Pottery is one of the oldest decorative art forms, and Minton is one of its historical masters. For more than 250 years, the English company was a premier producer of porcelain and ceramic wares. Its factory was known for detailed and brightly colored Victorian tableware, including dinner plates and serving pieces.
Thomas Minton founded the Minton factory in 1793 in Stoke-upon-Trent, England. It initially made earthenware but introduced bone china in 1798. When Minton died in 1836, the company passed to his son, Herbert Minton. The younger Minton was a savvy businessman with an eye for design. He introduced glossy majolica earthenware to the factory’s repertoire and hired skilled artists and designers like Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, boosting the company’s reputation.
In 1851, Minton debuted its majolica at the Great Exhibition in London. It became a royal family favorite and was even used to tile the Royal Dairy at Windsor Home Park. Minton majolica was also displayed on the monumental Saint George and the dragon fountain at the 1862 London International Exhibition.
Colin Minton Campbell, a nephew of Herbert Minton, took over the family business in 1858. He led the company to the head of the 1870s English art pottery movement. In the 1890s, French porcelain artist Marc-Louis Solon helped modernize Minton with his Art Nouveau designs.
Minton ceased operating as an independent company when it merged with Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd. in 1968. It was the end of an era, but not the end of widespread appreciation for Minton ceramics.
In 1982, the ”English Majolica” exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum featured 75 Minton pieces. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened its British Galleries in 2020, it included a display of three colorful Minton majolica bird sculptures. Minton pottery was also on display from September 2021 to January 2022, along with other English pottery, at the Bard Graduate Center’s ”Majolica Mania” exhibition.
On 1stDibs, find exquisite Minton serveware, decorative objects, wall decorations and more.
Large 19th Century Aqua Majolica Jardiniere Minton
By Minton
Located in Austin, TX
Minton Aqua Majolica Jardiniere with ram's head signed Minton. Height / 14.8 inches. 19 by 14 inches.
Ceramic, Faience, Majolica
Victorian Majolica Jardiniere Renaissance Minton, circa 1876
By Minton
Located in Austin, TX
Classical style for this large Majolica jardiniere or table centre signed Minton and dated 1876 cherubs handles and masks on each side of Renaissance Revival. On the middle of 19th c...
Majolica, Ceramic
19th Century French Painted Porcelain Cache Pot with Snake Handles from Gien
By Gien
Located in Dallas, TX
This round and colorful antique planter was created in “Faïencerie de Gien," France, circa 1890. The large porcelain flower pot has intertwined snake handles, and features traditional Greek style motifs throughout. The sculptural, ceramic vase is decorated with hand painted traditional allegory motifs, including the Horn of plenty and lambrequin mantling decor. The elegant porcelain piece is in excellent condition with rich painted colors in the blue, white and yellow palette inside and out. Stamped Gien France underfoot for further authentication. The Faïencerie de Gien is a ceramic factory in the Loire Valley, founded in 1821 by Thomas Edme Hulm. Amongst the many faience manufacturers in the 19th century, the reputation of Gien is equal to those of the factories of Creil, Longwy or Sarreguemines. Gien further developed the technique of emaux cloisonné...
Porcelain
$2,297 / item
H 20.08 in W 16.54 in D 11.82 in
Majolica Vase Snake Two-handled Amphora Orange Blue Hand Painted Italian Ceramic
By deBlona
Located in Recanati, IT
Amphora in majolica handmade in Italy and hand-painted in polychrome, decorated with a reinterpretation of the patterns used in Deruta during the Fifteenth Century, following the ori...
Ceramic, Majolica
$427
H 6.7 in W 7.88 in D 12.6 in
Majolica Bowl or Vide Poche blue green white colors circa 1900 Belgium
Located in Auribeau sur Siagne, FR
Beatiful colored Art nouveau Bowl or vide poche. Designed with large green leaves, flowers, circa 1900. It has been made in Belgium
Majolica
$559
H 8.67 in W 13 in D 4.73 in
19th Century Majolica Jardiniere by Wilhelm Schiller & Son, Bohemia, circa 1890
Located in Esbjerg, DK
A playfull 19th century Majolica Jardinière out of the renown workshop of Wilhelm Schiller & Son in Bohemia - circa 1890. A beautiful uncommonly shaped jardiniere with a lovely hand-...
Majolica
19th Century Victorian Majolica Jardiniere Joseph Holdcroft
By Joseph Holdcroft
Located in Austin, TX
19th Century large Victorian Majolica jardiniere with garlands of flowers, the handles are women heads signed Joseph Holdcroft.
Ceramic
George Jones Majolica Turquoise Ground Jardiniere
Located in Essex, MA
With a registry lozenge on base. Decorated on a turquoise ground with flowers and birds.
Pottery
Large Minton Majolica Wine Cistern, circa 1875
Located in New York, NY
Modelled by Louis-Francouis Jeannest (1813-1857). Literature: Marilyn G. Karmason with Joan B. Stacke, Majolica: A Complete History and Illustrated Survey, 1989, p. 64, illustrated...
Majolica
$9,400
H 13.5 in W 24.75 in D 13.75 in
Antique French Faience Hand-Painted Porcelain Jardiniere Centerpiece, Circa 1880
Located in New Orleans, LA
Antique French Faience hand-painted Porcelain Jardiniere centerpiece Circa 1880.
Porcelain
A George Jones Majolica 'Palissy Vase' with Snake Handle, English, ca. 1870
By George Jones
Located in Banner Elk, NC
A Highly Important George Jones Majolica 'Palissy Vase,' molded as an obovoid-form ewer, the rustic bark ground with molded green-glazed leaves and ferns,...
Majolica
A Thomas Sergent Palissy Ware Majolica Wall Pocket with Snake, French, ca. 1875
By Thomas Sargent
Located in Banner Elk, NC
A Highly Rare Thomas Sergent Palissy Ware Majolica Trompe-l'oeil Wall Pocket, naturalistically molded as an oak tree, with green-glazed leaves and acorns, a fledgling blackbird in ne...
Majolica
Wedgwood Majolica Cauliflower Pattern Compote Pedestal Bowl, English, 1879
By Wedgwood
Located in Banner Elk, NC
Wedgwood Majolica cauliflower pattern compote pedestal bowl, English, 1879, with impressed Wedgwood mark and three letter date code for 1879. For...
Majolica
Minton Majolica Mushroom Tazza with Three-Frog Base, English, Dated 1868
By Minton
Located in Banner Elk, NC
Minton Majolica Taza, molded as an inverted mushroom, the bowl interior glazed in orange, with three naturalistically modeled and glazed frogs around the stem,...
Majolica
A Palissy Ware Majolica Jardinière, Bird's Nest and Snake, School of Paris, 1880
By Thomas Sargent
Located in Banner Elk, NC
A Palissy Ware Majolica Jardinière, modelled as a rectangular rustic wooden trough with simulated wooden staves and branches, with ferns and green-glazed foliage, bullrushes, and toa...
Majolica
George Jones Majolica Cobalt-Ground 'Doves Jardinière' English, circa 1870
By George Jones
Located in Banner Elk, NC
A George Jones Majolica Centerpiece Jardinière, the cobalt glazed shaped bowl supported by two naturalistically molded and glazed doves, with ribbon-wrapped garlands and trimmed in yellow ocher, on a rustic mound with green-glazed leaves and ferns forming the base; the reverse with molded and applied blue cartouche pad, 'GJ' monogram, and 'STOKE-on-TRENT.' Design number 2225 for the entry, 'Dove Jardinière,' as recorded in the George Jones Majolica Pattern Books preserved in the Victorian and Albert Museum, Wedgwood Collection, and reprinted in V. Bergesen.* The design is documented in the Karmason Library of the Majolica International Society, Number KL001257 with the designation 'Rare.' We have been among the preeminent specialists in fine English majolica for over thirty years. BOOK REFERENCES: -Victoria Bergesen, MAJOLICA: British, Continental, and American Wares. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1989, p. 202 (George Jones Majolica Pattern Numbers, pp. 201-205). -Susan Weber et al., MAJOLICA MANIA: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States 1850--1915. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2020, Volume Two, p. 246, FIG. 18.21. -CHRISTIE'S London, 19TH CENTURY BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL CERAMICS...
Majolica
