Description:
Dutch delft tobacco jar decorated in blue with a domed brass lid. One side of the jar is decorated with a large globular vase labled "TONKA" with palm leaves growing from behind. The Tonka bean is the black, fragrant, almond-shaped seed of a large, leguminous tree, 'Dipterix odorata' of Brazil, Guiana, etc., used as a perfume ingredient and perfuming snuff. The vase is standing on a tall plinth, on which sits an iconographic representation of America as an indigenous Caribe woman, who is wearing a feathered headress and smoking a pipe. There are two sailing ships on the right with flying birds overhead; and a palm basket in the left foreground in front of three smaller containers and a box marked "VOC", the insignia for the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Ooost-Indische Compagnie). The base has the maker's mark of three triangles on short stems, the mark of Willem van der Does of "De Drie Klokken" or The Three Bells pottery, who took over in 1762. Although early Dutch potteries had often marked their products, they started formally registering their marks in the mid 18th century and putting those marks on most of their wares. There was a similar tobacco jar in a 1978 London exhibition, decorated with the same scene with the jar labeled "MACUBA" and the The Three Bells pottery mark. The globular-shaped jar has a narrow neck and rounded shoulders tapering to a flat base. The circular brass lid is topped by an urn-shaped finial over a straight-sided base.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1687B |
