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Questions, We Get Questions.
I hear from a great many of my blog readers with questions about individual pieces of majolica they may own. I’m happy to help when I can but most are disappointed with my responses. There’s a great...
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Wedgwood’s Month Plates and the Work of Helen Miles
In the late Victorian period one of the most prolific English contemporary illustrators was artist Kate Greenaway. Her naive drawings of children and young women in an early, bucolic, idealized England...
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Majolica Insects Part 1: Butteries & Moths
An inevitable result of the decoration of the Aesthetic Movement is that all manner of creatures from the natural world would appear in majolica. The least expected might be the lowly insect but as...
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Majolica Insects Part 2: Beetles, Flies, Dragonflies and Other Insects
As we saw in Part 1, insects are a frequent component of majolica designs. Unlike butterflies and moths, flies, dragonflies, beetles and such are more often than not just a tiny addition to a design...
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European Copies of English Majolica Designs
Despite copyright protections afforded by the English registration system, the copying of majolica designs was rampant both within England and the United States. Nowhere, however, was this copying more...
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Swans, Cygnes, Schwäne, Hattyúk, Лебеди!
Swans. Who doesn’t love the elegant swan? Certainly potters loved them. There are few animals depicted on pottery more frequently than the long necked graceful beauties of the still waters. Long a...
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Chicken Feed!
In my last post I highlighted the elegant swan as portrayed in majolica. In this post I’m going to get a bit earthier and talk about the world's favorite bird. Let’s talk chickens!I have to admit when...
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The Majolica of Brown-Westhead, Moore & Company
Not as well known as Minton, George Jones and Wedgwood, the company of T.C, Brown-Westhead Moore & Company made some exceptional pottery, among their output beautiful majolica. The name is no...
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The Majolica of W.P. Copeland & Sons
For most collectors of majolica, W.P. Copeland is known as the maker of the glorious Lotus Pitcher which we've written about before. Copeland however made far more than just the Lotus Pitcher. They...
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George Jones is for the Birds
Few ceramic manufacturers are as identified with a single animal form than George Jones is with birds. Jones majolica birds appear everywhere in their late Victorian majolica wares much to the delight...
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The Egyptian Revival Movement in Majolica
The Victorian period was filled with style “revivals.” Renaissance Revival, Gothic Revival, Jacobean Revival, Romanesque Revival, Rococo Revival and Neoclassic Revival to name a few. All of these had...
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2020 Majolica Year in Review
For any number of reasons 2020 will not be remembered fondly by most people. The mass death toll brought on by the COVID-19 virus worldwide, a divisive election in the United States, unprecedented...
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Book Review: Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United...
The catalog to the Majolica Mania exhibition has finally been released after a considerable delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition, which opens in September 2021, will be making stops at...
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The Majolica of William Brownfield & Sons
William Brownfield entered the pottery trade in 1837 when he partnered with Noah Robinson and and John Wood to take over the Cobridge Pottery. In 1841 The Robinson family left the pottery leaving the...
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The Majolica of the George Skey Wilnecoate Works
Born in 1819 into a Quaker family, George Skey was an affluent mine owner who operated coal mines at Wilnecoate, Tamworth. Upon discovering substantial deposits of clay on his property Skey entered the...
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Majolica in the Movies Update: Minton in "Annie"
Minton "Flower Bearers"Five years ago, I posted a blog entry here on my memories of the musical “Annie” and the Minton majolica spotted in the John Huston film version as seen below.The "I'm Going To...
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Majolica in the Movies: The Dance of the 41
While posting on Facebook, a friend of mine mentioned a new Netflix LGBQ+ acquisition he was watching, “The Dance of the 41” that featured majolica. Of course I immediately signed onto Netflix to see...
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Some More Recent Majolica Reproductions
Keeping abreast of the ongoing onslaught of majolica reproductions is not easy but I recently saw five that were new to me that I want to bring to my reader’s attention.The first of these is a copy of...
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Etruscan Majolica Animal Pieces
In 2010 it was my privilege to give a lecture on Etruscan Majolica at the annual meeting of the Majolica International Society. My interest at the time was to promote the collecting of Etruscan...
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Wedgwood’s Unusual and Rare Argenta “Tropic” Pattern
One of the most unusual patterns I’ve come across in Wedgwood’s majolica œuvre is the Argenta “Tropic” dessert series. This is an ingeniously designed dessert series that features plates shaped as...
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