Victorian majolica

This article refers to pottery with a clear lead glaze. For pottery with an opaque white glaze decorated in colour, see Maiolica

Victorian majolica is earthenware pottery made in 19th century Britain, Europe and the USA with molded surfaces and colorful clear lead glazes.

History

Victorian majolica was originated by Mintons Ltd, who exhibited it at the Great Exhibition of 1851 under the name Palissy ware. The debt to the eccentric 16th century potter Bernard Palissy is obvious from its naturalistic plant and animal motifs molded in relief and splashed with bold color and clear glazes.

Mintons had for some time been making tin-glazed pottery (which is opaque, white and shiny and painted in color) somewhat in the style of Renaissance Italian maiolica, which they called majolica ware, anglicizing the Italian maiolica.

The Illustrated London News reported with approval of Minton's work at the Paris Exposition Universelle (1855) :

The collection of Palissy and Majolica ware, however, is that which appears to have created the greatest sensation among Parisian connoisseurs. The reader will remember that the main difference in these wares is that whereas the Palissy ware is coloured by a transparent glaze, Majolica ware contains the colour (opaque) in the material. The care and taste with which these manufactures have been brought by the Messrs. Minton to their present state of perfection, have been amply rewarded. Within a few days of the opening of the Exhibition all the specimens exhibited had been sold.^[1]

Despite this reminder, the public came to call Minton's Palissy Ware majolica ware; Palissy ware dropped out of use and majolica stuck. In §1875§ the curators of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) tried to clear up the confusion by reviving the Italian pronunciation maiolica for Italian tin-glaze^[2] §and by publishing two books 'Majolica' and 'Maiolica' by <Charles Drury Fortnum, one of their 'art referees'.§^[3]

Wedgwood began to manufacture majolica about ten years after Mintons. Wedgwood's glazes and modeling were denser and more formal than Minton's, but there were many pieces that displayed the naturalism and humor of Minton shapes. Wedgwood's majolica included cachepots, pitchers, candlesticks, cheese bells, umbrella stands, sardine boxes, plates in naturalistic patterns, bread trays, etc. In Wedgwood's familiar "greenware" the green glaze emphasizes the low relief patterning, typically of basketwork and foliage.

Majolica was influenced by the design of the old "Cauliflower" and "Pineapple" teapots made by Thomas Whieldon, Wedgwood and other 18th-century Staffordshire potters. Both English and American majolica potters reproduced the "Cauliflower" pattern and other raised fruit, vegetable, leaf, and berry patterns, with green, yellow, pink, brown, light blue and purple-blue glazes. There is also a teapot of yellow corn and green leaves, similar to the old Whieldon "Pineapple" teapots, and a teapot, pitcher and sugar bowl of pink coral and green seaweed with accents of brown and blue, marked "Etruscan Majolica." Many late 19th-century majolica designs had rustic motifs with backgrounds of basketry and wooden-bound buckets decorated with molded flowers, birds, fish and animals. Handles were made like rustic tree branches, rose stems and twined flowers and leaves.

Plates, jugs, teapots, and other articles were molded with the shapes of wild roses, lily pads and herons, begonia leaves, shells, coral, seaweed, corn and bamboo stalks, cabbage leaves, strawberries, ferns and sprays of flowers, borders of basketry and oriental motifs.

Many potteries responded to the popularity of majolica.

• The Trent Pottery, George Jones and Sons, made majolica cupids, shells, dolphins, birds, figurines and coral designs in numerous shapes. Their mark was a monogram of the initials "G.J." joined together. A beehive bread dish with a cover has a design of wild roses against a background of basketwork and has the Trent Pottery mark. Also flowerpots were made in bright colors and with raised designs of natural flowers.

• Royal Worcester made figurines, shell vases, wall pockets etc. marking most of their output with an impressed crown over rose backstamp, using a distinctive paler blue glaze.

• William Brownfield made wallpockets, jugs, game pie dishes, table ware etc. Impressed 'W B'(in a knot) on some wares.

• T. Furnival and Sons made jugs and plates with raised oriental designs, which had borders of wickerwork in bold color and glaze. Their mark, "Furnival," is impressed in the ware.

• Edward Steele of Hanley manufactured jugs, flower vases, teapots, dessert services also made majolica, and centerpieces with fine coloring.

• Edward Banks and Thomas Thorley of Hanley manufactured bread trays, cheese stands, jugs, dessert services, trays, teapots, egg- holders and flowerpots. One of their dessert services has a chocolate colored ground and a raised naturalistic design of ivy, ferns, and anemones.

• Davenport and Banks (or Davenport Beck and Company) made many varieties of majolica. Their work was marked with a castle and the letters "D.B. & Co. Etruria" within an oval garter bearing the words "Trade Mark."

• Joseph Holdcroft of Longton.

• Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co

• Copeland, Copeland & Garrett.

• Forester.

• Samuel Lear.

• Poole and Unwin.

• S.Fielding and Co., The Railway Pottery, Stoke on Trent

• Daniel Sutherland and Sons.

• James Woodward

• J.W. John Adams and Co. of Hanley

European makers: France: Sarreguemines, Massier, Choisy le Roi, Boch Freres, Longchamp, Luneville, Orchies, Nimy, Onnaing, Salins, Vallauris. Lonitz (Austria), Krause (Austria), Eichwald (Germany), Bloch (Germany), Villeroy & Boch (Germany), W S Schiller (Germany), Gustavsberg (Sweden), Rörstrand (Sweden)

Several American firms also made majolica, with the English born Edwin Bennett producing it in Baltimore as early as the 1850s.^[4] The best known are Griffin, Smith and Hill of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, whose Etruscan majolica made from 1880 to 1890 includes compotes with dolphin supports and flower, shell, or jewel cups, a design of coral weed and seashells, and tableware with leaves and ferns. Their mark was an impressed monogram, "G.S.H.," sometimes circled and with the words "Etruscan Majolica".

Majolica was also made by Odell and Booth at Tarrytown, New York, and by the Faience Manufacturing Company at Greenpoint, Long Island, whose mark is an incised "F.M. Co." Their pottery was dipped in colored glazes, creating a streaked or marbled effect. Majolica was made at Evansville, Indiana. Work from the Chesapeake Pottery in Baltimore was called Clifton Ware and was marked "Clifton Decor 'R' " with the monogram "D.F.H.".

The Arsenal Pottery of Trenton, New Jersey, was making majolica as late as 1900 and exhibited Toby jugs in imitation of English Toby jugs at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1893)

Production had increased since 1875 but with fewer original examples and with less artistic enterprise. By the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, majolica production was at an end, superseded by Art Nouveau and Art pottery.

Much Victorian majolica appears in antique shops and auctions. It is popular with collectors and many of the old patterns have been reproduced.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victorian majolica.

• Bernard Palissy
• Fielding Majolica
• Mintons Ltd
• Palissy
• Palissy ware

Notes

References

• Old and Sold
• The Majolica Society
• Karmason, Marylin J., and Stacke, Joan B., Majolica: A Complete History and Illustrated Survey,, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
• Katz Marks, Mariann, "The Collector's Encyclopedia of Majolica", Collector Books
• Schneider, M. Majolica. Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1999.