treen wooden pots

A set of 5 late 18th century wooden pigment jars. The softwood lidded jars are made in a baluster shape and decorated with the original black paint and hand painted color names in Dutch. Inside they still contain pigment remains and on one of lids there are 3 dates marked, the oldest one being 1781. All of the jars are in good condition and the lids fit perfectly. The paint has a warm patina and here and there you can even find old paint dots. Pigments were very expensive up to the 19th century. They were made from natural sources and sometime had to travel halfway the world to get to Europe. They were carefully stocked and used in jars like these. However usually they were made from pottery so wooden ones are rare to have survived. Pigment containers like these most likely were owned by a painter.