What reached Stoke-on-Trent from Paris?

Could a 16th century Frenchman’s success with colored glazes be repeated in 19th century England? Herbert Minton thought so. Leon Arnoux is appointed Art Director in 1848 with the right know-how and at just the right time to make it happen.

Yes, Bernard Palissy developed in France the chemistry and process  for painting thick colored glazes onto a ‘biscuit’ body, simultaneously, before firing (paint, fire). Minton & Co. of Stoke-on-Trent, England, subsequently developed the science to perfection. The narrative about majolica reaching Stoke via Spain, Majorca and Italy, is about tin-glaze maiolica, a different chemistry and process altogether (dip, dry, paint, fire).

majolica n.  Definition.

First, for clarity on this single word with three meanings/senses, let us deal with the question What is majolica? It is all of these…

1. Any earthenware decorated with colored lead glazes applied directly to an unglazed body. Hard-wearing, typically relief molded. Minton’s ‘Palissy ware’ soon known also as ‘majolica’, was introduced at the 1851 Exhibition and later widely copied and mass produced. Commonly known as ‘majolica’ or ‘lead-glazed majolica’. Best described as ‘colored glazes majolica’.
2. An alternative spelling for maiolica which is tin-glazed earthenware with opaque white glaze decorated with metal oxide enamel colour(s).  Maiolica, reached Italy mid 15th century. Renaissance Italian maiolica became a celebrated art form. Maiolica developed also as faience (France), and delft (UK and Netherlands). Commonly known as ‘maiolica’ or ‘majolica’ (especially in the US). Best described as tin-glazed maiolica.
3. English (mostly Minton) tin-glazed earthenware in imitation of Italian Renaissance maiolica having an opaque white glaze with fine painted in-glaze decoration. Also introduced at the 1851 Exhibition. Very rare. Commonly known as ‘majolica’. Best described as ‘English tin-glazed majolica’.  

Making colored glazes

Everyone loves colour. How to add colour to a glaze is a thing. How to make colored glazes temperature compatible – meaning they could be applied, simultaneously, then fired, without running or blistering – is entirely another.

It took nearly two millennia to achieve.  Fusing lead glaze to an earthenware body had been mastered and was used across the Roman Empire[1] for centuries to seal porous pottery surfaces but plain lead glaze has no colour.

By 600AD the Chinese had succeeded in producing three temperature compatible colors. Adding copper oxide to normal lead glaze produced a glaze that fired green. Adding iron oxide to normal glaze produced ochre. Adding manganese oxide produced brown/black. These three could be fired successfully together.

Bernard Palissy’s five colors

Independently[2], in mid-16th century Paris, Bernard Palissy was finding out for himself.  After much hardship and many setbacks, he finally succeeded in developing five colors that could be applied and then fired together.

Some research in 2016 provides proof positive of the oxides used by Palissy to create his colored glazes :

The research was conducted in Paris on a group of rustiques ware attributed to Palissy or his followers. The glaze chemistry of the items in the group was determined non-destructively using PIXE and PIGE analyses. The summary states:

“The glazes are all lead silicates, the colorants being transition metal oxides-CuO [copper], CoO [cobalt], MnO [manganese] and Fe2O3 [iron] – with a small addition of SnO2 [tin] [for opacity] to some of the glazes being common.” Lead-Glazed Rustiques Figulines [Rustic Ceramics] of Bernard Palissy [1510-90][3]

Colored Glazes Majolica Perfection

In Stoke-on-Trent, Minton and Arnoux, both admirers of Bernard Palissy, and both alert to a promising business opportunity, had determined to develop the technology in England[4][5]. They achieved near-perfection, eventually able to simultaneously fuse a wide range of colors to a ‘biscuit’ body at low cost.

Their advanced chemistry and process, using temperature compatible colored glazes and better kilns, was widely copied. The vast majority of Minton majolica, and all colored glazes majolica world-wide, copied the process (paint, fire). Do not be confused that the word majolica is used in the USA to also describe the tin-glazed earthenware process (dip, dry, paint, fire) – brush-painted decoration on unfired tin glaze.

Herbert Minton and Leon Arnoux admired not only the colored glazes of Palissy, but also the celebrated tin-glaze (plain lead glaze with a small proportion of tin oxide added) maiolica of the Italian Renaissance. They had determined to develop a Minton version of both.  One hit the jackpot. The other flopped.

The winner was colored glazes. This was a product inexpensive to produce (paint, fire). Also, around this time the fashion for naturalistic décor was growing. Flora and fauna molded in high relief worked perfectly with the colored glazes.

The product that flopped – now so rare it is almost unknown – was Minton tin-glazed majolica made using the tin-glaze process (dip, dry, paint, fire)  – dip the ’biscuit’ body in tin glaze, dry it, then paint with enamel colors. The enamels are ‘absorbed’ into the unfired tin glaze. When fired, the result is a distinctive opaque whitish tin-glaze[6], painted in colors, usually with brush-strokes clearly visible.

Shift in Demand

Digby Wyatt commented on the change in fashion.  Reviewing Herbert Minton’s life in 1858[7]  he said “No one knew better than Mr. Minton the sacrifices any manufacturer must be prepared to make, who would enter upon the Herculean task of attempting to stem the current of fashion, however contrary to right, wisdom, and good taste… the wise manufacturer will prudently direct his efforts to the production of novelties…” Digby Wyatt, 1858

Texts seldom make it clear

From the first appearance of Minton’s two new products until very recently (2021), texts have seldom made it clear that Minton developed two distinct products: One, they named ‘Palissy’ in honor of the great man, soon known also as ‘majolica’, a resounding success; the other, a commercial flop, they named ‘Majolica’ after the Italian tin-glaze maiolica they were copying.

“Thus, what today we call majolica is in most cases what Minton, and Arnoux, referred to as Palissy ware.” Dictionary of Minton[8]

This would not matter – few care whether an object is colored glazes or tin-glazed with painted decoration – except a narrative around what is majolica, and where did it originate, has been constructed around the wrong product. The overwhelming majority of ‘our majolica’ derives from Bernard Palissy’s colored glazes majolica process in France, nothing to do with the Renaissance tin-glaze maiolica process in Italy.

Blame LEAD

Why did not Minton clarify the difference at the time? Was it a case of ‘the less said about lead the better’?  Could it be that Minton, Arnoux, everyone with an interest in the lead-reliant pottery industry would wish to divert attention from any product high in lead content?

The Arnoux formula[9] for lead glaze comes from Arnoux’s personal notebook . It is important to remember that this was a period of time when lead-poisoning of workers in the pottery industry was under attack, a battle that started in earnest in 1839 that took a century to win[10].

In 1852 Arnoux had been invited, following the Great Exhibition of 1851, to lecture on Ceramic Manufacturers, Porcelain and Pottery.

During the course of a long and detailed lecture he never once mentions the colored glazes product Minton named ‘Palissy’ ware. Was Arnoux deliberately avoiding mention of a blatantly lead-glaze product?  Or maybe the commercial promise of his new, appealing, and economical colored lead glazes, was a subject not to mention before an audience that included competitors?

He did, however, state, “Lead is very little used now”, intimating that borax had significantly replaced lead in the industry. Judging by the proportion of Red Lead to Borax in Arnoux’s formula, above, approximately 6:1, this would appear to be a slight exaggeration.

We understand by majolica…

On the other hand he promotes Minton’s imitation of tin-glaze Renaissance maiolica, the product Minton named ‘majolica’.

On page 395 he speaks of Minton’s desire to revive 16th century majolica [meaning tin-glaze Renaissance maiolica]:

“I should like to speak about… majolica… It seemed to Mr. Minton desirable to revive a species of pottery which, in the sixteenth century, was adapted to the same use as our finest porcelain…” Leon Arnoux, 1853[11]

On page 396 he continues in the same vein with a description of tin-glaze majolica, their own English version, which they named ‘Majolica’

“We understand by majolica a pottery formed of a calcareous clay gently fired, and covered with an opaque enamel composed of sand, lead, and tin.”  Leon Arnoux, 1853

Arnoux’s brief ‘definition of majolica’ is often condensed, out of context[12],  to become “Majolica is pottery decorated with lead and tin glazes”. Consequently, whilst this is a true statement, it does nothing to explain the difference, nor to spotlight the overwhelming importance of colored glazes majolica versus tin-glazed majolica in 19th century earthenware.

Texts referencing Minton Palissy ware and Minton Majolica as different products

The Illustrated London News, Nov. 10, 1855, p.561: “The collection of Palissy and Majolica ware, however, is that which appears to have created the greatest sensation among Parisian connoisseurs. The reader will remember that the main difference in these wares is that whereas the Palissy ware is colored by a transparent glaze Majolica ware contains the colour (opaque) in the material [in the unfired tin glaze covering, fired to produce the characteristic opaque whitish enamel with painted decoration fused within]…  One sample of Palissy ware—being a little tea-service spread upon a leaf, the legs of the teapot being snails… [characteristic of ultra naturalistic Palissy ware].

Leon Arnoux, 1867, Report on Pottery, Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition: “Majolica [tin-glaze earthenware, opaque white surface painted in enamel colors] was produced for the first time by Messrs.  Minton, in 1850, and they have been for many years the only producers of this article [in England]. The name of majolica is now applied indiscriminately to all fancy articles of colored pottery.  When, however, it is decorated by means of colored glazes [applied directly to the ‘biscuit’], if these are transparent [translucent], it ought to be called Palissy ware… Messrs.  Wedgwood, George Jones, and a few other makers of less importance, are reproducing it more-or-less successfully.  To Messrs. Minton, however, we owe the revival of the ware [colored lead glazes on biscuit, ‘Palissy ware’], which, in connection with [alongside] their majolica [the tin-glaze ware], created such a sensation in the French International Exhibition of 1855”

Also: “The Palissy faience is composed of a clay slightly colored [buff], covered with different [lead] glazes, which have been previously colored by means of metallic oxides [iron for yellow, manganese for purple or brown, cobalt for blue, copper for green, etc.]; these glazes of different colors being applied, some by the side of others [combined upon the same piece], or blended one into another [mottled]…”

Minton Art Material Catalogue (1871)

Arthur Beckwith, 1872, International Exhibition, POTTERY, Observations on the Materials and Manufacture of Terra-Cotta, Stone-ware, Fire-Brick, Porcelain, Earthenware, Brick, Majolica and Encaustic Tiles: “The Palissy ware, formed of embossed [relief molded] biscuit covered with transparent glazes of various colours, is frequently called majolica…”

Jewett, L., 1878, The Ceramic Art of Great Britain: “Minton and Hollins have revived the art of majolica and Palissy ware, and produced the most magnificent specimens… ever attained in this description of pottery.”

Pottery and Glass Trades Review (1878), Bergesen, Majolica, p.37, “…Pottery and Glass Trades’ Review, September 1878, said of Minton’s exhibit at Paris: “There is nothing from the English side of the Channel to beat or even view with Messrs. Minton’s costly crowd of majolica and Palissy wares.””

Wolf Mankowitz, Reginald G. Haggar, Art Director at Mintons Ltd. 1929-1939, The Concise Encyclopaedia of English Pottery and Porcelain: “MAIOLICA should not be confused with MAJOLICA –  the name absurdly given by Victorian Potters to earthenware decorated with coloured lead glazes […]”

Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, 1999, Dictionary of Minton: “Minton did not use the word maiolica themselves, relying instead on the Victorian version, majolica, which they used to mean wares of Renaissance inspiration, featuring hand painting on an opaque white glaze. These were therefore quite distinct from the coloured glaze decorated wares which we now call majolica, but which Minton referred to as Palissy wares.”

Carmen Pattinson, 2011, Majolica Matters, Spring 2011, Majolica – Where did it all begin?: “Because of their identical names, there has been some confusion between tin-glazed majolica/maiolica and the lead-glazed majolica made in England and America in the 19th century, but they are different in origin, technique, style and history.”

Madelena Blogs:

Minton tin-glazed majolica, October 2018
Lead Glaze Perfection – Victorian Majolica, March 2016
One word for two different products. How might that happen?, March 2017
Victorian Majolica/Maiolica – Quiz Questions, Answers, Evidence, January 2016
Majolica Definition – More, April 2015
Introducing Majolica, October 2014

V & A Museum Website: “The Minton company pioneered the development of majolica glazes, and the materials and processes were perfected by the art director, Joseph François Léon Arnoux (1816-1902), in 1849. These were based in part on Italian Renaissance maiolica and Bernard Palissy’s pottery, but whereas maiolica pigments are painted onto a raw tin glaze (which fired to an opaque white), Minton’s majolica, like Palissy’s pottery, used brightly coloured semi-transparent lead glazes applied to the biscuit-fired body.”

“Although Arnoux did produce tin-glazed, painted wares in the style of Italian ceramics, what is now known as majolica was a range of brightly coloured low-temperature glazes launched in 1849 as ‘Palissy Ware’. Only later did these become known as majolica ware.”

In Conclusion

Most of ‘our majolica’ is colored glaze decorated, using a process worked with in France by Bernard Palissy, later perfected by the Minton factory in England. It’s popularity in England and success world-wide would appear to be due to a happy combination of three circumstances.

1.            A providential partnership between the resources of Herbert Minton and the knowledge of Leon Arnoux.

2.            The auspicious suitability of colored lead glazes applied to relief molded earthenware.

3.            A movement in ‘buyer taste’ away from classical and Revivalist, towards styles more contemporary, with vibrant colour, naturalistic, exciting, even humorous.

Publications Quoted or Referenced in the text above:

[1] Victor Bryant, Ceramics in the Roman world

[2] Henry Morley, 1852, Palissy the Potter, The Life of Bernard Palissy, of Saintes “…I blundered for the space of fifteen or sixteen years…”

[3] Bouquillon, A & Castaing, J & Barbe, F & Paine, S.R. & Christman, B & Crépin-Leblond, T & Heuer, A.H.. (2016). Lead-Glazed Rustiques Figulines [Rustic Ceramics] of Bernard Palissy [1510-90] and his Followers: Archaeometry. 59. 10.1111/arcm.12247.

[4] In France, Avisseau of Tours, possibly known to Arnoux, had already started developing colored lead glazes in the manner of Bernard Palissy, winning a Gold Medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851

[5] Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, 1999, Dictionary of Minton, “he developed a fine buff earthenware designed to be decorated with a range of transparent glazes coloured with metal oxides that could be painted directly on to the biscuit body…” The entries on MAIOLICA and MAJOLICA are comprehensive.

[6] W.B. Honey, 1944, Keeper of the Department of Ceramics, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Art of the Potter: “A TIN-GLAZE (or ‘tin-enamel’), once widely used on maiolica, faience, and delftware, is a potash-lead glaze made white and opaque with oxide (ashes) of tin. A second covering of clear lead-glaze was sometimes added.”

[7] Digby Wyatt, May 26 1858, Journal of the Society of Arts, On the influence exercised on ceramic manufacturers by the late Mr. Herbert Minton

[8] Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, 1999, Dictionary of Minton “Thus, what today we call majolica is in most cases what Minton, and Arnoux, referred to as Palissy ware.”

[9] Joan Jones, 1993, Minton the first 200 years of Design and Production

[10] Carmen Pattinson, 2015, Prevention of Lead Poisoning in the Glazing of Earthenware, Majolica Matters. “The investigation started in 1839 and took a battle of just over 100 years for the lead content to be dramatically reduced in glazes”

[11] Leon Arnoux, 1853, Lecture 23 Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851, David Bogue, 86 Fleet Street, London.

[12] The context lies in the previous paragraph p.395 “It seemed to Mr. Minton desirable to revive a species of pottery which, in the sixteenth century, was adapted to the same use as our finest porcelain…”, a clear reference to Italian Renaissance tin-glaze maiolica.