Blue-glazed stoneware medicine jar with cartouche on the bod - Lot 119

Blue-glazed stoneware medicine jar with cartouche on the body bearing the inscription SLANGEN-BLOET-YS-QVOT FENNEIN-1-5-9-1-I-E-M- ("snake's blood and countervenom" or "snake's blood is an evil poison"); gadrooned lower part and upper part decorated with a fine diamond latticework. Westerwald, Jan Emens Mennicken (c. 1540-c. 1594), late 16th century, 1591 H. 19.3 cm (very slight wear and chips) Three jars by Jan Emens Mennincken dated 1591 are known in public collections, probably from the same pharmacy: an albarelle in the British Museum (inv. 1894,0309.31), another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated but without inscriptions, another very similar one in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden with the foot redone (inv. 10608, fig.). Jan Emens Mennincken, who often signed his work with the letters I.E. or I.E.M. as here, was a master potter whose work is documented in Raeren in the Duchy of Limburg between 1568 and 1587. He later emigrated to the Westerwald, where he is nowhere to be found. An innovator, it was to him that we owe the use of cobalt blue imported from Bohemia as early as 1584. This pharmacy jar, with its beautifully precise decoration, is in an excellent state of preservation.