17th Century Spanish Olive Jar (green glazed interior)

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Antique Spanish Storage Jar with Unglazed Exterior and Lead Glazed Interior from the 1600s (and do look at all 13 photos while you are visiting) View of the thick collared rim on the jar showing the rich green lead glaze coating its interior face. Some small dribbles of green glaze are also scattered on the shoulder of the jar. Full view of jar showing coil-like exterior throwing rings and scattered light iron oxide staining. Distinctive coil-like impressions on the nearly flat base of the jar. This spiral pattern is also on the base of the other jar shown below. WELCOME ITEM DETAILS: Fragments of this style of Spanish storage jar have been recovered at the initial settlement site of Jamestown, Virginia in recent years attesting to the wide spread trade in these wares across much of the New World. The style and shape of this jar has been dated to as early as 1570 and its fragments have been recovered from early Spanish sites in St Augustine (Florida) and Santa Elena (South Carolina) that were occupied before 1580. This distinctive style continued to be popular for storage of various commodities from wine and olive oil as well as rice, honey turpentine and undoubtedly many other substances. They were also shipped empty in the holds of ships and probably provided a marketable ballast that could then be readily used to transfer liquids shipped in casks and barrels for selling to merchants in ports of call. This jar is made of common sandy clay and fired at an earthenware temperature well below the vitrification heat used to produce stoneware. When this jar was made, the finer ceramic Spanish tablewares of the seventeenth century were tin glazed refined earthenwares called maiolica hand painted in blue. Monochrome copper lustre (luster) or more colorful polychrome. In England and Holland, these tin glazed wares were called delftware or simply Delft. The green glaze used to coat the interior of the storage jar offered helped the container hold liquids and without the glaze any liquid would seep through the porous clay walls. The jar was made in two sections since it also is very thick walled and the sections were luted together at the shoulder before glazing and firing. And although many collectors and academics simply call these jars, 'Spanish olive jars', they were multipurpose and heavy duty storage containers that held a wide variety of commodities and liquids. In Spanish, t are several terms that have been used to refer to storage jars such as botija (or botijo), botijuela, botija perulera, jarra, jarrierro, perulera and tinaja (Lister and Lister nd:96; Deagan 1987:31). The frequency of use of 'jarra de aceite' which translates specifically as olive jar seems to be rather limited in pre 1780 Spanish texts based on the research of others (Goggin 1960; Deagan 1987:31; Lister and Lister nd). Finally, the distinctive style of this jar with its angular shoulder, flat-like base and tall, thick collared rim was produced from the mid to late 1500s up to the mid to late 1700s. It was replaced by a more rounded and less shouldered form with more rounded base as well as three other more elongated forms (see Deagan 1987:31-32; Goggin 1960:28). The date assigned for the jar offered in this listing is about 1680 although it could well be some 120 years older than that date. So if you are looking for a wonderful genuine cultural artifact singularly representing the broad influence of the Spanish Empire in the New World in the late 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, then do consider bidding in this jar while it is still available. Finally, this antique jar also comes with my full satisfaction guarantee or you may return it using my return policy as noted below. SIZE: This coarse earthenware jar stands 11 inches tall and measures a maximum 9 1/2 inches across at its widest point. The mouth opening in its heavily collared rim is about 2 1/2 inches across. The width of the rim collar is 3/4 inches thick (or about 20 mm). A nice example of Goggin's Middle period ja... read more

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