German Earthenware Jugs, Sixteenth Century, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in colors, from Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance, lettered "ALLEMAGNE, CRUCHES EN TERRE CUITE, XVIe SIECLE." Three pieces share the sheet. At the left is a ring shaped flask on a round foot, its ochre body set with applied rosettes, lozenges and a shield bearing a rampant lion, with blue at the neck, handle and foot. At the right is a large lidded jug with a blue pewter style lid and blue bands, its body crowded with relief strapwork, birds, herms and a central cartouche framing a woman's face. Between them stands a narrow vertical strip, a detail of a handle molded with a female term figure above entwined serpents.

The running heads read "LE MOYEN-AGE ET LA RENAISSANCE." and "OBJETS DIVERS." Beneath the image are the credits "H. Soltau del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "Regamey lith.", and below the caption "F. Séré direxit". The caption translates as: Germany. Jugs in fired clay, sixteenth century. The plate was drawn by H. Soltau and put on stone by Regamey for Lemercier's press.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, edited the text, and Ferdinand Séré directed the illustrations, which is what the line "F. Séré direxit" on the plates records. The work surveys the customs, trades, sciences, arts and literature of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and its plates reproduce furniture, metalwork, ceramics, manuscripts and other objects from public and private collections of the time. The plates are chromolithographs, printed in color from a series of stones rather than colored by hand. This plate comes from the fourth volume, issued in 1851.

With its warm ochre and cobalt blue, the horizontal sheet works well framed alone or alongside other ceramic plates from the work.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.