UNG. EGYPTIAC
UNG. EGYPTIAC
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This albarello–shaped drug jar has an off–white underglaze with a muted blue, yellow, and green palette. A yellow–haired putti with blue and yellow wings is sitting on a tuft of green grass. Thin bands of blue encircle the jar just above the upper shoulder and below the bottom shoulder. Text in between the lower bands reads VNG EGYPTIAC.
- Based on its muted palette, pharmacy historian George Urdang believed this piece to be of 18th-century origin from the Castelli region. The bottom of the jar is marked in glaze with the initials, G.B.C. He believed the artist to be Rocco di Castelli. The jar would have contained Unguentum Egyptiacum, Latin for Egyptian ointment. Egyptian ointment was a combination of copper acetate and honey that was used as an escharotic, a caustic agent.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- jar
- albarello
- Physical Description
- ceramic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 18.4 cm x 11 cm; 7 1/4 in x 4 11/32 in
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0568
- catalog number
- M-05780
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 492
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0568
- Credit Line
- Gift of American Pharmaceutical Association and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
- subject
- Pharmacy
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Health & Medicine
- European Apothecary
- Art
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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