- Condition: Excellent
- Price: £795 (approx $1190)
- Stock number: F0014
- Style/technique: Victorian majolica
- Manufacturer: Mintons China Works
- Dimensions: 6" x 30" x 2
- Date: circa 1900
An excellent pair of fireplace panels moulded in
low relief embossed and indented and resplendent in
a variety of colours.
These will date from around 1900, the patterns
numbers E2722 and E2735 were introduced around
1894/1895 and appear in a wholesaler's catalogue
from autumn 1903. This era heralds a leap forward
in Mintons China Works* tiles from lagging both in
design and in production techniques they came to
the forefront of tile manufacture for the first
time ever.
The introduction of such bold and modern
majolica designs approximately coincides with the
arrival at Mintons of Leon Solon who reportedly
joined them in 1895. It would seem likely that he
was involved and instrumental in the design and
production of these tiles but if so they would be
amongst his very earliest works at Mintons. Without
knowing precisely the dates it would seem that
these designs may slightly predate Solon joing
Minton by a few months. It is possible that Solon
undertook some freelance work for Mintons prior to
joining them on a permanent basis but the
development of modern majolica tiles may have
commenced prior to his arrival.
In excellent condition, a little surface damage
mostly tucked away in the bottom corner of the
bottom tiles, other occassional edge chips which
will either be completely covered by a fireplace
frame or what is visible be so tiny that it will
not impact on the viewing pleasure. Excellent clean
tiles with vibrant colours and brilliant
glazes.
Larger pictures below.
*There were several major Minton tile companies
and each played a different part in 19thC tile
manufacture, for more info click
here.
Confusingly the pattern nunber 2735 also appears
on a different transfer printed design with a
registration date of October 1894. E2735 is
handwritten in glaze on the double tiles and on
other known examples, E prefix is used for majolica
tiles and taken to stand for embossed, Mintons used
different prefixes for different decorating
processes. This is the only example of the same
number appearing on two different Mintons Ltd
designs as far as I am aware.
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