It’s time for week 14’s round-up of our #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton tweets which have been entertaining you all (we hope!) for over 3 months now – how time flies 😮 We’ve just reached Chapter 6 in the “Minton” manuscript, having described the ‘acid gold’ process & the birth of Minton’s famous turquoise (from which this site’s colour scheme takes inspiration) along the way, and it looks like another good’un! Read on for all the details…
Between 1862 & 1865 Minton paid Hughes £1000 for his invention & perfected the processes necessary for commercial production. Objects are first glazed & fired in the usual way before the pattern is printed on the glazed surface in a ‘resist’. [152/]#WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 1, 2020
This special resist, consisting of “beeswax, pitch & stearine”, is then applied all over the object to protect it during the next stage of production when the entire piece is immersed in a bath of hydrofluoric acid for a certain amount of time. [153/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 1, 2020
Once the piece has been removed, washed, & the resist cleaned off “the design appears in slight relief above the [acid-]bitten surface”. The raised design & the background are then painted with gold chloride & the piece is fired. [154/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 2, 2020
After the firing the pattern & background appear in matt gold but the finished effect is achieved with a final burnishing of the raised parts the pattern. “This costly & difficult form of decoration [is only used] on the highest class of wares”.[155/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 2, 2020
In the same decade as the London Exhibition & the introduction of the acid gold technique Minton’s beautiful turquoise also made its appearance. “Here was another example of Léon Arnoux’s exceptional gifts”. [156/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 3, 2020
Since his days as a student in Paris Arnoux had wished to emulate the ‘bleu céleste’ of the famous French pottery manufacturer Sèvres & even before he had left France in the 1840s he had achieved some success, though he was not yet satisfied.[157/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 3, 2020
At Minton, however, and after many years of research and experimentation, Arnoux was able to perfect a “clear, rich turquoise which is perhaps more beautiful than the celebrated colour of Sèvres”. [158/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 4, 2020
It was Arnoux’s personal triumph & closely guarded secret: he always mixed & prepared the colour himself. “When John Wadsworth was asked why turquoise was no longer used [at Minton] he replied: ‘Only one old man knew how to make it & he died.'” [159/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 4, 2020
“In 1867 another international exhibition was held in Paris. It was the last great display of the Second [French] Empire before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, the siege of Paris & the exile of Napoleon III.” [160/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton pic.twitter.com/yJoH1IlxoG
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 5, 2020
Minton mounted another magnificent display of decorative pieces & objects of daily use, as well as what the Art Journal described as “beautiful tea, dinner & dessert services to which […] a character of elegance, & often originality, is given.”[161/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 6, 2020
It showed that Minton was producing every kind of pottery at the highest quality of workmanship, materials, & design: from encaustic pavements, domestic earthenware, & massive majolica garden sets to delicately painted china vases & services. [162/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 6, 2020
In London in the 1860s new trends were appearing which would eventually merge into what became known as the Aesthetic Movement. This new “attitude of mind” began as an idea to bring the fine arts into closer relationship with contemporary life. [163/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 7, 2020
Over time awareness of the movement extended to the wider public who began to feel that good design – in furniture, wallpapers, fabrics, metalwork & pottery – was as much an expression of art & beauty as that of those fine arts. [164/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 7, 2020
The aesthetic outlook was also refined in publications such as “Hints on Household Taste” (written by the son of the President of the Royal Academy) & in the art industries the leading manufacturers – including Minton – were quick to respond. [165/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 7, 2020