Victorian majolica


Victorian majolica properly refers to two types of majolica made in the second half of the 19th century in Europe and America.
Firstly, and best known, there is the renowned mass-produced majolica decorated with coloured lead glazes, made in Britain, Europe and the US; typically hard-wearing, surfaces moulded in relief, vibrant translucent glazes, in occasionally classical but mostly naturalistic styles, often with an element of High Victorian whimsy.
Secondly, there is the rare tin-glazed majolica made in Britain only, primarily by Mintons from 1848 to circa 1880, typically with flat surfaces, opaque white glaze with fine brush painted decoration in imitation of the Italian Renaissance maiolica process and styles.

Glazes

Glaze is a vitreous coating on a ceramic. There are four types of glazing: feldspathic or alkali-glazed, salt-glazed, lead-glazed, and tin-glazed.
It is important to understand that lead oxide is the main ingredient of both lead and tin glazes. Lead oxide is a flux that causes lead and tin glazes to fuse to the earthenware biscuit body at a low oven temperature, about 800°C. The other ingredients in lead and tin glazes are typically an equally large quantity of silicates, and a small proportion of alkali ground up with a little water and the large proportion of lead oxide to form a paste.
A coloured glaze results from adding a very small amount of particular metal oxides to plain lead glaze, different metal oxides producing different colours. Since mid-19th century coloured glazes earthenware has been known as majolica.
An opaque white tin-glaze results from adding a very small amount of tin oxide to plain lead glaze. Decorated with brush-painted enamels, tin-glazed earthenware from mid-15th century onwards has been known as maiolica, also later as faience, delftware, talavera, or rarely, though commonly in USA.

Coloured glazes

1. is earthenware decorated with coloured lead glazes applied directly to an unglazed body. Victorian majolica is the familiar mass-produced earthenware decorated with coloured lead glazes made during the Victorian era in Britain, Europe and the US, typically hard-wearing, surfaces frequently moulded in relief, vibrant translucent glazes, in a variety of styles and forms. Shown in Britain at the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, it became fashionable, widely copied and mass-produced world-wide. Also known as: maiolica, Palissy ware, coloured glazes majolica, coloured-glazed majolica, lead-glazed majolica, and misleadingly 'lead or tin glazed' majolica.
Some coloured glazes majolica was produced in traditional Classical or Revivalist styles, but Darwinism, natural history, their English country gardens, expeditions abroad, and trade in oriental products generated more exciting styles appealing to the upcoming merchant classes. There was a boom in Naturalistic pottery, often with an element of whimsy, to which Minton's inexpensive, durable, multi-purpose product was well suited. A strong interest in the world at large generated passing fashions for Egyptian forms, Japanese styles, Chinoiserie and High Victorian style. Conservatories became a fashion statement. Adorning them were spectacular majolica garden seats, flower pots, jardinières, stands, large birds and animals. The irrepressible urge to impress guests with rare food led to the growing of pineapples and egg-plants formerly only available overseas. These too appeared as decorative objects for admiration around the home. Minton's Palissy ware boomed. Pottery makers throughout Britain, Europe and the US copied the process with great success, albeit variable quality. Palissy ware/Majolica went global.

Tin-glaze

2. is earthenware, coated with opaque white tin-glaze and ornamented with metallic oxide colours. Tin-glazed Victorian majolica is the rare tin-glazed earthenware made in England only, primarily by Mintons from 1848 to circa 1880, typically with flat surfaces, and opaque whitish glaze with brush painted decoration in the style of Italian Renaissance maiolica tin-glazed pottery. Also known as: maiolica; and 'lead or tin' glazed majolica.
Minton's tin-glazed majolica in imitation of Italian maiolica, praised at Exhibitions and purchased by Royalty and museums, made little commercial impact. Other pottery makers shunned the process.
Interest in Renaissance styles was waning, fashion moving on with the usual protestations from older generations: "...the current of fashion, however contrary to right, wisdom, and good taste..."
Cost of production was high. Compared to the lead-glaze process whereby thick, temperature-compatible coloured lead glazes were applied direct to the biscuit, simultaneously, then fired,, the tin-glaze process required extra stages for dipping/coating and drying the tin-glaze before decoration could even begin,. Added to this, the expense of brushwork decoration, especially the fine painting of pictures and designs, was very time-consuming, requiring highly skilled, higher paid artists.

Caution needed with meanings of ''[majolica]''

The term majolica has been dogged by confusion starting with the English anglicisation of the word maiolica into majolica following the appearance of the letter j in the English alphabet mid-17th century.

We understand by ''majolica''

Leon Arnoux, the artistic and technical director of Mintons, wrote in 1852 "We understand by majolica a pottery formed of a calcareous clay gently, and covered with an opaque enamel composed of sand, lead, and tin..."
He was describing the Minton & Co. tin-glazed product made in imitation of Italian maiolica both in process and in styles. Remember, tin-glaze is simply plain lead glaze with a little tin oxide added. His description is often referenced, in error, as a definition of Minton's other new product, the much copied and later mass-produced ceramic sensation of the Victorian era, Minton's coloured lead glazes 'Palissy ware'. The 16th century French pottery of Bernard Palissy was well known and much admired. Mintons adopted the name 'Palissy ware' for their new coloured glazes product, but this soon became known also as majolica. Minton & Co. appear to have done little to promote the clear distinction between their tin-glazed and coloured glazes products.

Minton Archive first design for majolica

Thomas Kirkby's design G144 in the Minton Archive is inscribed "This is the First Design for Majolica...". The design is Italian Renaissance in style. Close-up images illustrate a design suited for fine brushwork on flat surfaces. The design is for Minton's rare tin-glaze imitation of Italian tin-glaze maiolica. Minton's designs for Palissy ware, also known as , were suited for 'thick' painting of coloured lead glazes onto surfaces moulded in relief to make best use of the effect.

English Makers

Minton">Mintons">Minton, the Originator

Great Exhibition (1851)

Victorian majolica was originated by Minton & Co., first exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The 1851 Exhibition Catalogue lists the two Victorian majolica products by Minton in consecutive sections.
Earthenware ' Flowerpots, etc.
Exhibit Number 60. "A variety of ' flowerpots and stands, and garden seats." refers to the coloured glazes product that Mintons called Palissy ware.
Tiles, Terra Cotta, and Vases, etc, in imitation of Majolica Ware.
Exhibit Number 74. "Variety of flowerpots and stands, coloured in the majolica style, etc." refers to the tin-glazed product painted with enamels that Mintons called Majolica.

[Exposition Universelle (1855)]

The Illustrated London News reported with approval on Minton's two new products shown in Paris:
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 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.

Despite this reminder Minton's Palissy Ware became known as 'majolica ware'; 'Palissy ware' dropped out of use and 'majolica' stuck. In the 1870s, the curators of the South Kensington Museum tried to clear up the confusion by reviving the Italian spelling 'maiolica' with an 'i' instead of a 'j' for Italian tin-glaze.

Great Exhibition (1862)

At the second Great Exhibition of the Art-Works of All Nations a range of Minton's products were exhibited and illustrated in the Exhibition Catalogue. Amongst them were the two Minton majolicas a) tin-glazed Minton Majolica and b) coloured glazes Minton Palissy ware soon known also as 'majolica'.

Wedgwood

began to manufacture majolica about ten years after Mintons. Wedgwood's glazes and modelling were denser and more formal than Minton's, but there were many pieces that displayed the naturalism and humour of Minton shapes. Wedgwood's majolica included cachepots, jugs, candlesticks, cheese bells, umbrella stands, sardine boxes, plates in naturalistic patterns, bread trays, etc. In Wedgwood's "greenware" the green glaze emphasizes the low relief patterning, typically of basketwork and foliage. Numerous smaller factories in the Staffordshire Potteries specialised in such green majolica wares in which the translucent glaze brought out the low relief of the cast body: some, like Wedgwood, marked their majolica with impressed stamps.
Majolica was influenced by the design of the old "Cauliflower" and "Pineapple" teapots that had been 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, jug 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 moulded flowers, birds, fish and animals. Handles were made to resemble tree branches, rose stems and twined flowers and leaves.
Plates, jugs, teapots and other articles were moulded 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.

George Jones

The Trent Pottery, and Sons, made majolica cupids, shells, dolphins, birds, figurines and coral designs in numerous shapes including highbrow centrepieces alongside snuff boxes, spittoons, dog bowls, vases, serving dishes, tea sets, jugs, cheese keeps, desk sets, garden seats and pie dishes. 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 colours and with raised designs of natural flowers.

Joseph Holdcroft

Brown Westhead Moore

Doulton Lambeth

Victoria Pottery Company

Majolica from other countries is included in this article for two reasons
  1. The term Victorian is occasionally used also to describe majolica made in other countries.
  2. European and American makers employed English immigrant technicians and copied Minton's Victorian coloured glazes majolica process and styles.

    France

APT
Barbizet
Brard
Delphin Massier
Perret-Gentil
Sarreguemines
La majolique
Thomas Sergent
Choisy le Roi
Boch Freres
Longchamp
Luneville
Orchies
Nimy
Onnaing
Salins
Vallauris

Portugal

Augusta Baptista de Carvalho
Avelena Soares
Bordalo Pinheiro
Cuhna
Jose Francisco de Sousa
Mafra

Germany

Krause
Eichwald
Bloch, Villeroy & Boch
W S Schiller

Austria

Hugo Lonitz

Sweden

Gustavsberg
Rörstrand

America

Several American firms also made majolica, with the English born Edwin Bennett producing it in Baltimore as early as the 1850s. 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 coloured 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