It’s time for our weekly round-up of #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton tweets, now at week 7 and tipping over into what looks to be a jam-packed Chapter 4. Titled “Summerly’s Art Manufactures – Parian – The Great Exhibition – Leon Arnoux – Exhibitions in New York (1853) and Paris (1855)” there’s certainly going to be plenty to get our teeth into!
“Tablewares had rapidly become one of the mainstays of Minton’s prosperity and the output of services in china, ironstone and earthenware increased markedly during the 1840s”.[68/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 13, 2020
The finest services were decorated with fruit or birds, finely painted, often with a trellis pattern or relief & enriched with gilding. On these pieces Minton artists such as Joseph Wright, Thomas Kirkby, & Joseph Wareham displayed their skills. [69/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 13, 2020
A great deal of blue and white ware was also still being made during the 1840s including one pattern known as “China Aster”, from a design by A. W. N. Pugin (who we mentioned a few tweets back), which remained in production over a long period.[70/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 14, 2020
Amongst the many pieces of stoneware & earthenware being made around this time were a series of attractive slip-cast jugs which were now being produced with the decoration “moulded in relief forming an integral part of the jug”.[71/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 15, 2020
The earliest examples of these were made in 1830 to celebrate the coronation of William IV but the most famous, ‘The Hop Jug’, was commissioned by Henry Cole for Summerly’s Art Manufactures (more on them very shortly!) and made by Minton in 1847.[72/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 15, 2020
Items like these jugs featured ‘running patterns’ of naturalistic plant forms loosely trailed over their surfaces, a new idea which had originated in France & remained popular well into the 1870s when it merged with the vogue for Japanese patterns.[73/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 16, 2020
“The technical progress of the early nineteenth century had led to a rapid advance in manufacturing processes, but the aesthetic qualities of the products of the industrial age had received comparatively little attention.” [74/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton pic.twitter.com/fyx8Ud79ju
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 17, 2020
In order to help bridge this widening gap between artists, designers and manufacturers the Royal Society of Arts announced a competition for designs for both a mass-produced beer mug and for a tea service for everyday use.[75/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 18, 2020
This competition brought together Herbert Minton & Henry Cole (who would later become the first Director of the South Kensington/@V_and_A Museum) with Cole persuading Herbert to enter a beer mug design despite Herbert’s initial reluctance to do so.[76/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 19, 2020
(A quick aside: Cole, under the pseudonym “Felix Summerly”, entered his own design for a tea service which was made by Minton under Cole’s own supervision – check out images of it in the @V_and_A‘s collections: https://t.co/rnuVJKpeFY ) [77/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 19, 2020