Era: Mid-Victorian
Maker: Minton
The hand-enamelled painting of this Minton dessert plate from 1875 vies for attention with an arrestingly attractive border. The miniature landscape shows a rustic house beside an arched bridge in mountainous countryside. The border skilfully melds French and Japanese influences. The cable-twist pattern of gold thread on a bleu céleste ground, interspersed with pairs of white dots, speaks to Minton’s fascination with 18th Century Sèvres porcelain, while the flower heads of dark blue and red at each crossing point resemble Japanese cloisonné, a rich source of inspiration for Minton designer Christopher Dresser.
The miniature is encircled by a wide gilt band of acid-etched Greek keys and dots. The outer gilt band of the border is acid-etched with Greek keys and the inner band with dots inside circles.
Impressed in the centre of the back is MINTONS, and underneath the date cyphers for January 1875 and the potter’s sign. The pattern number G2032 is painted in puce near the rim, together with personal tally marks.
Condition Almost perfect. A few tiny spots of rubbed gilding.
Diameter: 23.4 cm
Net weight: 446 g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Stoke, Staffordshire Potteries, England
