A staple of European trade between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, these hefty terra-cotta basins were used to house both wed and dry food goods while being shipped throughout the region. Several styles exist, created by manufacturers from Spain to Turkey. One iconic type is the Biot jar, named after the small town in southeastern France where hundreds of thousands of vessels were produced and exported as far as America and the coast of India. Still known today as Potter’s Village, Biot sits on a hilltop south of Nice, mere miles from the sea.
