1860."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"David Gaimster, <i>German Stoneware 1200-1900</i>, London: British Museum, 1997, p. 204, cat. 44"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["780-1868"],"accessionNumberNum":"780","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1868,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2017KE1799","2019LP8804","2019LT6110","2019LW5756","2019LW5244"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-01","recordCreationDate":"2006-11-06","availableToBook":false}}