Albarello
- Gallery: Room 46
- Culture: Marches, The
- Made in: Marches, The (probably); Pesaro (?); Urbino, Duchy of (historic) (?)
- Date: 1475-1500 (circa)
- Object type: albarello
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: 1885,0508.22
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
This is an albarello, a type of apothecary jar, from the Marches region, likely made sometime between 1475 and 1500. Before you is a small, almost vertical jar made of tin-glazed earthenware, painted in a lively arrangement of four birds — a peacock, a duck, a cockerel, and a goose — each enclosed in ornamental panels. The spaces between the birds are filled with flowing, Gothic-style floral designs.
Look closely at the base — it is marked with a phrase written in Gothic letters: ".sy. de. citro", which means "syrup of lemon." This was a real medicinal syrup, prized in the Renaissance for its cooling properties. The jar was painted in blue, but with hints of yellow, purple, and orange, adding to its colorful, vibrant look.
This piece was acquired in 1885 and shows how apothecaries of the time used elegant and detailed art to label and store their remedies.
See it in person
Albarello is on display in Room 46 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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