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.
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