Apothecary: a journey into medieval places where handmade objects mediated between matter, knowledge and an invisible form of magic.

COLLECTION 02: APOTHECARY

A person working on a ceramic mold of a crocodile, shaping the clay with their hand.
Black and white photograph of a mountain landscape with residential buildings in the foreground.
A decorative ceramic pitcher with painted artwork of a bearded man and stylized animal elements, along with text 'Si-Ved'.

For our second collection, we travelled to Abruzzo in Italy, a region surrounded by nature, on one side the sea and on the other the mountains. Beneath its mountains, the small town of Castelli is the chosen heir to a centuries-old tradition: ceramics. The people of this small village saw their golden age at the early stages of the Renaissance when they became the Italian producers par excellence of pharmaceutical pottery. Apothecaries, druids and kings turned to the skilled potters who created, thanks to the ceramist Orazio Pompei and his workshop, a unique style in the early 1500s. The Orsini-Colonna collection dates to this period, when the two ruling families of the time requested a wedding trousseau made of ornate and valuable apothecary jars. Centuries later, the same craftspeople faithfully reproduced the 16th century ceramics and perpetuated the savoir-faire.

Inspired by this ancient collection, we have collaborated with master ceramists to create new jars with magical shapes, highlighting the importance of the hand-made.The magic of an object, its poetry, the mystical and biblical figure of the dragon, the neutral and shiny monochrome colors opposed to the decorative richness of the past, the herbs and ointments they contained, the figure of the ancient pharmacist, part naturalist, part magician... these elements tell the story of an area and a past that still has much to say. These objects speak of the beauty of a tradition and of a world that, although it no longer exists, remains alive through the shapes and savoir-faire that is passed on through generations of artisans.

Black ceramic vase with handles on a light-colored surface against a plain background.
A beige ceramic vase with four octopus tentacles as handles, sitting on a light-colored surface against a neutral background.
Black ceramic vase with two ornate black dragon head handles, placed on a light-colored surface against a plain white wall.
Black ceramic jar with lid on a light wooden table, partially visible black object on left, white background.
A ceramic teapot with a face and a handle shaped like a dog's head, partially in shadow with a dark background.
A black vase with two handles on a stone table with carved sides, against a wall with two different paint colors.