Stool
Minton's Ltd (Minton and Co.)
Category
Ceramics
Date
c. 1860 - c. 1880
Materials
lead-glazed earthenware
Measurements
383 x 355 cm
Place of origin
Stoke-on-Trent
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1529828
Summary
Garden or conservatory seat, majolica (lead-glazed earthenware), with cold-painted decoration, made Minton & Co., Stoke-on-Trent, England, about 1860-80. Modelled in the form of a crouching male figure, polychromed, and seated on a blue quilted cushion with red corner tassels and gilt buttons. With raised arms the figure supports a matching cushion on his upper back. The cold painted decoration on the figure considerably chipped on the face and proper left hand.
Full description
This large piece of majolica was made for use as a garden seat, often sited in conservatories. With the increasing popularity of ornamental conservatories as an extension of the domestic interior, Chinese porcelain garden seats began to arrive in Britain from the early 19th century. Soon British manufacturers, centred around the Potteries in Staffordshire, began creating their own versions. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Minton of Stoke-on-Trent launched their relief-moulded, brightly-coloured, lead-glazed earthenwares, under the name ‘Palissy’ after the sixteenth-century French potter of the same name. A critical and commercial success, production soon spread to other pottery factories. Simultaneously, Minton and other factories produced lead-glazed versions of Italian renaissance maiolica which, by the nineteenth century, was also known in Britain by the anglicised name of majolica. The two styles developed over the century resulting in some of the boldest designs of the Victorian period, particularly suited to highly decorative interiors and for use as functional tablewares. Between 1850 and 1880, Minton produced over 40 designs for majolica garden seats of a variety of shapes and sizes. This model is described, in the Minton factory archives, as Ornamental shape number 1225 'Garden seat, negro [sic] boy support'. These types of ceramics have historically, in sales and collection inventories, also been referred to as ‘Blackamoor’ figures. Terminology note: The term ‘moor’ derives from the Greek word ‘mauros’ meaning ‘black’ or ‘very dark’ and, in the medieval and early modern periods, was an ill-defined stereotype applied to Muslims of the Islamic Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Usage developed to conflate Muslims of any ethnicity with black Sub-Saharan Africans. In material culture the term was used to describe highly stylised and stereotyped representations of Black African people, often assuming subservient positions. The motif has existed in western decorative art since the medieval period but developed into a recognisable type in Italy, chiefly Venice, from the 17th century. The ornamental body of the ‘blackamoor’ could also perform a function, as a supportive element in furniture, or as a stand to hold objects or food. The motif is seen across European decorative arts from ceramics to silverware, heraldry to jewellery, furniture to sculpture, architecture, painting and print (e.g. NT 1254497, 452977, 936871, 118826, 129512, 802613, 1139940). ‘Blackamoor’ figures were manufactured for the luxury European market and displayed by their owners as markers of power and wealth. References: Atterbury & Batkin, 'The Dictionary of Minton' (1990), p. 38 - the authors note there were two models of this seat. Ferguson, Patricia, 'Ceramics: 400 Years of Collecting in 100 Masterpieces' (2016). Jones, Joan, 'Minton: The First Two Hundred Years of Design & Production' (1993). Minton Archive, Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent City Archives.
Makers and roles
Minton's Ltd (Minton and Co.) , maker