Wednesday 19 November 2014

Mintons Secessionist Art Nouveau Vase-Piece of the Week.

Sometimes a design or a colour scheme on a piece of pottery just works. We have all had that feeling where you can't put your finger on it, but it reminds you of something.
Whether it appeals to your subconscious mind, your primeval or just that they remind you of a flower you once held.
Designers and decorators are usually picked for their ability to recognise these signals to the senses, before they pass them on to us.
I grabbed at a small vase as it came out of a dealers box, just as he was putting it on his stall. I had to have it. “I have just got it from a house clearance I did this week” he told me.
“Its mine” I parted with my cash.
The first thing one thinks is how close the tube lined design is to another by Archibald Knox, even though there is no evidence of him designing for Mintons, and this is, obviously a Mintons vase from a mile away.
Leon Solon (1852-1957) who joined the company in 1895, aged 23, probably will have designed this pattern..
The shape no is 3543, most secessionist pieces are in the 3000's. The pattern is no 46.
In 1905 Solon left the company and John Wadsworth took over and many of Solons work continued though Wadsworth brought in new colour schemes.
This is a slip cast vase that is tube lined. I love the way the glaze drips or slumps into one another creating a further pallet.
Leons father Louis Solon had worked for Sevres and the colour of this vase is almost a Sevres blue.
I have seen it decorated in red, which does not work as well.
The difference between a good Mintons Secessionist (the term derived from the continental) and a average one can be quite close, and sometimes there are pieces that don't work, but this works, on all levels
. Marked on the base with its pattern number and its incised shape. I am struggling to part with it, for..... money.
Mintons, the name Minton, without the 's' was changed in 1873.
In 1870 when the art pottery studio was opened in South Kensington it was directed by W.S Coleman.
It was not rebuilt when destroyed by fire in 1875.
I always think as Mintons secessionist as an entirely different company, a style of its age, but still with the old quality. 
Its designers absorbed all the Art Nouveau influences around it, and in doing so led a unique and exiting trail that is most attractive and highly collectable today. 
Still a little under-ated. This vase though small some 7 inches high should be worth £180. 
If its not then its cheap. I love this vase.