Almorratxa' (sprinkler)

'Almorratxa' with a squat spherical container decorated with spiralling 'latticino' threads, four slender spouts and one thick one, crests and twists of threads applied, ending at the bottom in a crimped skirt. It stands on a foot thickening towards the reinforced base. The use of 'latticino' threads and the decorations in blue glass on clear glass were features typical of the Venetian wares and of the 'Façon de Venise' of the 16th and 17th centuries, which in 18th-century examples like this one show us how the Catalan glass of this latter century kept this influence alive, despite the creation of exclusively autochthonous types like the 'almorratxa'. As a container and sprinkler of aromatic liquids, the 'almorratxa' takes its name from a very similar word that in Arabic means perfume sprinkler, or rather rose water container. It was a common feature in Catalan houses from the 14th century onwards, as the inventories show, and the oldest conserved example dates from the 16th century. During the 18th century it was consolidated as an element of folkloric use, and was used at festivals and dances in different Catalan towns and villages, a custom still kept alive today in the “balls de l'almorratxa” ('almorratxa' dances).