Ceramic Wayfarers Water Bottles, Late 1800s, Set of 2

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Pair of Ceramic Wayfarer's Flasks from the late 1800s, lenticular in shape with a white background and abstract decorations painted … Read more Pair of Ceramic Wayfarer's Flasks from the late 1800s, lenticular in shape with a white background and abstract decorations painted in shades of blue, ochre and brown. Similar in shape regardless of the handles shown which have a different orientation. The tallest has a glue at the base of a handle. The decoration is placed only on the outside of the flask while on the back of one we see a label from a shop in Rapallo and a small chip on the base. Originating from Central Italy.

These small flasks made of terracotta had the particularity of containing water or other liquids necessary to quench thirst during the pilgrims' journeys. Relatively small in size, with a lenticular shape and with the possibility of being anchored to the belt or carried over the shoulder using a cord that was passed around the flask threaded through four handles or perforated sockets placed on the sides.

So the essential tool for the traveler is soon decorated and enriched with new shapes both in the plastic of the flask and in its typology, until finding particular shapes such as the empty flasks in the center that, being equipped with a base, suggest a more decorative than functional function.

Even the decoration goes from primitive graffiti with geometric or floral motifs, to enamel coloring or to the decoration that can be pictorial according to the usual models of the period or in the most popular examples, of an abstract nature as in the case of the flasks with abstract decoration, almost casual in which we like to think that the decorator simply had colors to use or finish. See less