Week 21 and the latest batch of @MintonArchive’s #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton tweets have been coralled together to keep you up to date with all things ‘Minton’ manuscript-related. This time round there are yet more international exhibitions to mention (and more spectacular pieces made for those events) and a focus on some of Colin Minton Campbell’s achievements, both as the head of the Minton company and further afield. Catch up with it all below…
"From the 1870s Minton were supplying services which adorned the tables of the Queen & most of the royal & princely houses of Europe, [of] Indian maharajahs & other eastern rulers & of governments & embassies throughout the world." [257/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 19, 2020
"This climax coincided with the apogee of the Victorian era & Minton china, earthenware, majolica & tiles were one of the finest expressions of the spirit of that vigorous, creative, brilliant age." [258/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 19, 2020
Yet more exhibitions followed. Minton contributed notable displays to the 1880 & 1885 exhibitions in Melbourne, Australia (a market with which they were establishing trade) & for Paris in 1889 supplied ware to Goode & Co. & A.B. Daniell & Sons. [259/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 20, 2020
For Goode's display in Paris the emphasis "was less on the very large pieces & rather more on parian, china services, toilet ware, & ornamental pieces"… with one notable exception, made by Minton to Goode's order. [260/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 21, 2020
Described as "a unique example of the potters art" Minton produced a pair of "monumental" elephant figures in hard-fired earthenware & decorated with Islamic designs in gold & rich enamel colours, which stood at the entrance to Goode's display. [261/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 21, 2020
Their creation "was a technical tour de force of no mean order since, except for the howdah, each elephant was fired in 1 piece & the doors of the tile kiln in which they were fired had to be considerably enlarged to get them inside." [262/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 22, 2020
(After the Paris exhibition these incredible pieces – they're around 7 feet high atop their wooden plinths! – were transported to Thomas Goode's showrooms in Mayfair where they've been guarding the entrance ever since: https://t.co/pjPqiwCpSo ) [263/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 22, 2020
During the 19th century social changes were lagging behind the rapid developments in industrial & technological progress. One frequent cause of conflict (apart from wages) was the custom of paying the potter only for pieces 'good from oven'. [264/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 23, 2020
This meant that the person who made the ware was only paid for the pieces undamaged after firing, despite not being responsible for any accidents that might (& frequently did) occur during that part of the production process. [265/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 23, 2020
"Colin Minton Campbell was the 1st employer to abandon this unfair system & pay the potter for every piece that was […] perfect when it left his hands. Other employers fell into line & gradually 'good from hand' became the accepted practice." [266/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 23, 2020
Even Colin Minton Campbell's political adversaries recognised him as a good employer: he instituted a system of apprenticeships in all sections of the Minton works & subsidised a School of Design at Newcastle-under-Lyme to train pottery workers. [267/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 24, 2020
The latter was a very advanced idea in 1864 – the South Kensington Studio would open in 1871, for example – & though it ultimately proved unworkable Campbell continued to take an interest in both the Stoke & Hanley Schools of Art. [268/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 24, 2020
Campbell also did much for the pottery industry & for Stoke-on-Trent (of which he was a mayor 3 times): he gave money to the town to prevent flooding & gave land near the Minton Institute for a library on the condition it would be free to all. [269/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 25, 2020
He took over the chairmanship of the North Staffordshire Railway & brought it into prosperity, became High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1869, & in 1874 was returned unopposed as an MP for North Staffordshire. [270/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 25, 2020
(He was, however, also against the smoke abatement movement, seeing coal as the basis of a healthy industry & thus the resulting smoke from its burning as a visible & tangible sign of prosperity. ? ) [271/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) August 25, 2020