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<\/a>+ Earthenware\u00a0with a range of colored lead glazes applied directly to the biscuit simultaneously, then\u00a0fired<\/p>\n
+\u00a0<\/em>Developed in\u00a01849\u00a0named ‘Palissy ware’, later becoming known as ‘majolica’ (same\u00a0name as Minton’s\u00a0rare tin-glazed product SEE BELOW)<\/p>\n + Frequently molded in\u00a0relief\u00a0and naturalistic in style<\/p>\n By 1875 had become a huge commercial success imitated by\u00a0forty manufacturers across Europe and the US.<\/p>\n Click here for more examples of Victorian majolica pottery<\/a>.<\/p>\n + Tin-glaze is applied, dipped or painted,\u00a0to the biscuit and allowed to dry. Then decorated with painted brush work and fired. The result is\u00a0a distinctive opaque white layer with painted decoration.<\/p>\n + Tin-glazed earthenware has always been\u00a0known in Italy as ‘maiolica<\/span>‘, in England as ‘majolica’. In England in 1849\u00a0Minton\/Arnoux produced a product in imitation of the old Italian maiolica but using\u00a0Engish clays. Minton named this product ‘majolica’ after the Italian ‘maiolica’<\/p>\n + Tin glaze is normal clear lead glaze with a little\u00a0tin oxide added to\u00a0\u2018the mix\u2019 –\u00a0 sand + potash + lead oxide + tin oxide. Tin is the smallest proportion in the mix but produces the wonderful opaque white colour glaze that ‘takes’ brush painted enamel decoration so beautifully.<\/p>\n Now it is time to try to\u00a0nail some things down. One essential fact is key to understanding. Then we’ll go to\u00a0the evidence. Ready for this?<\/p>\n Unpublished until Paul Atterbury\u00a0co-authored ‘Dictionary of Minton’ an essential truth is that between 1849 and 1851 Leon Arnoux invented for Minton not one, but\u00a0two <\/em>new products both soon to be known as ‘majolica’: ‘majolica’ and ‘Palissy ware’.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Both received their first public airing at the Great Exhibition of 1851.<\/p>\n The word ‘majolica’, an\u00a0anglicisation of the Italian word ‘maiolica’, was already\u00a0in general use in England to describe tin-glaze maiolica in the Italian style.<\/p>\n ‘Maiolica’ is the\u00a0Italian word for\u00a0tin-glazed earthenware characterised by its opaque white enamel (glaze) and hand painted in-glaze decoration.<\/p>\n Minton’s\u00a0tin-glazed imitation ‘maiolica’\u00a0that he called\u00a0‘majolica’ was gorgeous pottery, but sadly\u00a0a commercial flop.<\/p>\n Almost no other makers copied it. Today any item of\u00a0Minton’s tin-glaze imitation Italian maiolica that they called ‘majolica’ is a rare find.<\/p>\n The public however came to call this ‘majolica’ also. Now (1855)\u00a0we have two distinct products being called by the same name. Minton’s ‘Palissy ware’ is today\u00a0known as\u00a0‘Victorian majolica pottery’. Lead-glazed molded earthenware objects for the\u00a0growing merchant classes,\u00a0both useful and decorative, in styles\u00a0both classical and later more naturalistic. Made between 1851\u00a0and 1900.\u00a0\u00a0Characterised by rich vibrant colors, elegant, richly sculpted sometimes whimsical even humorous designs from\u00a0conservatory tables to flower holders.<\/p>\n Click here for more examples of Victorian majolica pottery<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n By 1875 coloured glazes Victorian majolica pottery\u00a0had become a commercial sensation. Makers in Europe and US\u00a0re-invented\u00a0Arnoux’s glazes and kilns manufacturing a\u00a0profusion of forms in slightly different palettes. Today the magic of majolica enraptures\u00a0decorators and collectors alike.<\/p>\n Q. What\u00a0“sixteenth century” pottery is this author referring to?<\/p>\n A.\u00a0\u00a0“…the ancient majolica”. In England\u00a0the word\u00a0‘maiolica’\u00a0was usually anglicised to ‘majolica’<\/span>.<\/p>\n Q. What do we understand by ‘majolica’?<\/p>\n A. A glaze of “Sand, lead, and tin.” The addition\u00a0of tin turns a plumbeous or lead\u00a0glaze into\u00a0a stanniferous or\u00a0tin glaze.<\/p>\n Clearly the\u00a0author is talking about tin-glazed pottery. Who is the author? None other than Leon Arnoux, inventor of\u00a0Minton’s ‘majolica’ tin-glaze pottery in imitation of Italian maiolica using English clays.<\/p>\n Another Italian maiolica expert of the\u00a0era was C. Fortnum Drury, big time collector, author of ‘MAIOLICA’\u00a0published by South Kensington Museum in 1875. He explains the\u00a0process by which tin-glazed wares are made.<\/p>\n “We shall be occupied with the glazed and\u00a0enamelled wares: the first of which may be again divided into\u00a0siliceous or glass glazed, and plumbeous or lead glazed.\u00a0In these subdivisions the foundation is in all cases the same.\u00a0The mixed clay or ‘paste’ or ‘body’ varied in composition\u00a0according to the nature of the glaze to be superimposed is formed\u00a0by the hand, or on the wheel, or impressed into moulds ; then\u00a0slowly dried and baked in a furnace or stove, after which, on cooling, it is in a state to receive the glaze. This is prepared by fusing sand or other siliceous material with potash or soda to form a\u00a0translucent glass, the composition, in the main, of the glaze upon\u00a0siliceous wares. The addition of a varying but considerable\u00a0quantity of the oxide of lead, by which it is rendered more easily fusible but still translucent, constitutes the glaze of plumbeous\u00a0wares : and the further addition of the oxide of tin produces an\u00a0enamel of an opaque white of great purity, which is the characteristic glazing of stanniferous or tin-glazed wares.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n References to Minton’s lead-glaze Palissy ware are few and far between. The public were calling it ‘majolica’ within a few years of its introduction. There was confusion as to\u00a0the difference between the two\u00a0types of pottery\u00a0that were called by the same name.\u00a0Many 19th century authors and compilers did not even mention colored lead glazes ‘Palissy ware’.<\/p>\n Let us look at\u00a0two extracts from\u00a0the inventor himself.\u00a0Here is a link\u00a0to a\u00a0free ebook “British Manufacturing Industries”<\/a> published 1877. Leon Arnoux\u00a0authors the section on POTTERY. In it he refers to ‘majolica’<\/span> and ‘Palissy’<\/span>.<\/em> These are the names Minton and Arnoux gave to\u00a0 their two new products. ‘Majolica’ because the product imitated Italian maiolica. ‘Palissy ware’ because this product imitated the coloured lead glazes of Bernard Palissy in Renaissance France. He leaves no doubt <\/span>as to what he is talking about when he connects the names Wedgwood and George Jones with ‘Palissy ware’. Highlighting and comments in brackets are mine.<\/p>\n “Some of these makers do not devote all their attention to earthenware, but produce other classes of pottery. Amongst the sorts which are most connected with earthenware are majolica<\/span> [tin-glazed imitation maiolica]<\/em>, Palissy<\/span> [Minton’s coloured glazes ‘Palissy ware’ first shown in 1851, later also called ‘majolica’]<\/em>, Persian ware<\/span>, and flooring and wall tiles<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Minton’s tin-glazed majolica<\/span> in imitation of Italian maiolica, a beautiful product in Italian Renaissance styles was, sadly,\u00a0 a commercial flop.<\/p>\n Minton’s Palissy ware<\/span> = coloured lead glazes majolica,<\/strong> imitated by 30 or more manufacturers including Wedgwood and George Jones, a huge commercial success. Ninety nine percent of Victorian majolica is of the coloured lead glazes type, with just a very few items made by the tin-glaze process in imitation of Italian Renaissance maiolica.<\/p>\n Click here for more examples of Victorian majolica pottery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\nMaiolica<\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/h2>\n
An\u00a0essential fact<\/h1>\n
\nThe first they called ‘majolica’<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/a>
\nThe second they called ‘Palissy ware’<\/h1>\n
Victorian majolica pottery<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/a>And now for the evidence<\/h2>\n
\nThe first they called ‘majolica’<\/span><\/h1>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe second they called\u00a0‘Palissy ware’<\/span><\/h1>\n
Evidence of two types of pottery, Minton’s\u00a0‘majolica’<\/span> and ‘Palissy’<\/span><\/h1>\n
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