It’s week 18 of our #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton round-up and yet another new chapter is opening up before us – we must really be motoring now! Having hopefully got a basic handle on the complicated history of Minton tiles our attention now turns to Minton’s French artists, pâte-sur-pâte and a flurry of major exhibitions. Our @MintonArchive mega-thread has reached a particularly wonderful little milestone too: having surpassed the 227 tweet mark there’s now a ‘Minton’ manuscript snippet for every year since Minton was founded in 1793. This makes us smile 🙂
These actions occupied the courts for a decade, on & off, & in 1873 even resulted in the change of the china & earthenware firm's style from 'Minton' to 'Mintons' in an attempt to avoid confusion. (It reverted back to 'Minton' in 1968) [214/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 29, 2020
Another action brought by Hollins resulted in Colin Minton Campbell being restrained from making encaustic tiles & pavements under the name 'Minton'; Campbell's reply was to form the separate 'Campbell Brick & Tile Co.' & make them there instead. [215/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 29, 2020
In 1878, having had yet another action brought against him, Campbell proposed that Hollins should use only the style 'Minton Hollins & Co.' & in return Minton would make & sell every class of tile other than encaustic & plain floor tiles. [216/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 30, 2020
The judge presiding over this case – the same as had overseen the previous cases – felt this was a "'very moderate and proper proposal to make'" and, clearly tired of all the fuss, recommended that it should be accepted by both parties. [217/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 30, 2020
While this recommendation was sound enough there was a loophole: Hollins asked for & was granted permission to continue to use the current dies (used to mark the tiles) until they wore out due to the expense of immediately replacing them. [218/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 31, 2020
Confused by the "niggling technicalities" the judge had missed the vital point – these dies were not just expensive but also very tough & so "with the judge's unwitting assent" Hollins was able to continue using the old mark indefinitely. [219/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) July 31, 2020
(A quick aside: you can see a basic timeline of these tile-related events, find links to related records, & even read transcriptions from the documents referenced in the last few tweets in a post we wrote back in 2017 https://t.co/4vecOkroHo ) [220/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 1, 2020
Despite all this the 3 offshoots of Herbert Minton's original tile works would eventually be reunited: in 1962 Minton Hollins & Co. was taken over by the Campbell Tile Co. which had already acquired the tile-making side of Minton in 1919. [221/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 1, 2020
"Historians of the 19th century have agreed that the 20 years which followed the Great Exhibition marked the high water mark of British industrial prosperity [and] along with many others Minton took full advantage of these favourable conditions." [222/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton pic.twitter.com/C9sZu9iiSg
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 2, 2020
"The years between 1850 & 1880 marked the zenith of [Minton's] prosperity & artistic achievement. As one of their oldest painters put it when speaking of this period 'The tide was flowing their way….'." [223/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 2, 2020
Held in high esteem throughout Europe & able to choose artists from among the best on the continent, Minton were in an excellent position when the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 closed Sèvres & brought many French artists to England. [224/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 3, 2020
Among those seeking refuge was a distinguished ceramic artist called Marc-Emmanuel Louis Solon. He had been working at Sèvres since 1864 & whilst there had been introduced to a process of decoration known as pâte d'application, or pâte-sur-pâte. [225/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 3, 2020
"This […] decoration consists of white slip laid on a coloured ground by means of a brush, the edges of the design being sharpened with a small knife as the material hardens. The result is more delicate than either slip trailing or sprigging."[226/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 3, 2020
The first experiments in pâte-sur-pâte had been made at Sèvres in the later 1840s regardless of time or cost & with every facility given to the artists. It was in this "happy atmosphere" that Solon's career as a decorative artist really began. [227/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 4, 2020
More importantly, having been asked by an art dealer to make a few pieces in pâte-sur-pâte in his spare time & not knowing the composition of the bodies he worked on at Sèvres, Solon was given money & a studio to conduct his own experiments too. [228/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 4, 2020
Thus, quite separate from his work at Sèvres Solon evolved his own bodies & colours unlike those used in the factory & utilised them for his private commissions; these were always signed MILES, an invented name containing his initials M.L.S. [229/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 4, 2020