store and serve

shelf 2

Ceramic vessels used for storing and serving were not only made to be functional, but also often designed to be attractive. Intricately decorated Moroccan jobbanas were traditionally used to store a type of soft cheese, but the form is now used to serve harira, a type of soup. The Italian albarello stored medicine, while the Mexican botijo used evaporation to keep water cool.

 

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A gray-white lidded bowl with delicate blue symmetrical decorations and a finial with turquoise decorations.

Moroccan (Fez)

Jobbana (Lidded Bowl), 1800s

Earthenware with tin glaze, polychrome metal oxides, and glaze

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke E/130a

A tin-glazed earthenware jar that has white, orange, and blue symmetrical decorations.

Italian

Drug Jar (Albarello), 1500–1550

Earthenware with tin glaze, polychrome metal oxides, and glaze

Museum Works of Art Fund 51.078

A dark green jug with sculpted decorations, symmetrical decorative handles, and a foot.

Mexican (Santa María Atzompa, Oaxaca)

Botijo (Water Jug), 1800s

Earthenware with glaze

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke N-1/177a