Period: Late Victorian
Maker: Minton
This delightful Minton trio, a coffee can with saucer and plate, is playfully scattered with brightly coloured cornflower sprays. The decoration, the slender shape of the can and even its handle, are inspired by Sèvres porcelains made a century earlier. Minton was greatly influenced by Sèvres and employed several of its former artists.
There are a few differences in this Late Victorian homage to the French national manufactory. While the Sèvres scattered cornflowers of the 1780s are all blue and of uniform size, in this Minton version of the 1880s they also bloom pink and purple and are both large and small. The Minton enamelling is hand-painted within printed outlines.
The can and saucer carry an unusual puce backstamp of the Drapers Company with an image of a recumbent ram. Drapers is one of the original mediaeval guilds or livery companies of the City of London. (Its full title is the ‘The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London.’ The word Mystery derives from the Latin misterium meaning professional skill.)
The Drapers Company received its first Royal Charter in 1364. Many of its members grew rich on the wool trade. The motif of the ram with the Golden Fleece recalls these origins.
The Drapers Company still maintains a Hall in Throgmorton Street, near the Bank of England. Its grand Livery Hall has often been used as a film location. It stood in for St. James’s Palace in the Academy Award-winning The King’s Speech when the new monarch is proclaimed at the Accession Council. George VI, played by Colin Firth, is shown gazing at the full-length portraits of his predecessors. The Livery Hall was also used for a ‘Russian-style’ backdrop in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
Underneath the Drapers logo is the name and address of the retailer who supplied the livery company with the Minton porcelain, Alfred B. Pearce of 39 Ludgate Hill, also in the City of London. The shop was in business from 1866 to 1940.
The base of the plate also bears the printed ‘MINTONS’ globe and crown mark used from around 1873 to 1891. The painted Minton pattern number, G2185, suggests a date of around 1880.
Condition The coffee can and saucer are both in mint condition. The plate has micro-crazing and a faint, 1 cm-long curved hairline starting at the rim; otherwise good.
Cup height: 6.7 cm; diameter: 5.8 cm; width across handle: 7.8 cm Saucer diameter: 13.6 cm Plate diameter: 16.2 cm
Net weight: 340 g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Stoke-on-Trent, England
