A close pair of tin-glazed earthenware blue and white albarelli, Spain, Aragon or Barcelona, 1450-1500

Ex-collection William A. Clark Sr. (1893-1925).

Born in Pennsylvania, Clark was an entrepreneur who made his fortune in mining. He was also an entrepreneur involved in banking and the railway system. Settling in Montana, he entered politics and briefly served as US Senator for that State. Part of his collection of art was donated to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.  

Blue and white earthenware such as these albarelli had its origins from Eastern production centres such as Kufa, Basra and Baghdad, only later finding its way into Islamic al-Andalus. Following the thirteenth century Christian conquest in the region, Muslim artisans were granted the right to work freely in the region upon the payment of a small tax. The exchanges between Islamic and Christian artisans produced a hybrid style of ceramics symptomatic of the artistic openness of fifteenth-century Iberia. This is exemplified through the combination of aniconic Andalusian vegetal motifs coupled with the figures in profile on these jars (Martinez Caviró 1991, p.158, fig.158). A collection of similar shaped blue-and-white jars can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. nos.47-1907, 49-1907 & 50-1907), although the inclusion of figures such as on the present pair is particularly rare. Another comparable is in the Fundación la Fontana, Barcelona (inv. no.FC.1994.04.56), its design being so close to the present two that it may have originally formed part of the same set.