A Minton Majolica Large Turquoise Ground Jardinière Designed by Gottfried Semper (German 1803 -1879), the ovid-form body applied with entwined snakes forming the handles, the rim with a Renaissance-style band of oblong chain-work reserves with green stylized leaves and glazed in rose, green, and yellow, with a spiral band similarly glazed, the pedestal base edged with rose-colored roping, the interior glazed in pink (with drainage hole to center), the reverse with impressed marks, 'MINTON,' date cypher for 1858, and design number '532.' The jardinière was available in two sizes, 15-ins, and 20-ins wide, this being the larger.

Professor Gottfried Semper (German 1803 -1879) was an architect, designer, author, and design theorist. While at the Dresden School of Art, he was forced to flee in 1848 due to his involvement in the May Revolution and eventually found refuge in England, where he was employed at South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in the Department of Practical Art and was a member of the Prince Consort's circle. From 1852 to about 1855, he taught principles of decoration at the Government Schools of Design from 1852 to about 1855. (Weber, Vol. I, p. 200). According to Paul Atterbury, in circa 1850, Herbert Minton hired Semper to design pieces for his firm's new range of wares, Majolica. Atterbury includes a design drawing by Semper, ca. 1852, of this piece (p. 298).

For thirty years we have been among the preeminent specialists in fine antique majolica.

BOOK REFERENCES: *Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, THE DICTIONARY OF MINTON. Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors’ Club, Revised Edition 1998, p. 298 (design drawing).

*Susan Weber et al., MAJOLICA MANIA: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States 1850--1915. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2020, Volume One, p. 178, FIG. 7.9. (color photo) and p. 200, FIG. 8.2 (color photo).

Dimensions : Height: 10.25 in (26.04 cm) x Width: 19.5 in (49.53 cm) x Depth: 16.25 in (41.28 cm)

Condition: Good - wear consistent with age and use.