Elegant 17th century cylindrical apothecary jar, gently concavetowards the middle, with an inward curving base and flaring rim.The high-quality cobalt-blue pigment applied on a very fine andtranslucent tin-white enamel crafted with high-quality paste, itfeatures Chinese cobalt-blue pigment of various shades, appliedon a very fine and translucent tin-white enamel.The body is sectioned into four large vertical rectangularpanels, alternating branch and leaf motifs with geometric patterns,ending near the base with a band of two parallel fillets.The vegetal sections are densely filled by floral motifs ofacanthus leaves typical of Italian majolica, alternating with spiralswithin a lattice, a popular late 16th and early 17th century motifadopted to fill large decorative segments, that seems to have hadits origin in Spanish faience from Granada and Valencia, althoughit is also known in 15th century Iznik ware (cf.: Intro. Ch. I).The turned edge neck, which served as support for theparchment lid, is decorated in a band of vertical stripes (cf.: Intro.Mangas).For its character and obvious horror vacui, the piece decorativegrammar is more directly related to Islamic models and toSpanish and Italian production centres, very popular and successfulat the time, rather than to a Chinese prototype.The high quality of this piece suggests that it was commissionedby a high standing civil or religious owner.