Terracotta Traveler's Flask 1800

Terracotta Traveler's Flask 1800 with a lenticular shape, convex on the outer side and flat on the inner side, without a base and with two side handles for the cord (one of which has a partial break). The terracotta is glazed in a mottled greenish ivory color with a more intense green. Central Italy 1800. These small terracotta flasks had the peculiarity of containing water or other liquids necessary to quench the thirst of pilgrims during their travels. Of relatively small size, with a lenticular shape, and with the possibility of being anchored to the belt or carried over the shoulder by using a cord that was passed around the flask and threaded through four handles or perforated sockets placed on the sides. Therefore, 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 flasks empty in the center that, being equipped with a base, suggest a more decorative than functional function. Even the decoration passes from primitive graffiti with geometric or floral motifs, to enamel coloring or decoration that can be pictorial according to the usual models of the period or, in the more popular examples, of an abstract nature as in the case of flasks with abstract decoration, almost random, in which we like to think that the decorator simply had colors to use or finish. Height: 19 cm - Width: 15.5 cm - Depth: 6.2 cm art. A1061h 
Measures H x L x P 19 x 15.5 x 6.2