This is so rare that it almost defies
belief for it is on the face of it an ordinary
if very nice victorian floral tile. But it is by
Mintons.
Mintons did not make printed and painted
tiles as part of its main tile production, it
made printed and painted overglaze tiles before
cost effective technology had developed for
underglaze colours, we see those in the blue
titas and Pugin gothic tiles of the 1870s and so
on, underglaze colours such as these were
painted in the studio.
Mintons also produced very few printed floral
designs even during the decade or so when it was
the most popular style, I believe I have seen
five, maybe six different designs when the
leading art tile companies of the day, The
Decorative Art Tile Co and Sherwin & Cotton,
were introducing a dozen or more per year. One
can only think of it as an error by Mintons,
ignoring the mainstream market. Wedgwood made
the same mistake as if it wanted to do art tiles
rather than popular tiles, a strange decision
for a manufacturing company.
This design was also made by other companies,
quite often painted too but never as well as
this, as precisely and in asuch great colours
with two colours in the flowers. This is the
only one of these I have seen, not only is it
rare and intruiging but it is a really nice
tile.
Verso very clean, embossed Mintons etc.
