Basil Pot
Maker unknown
Date: circa 1450 – 1475
Place Made: Spain
Materials & Techniques: Tin-glazed earthenware with copper lustre
Dimensions: Height 34.0 cm; diameter 34.3 cm
Accession Number: Waddesdon Manor 313.1997
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This is a plant pot. Basil plants were planted in it so that the sweet smell of their leaves would make a room smell nice. It is made of clay. Using his hands, the potter rolled the clay into long sausages. He curved these around, one on top of the other, to make the shape of the pot. It was then baked in a kiln (a pottery oven) to make it hard.
After it was baked, it was covered with the white background and painted with blue designs. Some parts are especially shiny and change colour in the light. This is because they were painted with a copper glaze. The potters from southern Spain, where this pot was made 550 years ago, were the first to make this type of pottery in Europe. It had to be baked again after it was decorated.
Teachers' Information
This is a 15th-century air-freshener. The plant pot was a luxury item of interior furnishing and this type of lustreware was expensive. Also, as the interior of the pot is unglazed, the clay would absorb some moisture when the plant was watered and keep the plant damp. The plant would have been watered through the turret-like apertures on the outside. There is a drainage hole in the bottom.
The potter’s hands were very important in the creation of this pot, particularly as it was not made on a wheel. The rim is decorated with a ‘ring gallery’, typical for this type of production, that increases the resemblance to a castle. The finials were cut out of a long strip of clay, while the rings are formed around a finger, or thumb, and placed between the finials.
The raised ribs on the interior are evidence of the coil technique. Drops of the white glaze used to disguise the clay (see below) can also be seen.
The pot illustrates the story of the development of ceramics and its spread from the Orient to Europe. Until the 18th century, porcelain was only made in the Far East (China, Japan and Korea) and the secret of how to manufacture it was closely guarded. As a result, it was a highly prized import, at first to the Middle East and then into Europe. Imitations were produced using local clays. In the desire to reproduce the white body of true porcelain, white glazes (containing tin) were developed to mask the red or ochre body of earthenware. The technique spread from the Islamic pottery centres in the Middle East to North Africa, from where it was taken to Spain when the country was occupied by the Moors. Valencia, where this pot was made, was the most important pottery centre in 14th- and 15th-century Europe. Exports of Hispano-Moresque ware to Italy via Mallorca (then known as Maiollica, thus the word 'maiolica' for Italian tin-glazed earthenware) lead to the dominance of the Italian centres in the 16th century.
Activities
1. The children could make containers using the coiling technique by rolling out clay or plasticine into sausages or ropes, coiling them to make a pot, then smoothing out the coils on the exterior to make a ‘clean’ shape.
2. Discuss with your pupils why this kind of ‘air-freshener’ would have been useful in the 15th century. Why would the rooms be foul-smelling?