DATE CYPHER FOR 1870, IMPRESSED UPPERCASE MARK, H AND N, SIGNED L.(OUIS) SOLON MILES AND DATED MINTON 1871

Details

A MINTON EXHIBITION PÂTE-SUR-PÂTE BLACK-GROUND TWO-HANDLED VASE, 'RONDE'
Date cypher for 1870, impressed uppercase mark, H and N, signed L.(ouis) Solon Miles and dated Minton 1871
Of baluster form, finely painted and hand tooled in white slip with a continuous frieze of frolicking putti holding hands in flight encircling a diaphanously draped nymph and companion on the obverse, reserved on a black ground, the polychrome neck and foot moulded and enriched with stylized acanthus, anthemion and key-pattern within broad scrolling bands, on an stop-fluted circular foot
20 in. (50.7 cm.) high

Lot Essay

See Bernard Bumpus, Pâte-sur-Pâte, The Art of Ceramic Relief Decoration 1849-1992, Essex, 1992, p. 102-4, fig. 63. It is interesting to note that the 1871 London International Exhibition opened in May just eight months after Solon's arrival at Minton. The present vase, the centerpiece of this exhibition, was begun in December of the prior year leaving little time for error in the development of this new process at the factory. Solon procured the assistance of Frederick Alfred Rhead and Henry Saunders (Sanders) in these early days, and it is likely that they contributed to the colour decoration on the neck and foot.

The pâte-sur-pâte technique received considerable press coverage with three pieces including the present vase attracting favorable comment from The Times, The Art-Journal, The Graphic, and the British, Belgian and French Commissions. Solon was heralded as the technical master. On the 24th of the same month he married Marie Antoinette Laure Arnoux, the daughter of Léon Arnoux, 'The Art Director' of Minton.

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