Today is week 8 of the #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton mega-thread round-up, which corrals the last 7 days of appropriately hashtagged @MintonArchive tweets into a neat bundle for your perusal. We’re now comfortably into Chapter 4 of Philip and Zillah Wadsworth’s “Minton” manuscript which, amongst other things, covers the company’s involvement with Summerly’s Art Manufactures and the Great Exhibition of 1851. Read on for the details…
“Both the beer mugs and the tea service won silver medals at the Society’s exhibition in 1846, and this successful co-operation [between Minton and Cole] was followed by the setting up of Summerly’s Art Manufactures in 1847.”[78/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 20, 2020
The Art Manufactures was neither a workshop nor studio but a scheme which – just like the Royal Society’s competition – would help bring manufacturers, artists, & designers together in order to unite “quality with elegance” & improve public taste.[79/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 20, 2020
Much of the work made for Summerly’s by Minton were models in a body called Parian – or “statuary porcelain” as it was also known in its early days – a new type of porcelain body which imitated parian marble as closely as possible.[80/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 21, 2020
By 1842 both Minton & Copelands were experimenting with this new body, & though Thomas Battam of Copeland & Garratt is considered to have invented it even the Great Exhibition’s jury couldn’t establish which firm had brought it to market first.[81/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 21, 2020
The majority of Minton figures were specially designed for production in Parian, while others were reduced copies of original work in marble or stone; the latter in particular helping to increase the popularity of this new porcelain body.[82/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 22, 2020
(The Minton Archive’s In Depth article “The Statues of the People” by Johanna Roethe discusses Minton’s Parian in more detail, in particular the company’s copies of Ariadne on the Panther and Una and the Lion. https://t.co/VHeBFhmALL ) [83/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 22, 2020
“During the next fifty years the production of all kinds of Parian models must have been enormous. Then, quite suddenly, towards the end of the [19th] century the demand for this kind of ornamental ware seems to have died out.”[84/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 22, 2020
When Henry Cole visited the Paris Exposition of 1849 he learned that the French government had turned down a proposal to make it international in character, a concept which to him “conjured up visions of an even more ambitious nature”. [85/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 23, 2020
Cole discussed his idea for “a great assembly of the industrial arts of all nations in London” with Herbert Minton, who wholeheartedly supported the idea; other members of the Royal Society of Arts were equally enthusiastic.[86/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 23, 2020
The President of the Society, the Prince Consort, also expressed his complete approval of this bold, original, and imaginative plan for a “great exhibition” which would be held in London and to which the whole world would be invited.[87/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 24, 2020
Unfortunately the Treasury was not prepared to give financial support to such an audacious undertaking; the first problem, therefore, was money.[88/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 24, 2020
Ultimately it was hoped the exhibition would pay for itself, but in the meantime voluntary subscriptions & private guarantees would be necessary to fund it; Herbert Minton was one of the first guarantors to come forward.[89/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 25, 2020
“At the close of the exhibition [Herbert] received a letter signed by Prince Albert thanking him for ‘the important benefits that resulted […] from the assistance you gave us at a time when […] success […] was still a matter of uncertainty’.”[90/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 25, 2020
Minton created a superb display of their wares for the opening of the Great Exhibition in May 1851, drawing the admiration of the crowds, the praise of the connoisseurs, and being the only British exhibitor to be awarded a special Council medal.[91/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 26, 2020
(The certificate accompanying this Council medal, presented to “Messrs. H. Minton & Co. for New Application & Beauty of Design shewn in the [Great] Exhibition” can be seen in our online catalogue as SD 1705/MS4506: https://t.co/3BmSHv6lRh ) [92/] #WadsworthsHistoryofMinton
— The Minton Archive (@MintonArchive) May 26, 2020