Our weekly round-up of #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton tweets continues, where we lovingly bundle up our latest manuscript snippets into one Minton-y fresh hit! In this instalment there’s more on the Paris Exhibition, an important announcement from Herbert Minton, and we link back up with a much earlier tweet from the series…
“The Times correspondent gave the highest praise to Minton’s collection, naming it with the displays of the East India Trading Company and the Lyons manufacturers as the most remarkable in the exhibition.”[114/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 10, 2020
The same correspondent considered that the collection compared favourably with Sevres “as a display of taste and enterprise”; majolica & Lucca della Robbia ware came in for special praise too, & French visitors greatly admired the Palissy wares. [115/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 10, 2020
Some of the more spectacular items featured in the Paris display included a dessert service presented to Queen Victoria by the Empress Eugénie and a replica of a blue & white parian toilet service presented to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert.[116/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 11, 2020
“Minton was awarded the Grande Médaille d’Honneur for their display and Herbert Minton received the personal honour of the Cross of the Legion of Honour. In the following year, 1856, the firm was granted its first Royal Warrant.”[117/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 11, 2020
On his return from Paris Herbert Minton was presented with addresses from his own workpeople and from the people of Stoke-on-Trent. In his reply to them he expressed his intention to retire from the business due to his failing health.[118/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 12, 2020
(A quick aside to point out that you can find a copy of that second address, and Herbert’s reply, in the Minton Archive as SD 1705/MS25: https://t.co/aOraX3LdAz ) [119/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 12, 2020
Herbert passed away in 1858 having had only one child, a daughter who died in infancy. However, in 1838 he had taken his wife’s nephew, Michael Daintry Hollins, into the firm & did the same with his own nephew, Colin Minton Campbell, in 1842.[120/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 13, 2020
As we mentioned way back in tweet no. 25 Colin Minton Campbell was the son of Herbert’s sister Mary & John Campbell of Liverpool and the grandson of Colin Campbell, who had done business with Thomas Minton, Herbert’s father. [121/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 13, 2020
“Hollins became a partner in 1845 and Campbell in 1849. Before Herbert Minton retired he had made Léon Arnoux a partner in the firm and the active management of the firm passed into the hands of these three men”.[122/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 14, 2020
“Herbert Minton was an enlightened employer in many respects.” Like the rest of the pottery industry Minton’s wages were low, but Herbert took a personal interest in his workpeople – around 500 employees by 1858 – and their welfare.[123/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 15, 2020
He introduced the “Saturday half holiday” as an improvement to his employees’ working conditions and tried to persuade other manufacturers to adopt the same idea, though at that time no other employer in the Potteries would consider it.[124/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 15, 2020
Herbert Minton’s “energy, mental powers and genuine love of the potter’s art” brought prosperity to his own company, but his interests extended to the whole industry and also to the welfare of his town, of which he was “intensely proud”.[125/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) June 16, 2020