English Delftware Drug Jar: Pipe-Smoking Man design, around 1645-1655

Description

The first English drug jars decorated with a contents label appeared in the mid-1600s.
One of the earliest designs is the ‘pipe-smoking man’. The label takes the form of a straight cartouche, usually edged with scrolls. Below the middle of the label is a satyr’s head and at either end a larger grotesque head seen in profile, with something protruding from the mouth. As tobacco had been introduced to Europe towards the end of the 1500s, this is believed to be a tobacco pipe.
Another theory is that the heads were introduced by a Dutch immigrant potter influenced by ‘Gapers’. These were large wooden heads, often with a protruding tongue, decorating the outside of Dutch apothecary shops from the 1500s onwards.

The inscription ‘C:MELISSAE:’ on this dry drug jar reveals it was for storing Conserva Melissae, Conserve of Balm (Melissa officinalis).
With its design in blue, yellow and orange, this is a very early example of a polychrome drug jar. The jar was manufactured in London around 1645-1655.