Vase with winged handles
- Audio guide stop: 493
- Gallery: Room 46
- Culture: Manises
- Made in: Manises (?)
- Date: 1465-1480 (circa)
- Object type: jar
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: G.619
- 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.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a striking jar known as a "Vase with Winged Handles." Created sometime between 1465 and 1480, this earthenware piece was tin-glazed and painted in colors of blue, yellow, and purple, with a shiny yellowish-golden lustre. It stands on a high foot and features dramatic wing-like handles with serrated edges.
Two roundels on opposite sides add visual interest—one includes a coat-of-arms with six torteaux and three fleur-de-lis, while the other is decorated with a yellow ring enclosing a stone and curling feathers.
This vase is closely linked to Manises ceramics and is considered an example of work that mimics Italian Renaissance styles. It may have once belonged to the influential Medici family in Florence—whether to Lorenzo the Magnificent or his son Piero remains uncertain.
It entered the museum's collection in 1892, acquired by Miss Edith Godman from an art sale in Paris.
See it in person
Vase with winged handles 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 type its audio guide stop number, 493, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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