Two contiguous chips upper right edge well
within the border line, no other damage. Style:
Pictorial classical
literature A tile from the popular Shakespeare series
designed by John Moyr Smith for Mintons China
Works in fine sepia multicolour Reynold's Patent
print. This is the least often found standard
colourway for the series rather ironically
called 'sepia monochrome' in the Mintons
catalogue, the other multicolour examples of the
series 'grey monochrome' are much less
frequently found than the basic prints but still
ten times as often as the sepia. I find it amazing that these are so rare,
easily the best colourway to my mind, the grey
multicolour is more common and still good but
the sepia multicolour is the only really great
of the colourways. This group of six the first
we have found in the kind of great condition
that we like for three years, and then a few
months later, in the manner of how antiques can
turn up, we found three others which are now in
cleaning. The four colour printing has much more detail
than the single colour prints, not only is there
more shading throughout but there are also
additional patterns in the fabrics and textures
on stone & wood etc. This colourway shows
the detail to its finest in the most natural and
pleasing colours, the multicolour prints are
also almost always crisper than the simple
transfer prints. Grey does look good in cast
iron fireplaces where many were fitted,
sepia/brown easily best next to timber
especially oak, great for furniture and inside
mantels. Versos perfectly clean, embossed Mintons etc,
also embossed R IY, new to me. This suggests to
me that the biscuit was so marked especially for
a particular retailer and as these were bought
in Rochester, NY, possibly an american
retailer. The Shakespeare series was designed by John
Moyr Smith for Mintons China Works around 1872.
Understandably the most popular of all Victorian
pictorial series being illustrations of the
greatest playwright's work, also probably the
largest with twenty four pictures (only eighteen
were done in multicolour). John Moyr Smith was perhaps the most popular
artist of the Victorian era, certainly on tile.
More of his work is seen on tiles than any other
(known) artist but tiles were but one string to
his bow, his work was seen in books and on
greetings cards amongst other media but in his
day he was widely known for illustrations and
cartoons in 'Punch', the long lived satirical
magazine. He was also an accomplished architect
and designer in other fields. Verso very clean, unmarked grid grip
pattern.
Condition: Near perfect
Price: £140 (approx $236)
Stock number: 05753
Technique: Polychrome
print
Maker: Mintons
Dimensions: 6" x
6"
Date: 1885 (circa)
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