Screw Top for a Bottle (Schraubflasche)
Unknown Artist
c. 1660–80
Medium
pewter
Dimensions
h. 34.3 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Decorative Art and Design
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Charles G. King Jr.
Accession Number
1918.327.b
About this artwork
Bottles or jars (kruken) of this type of six-sided form are most often associated with the ceramic tradition found in Kreussen (now Creussen) in the Bavarian region of Germany during the mid to late 1600s. With a threaded neck fitted with a pewter screw top and ring, they were ideal vessels for medicinal liquids as they could be easily connected to a belt for transport to the patient. Applied decoration depicting the twelve apostles, as on this example, allude to the spiritual nature of healing.