Minton Porcelain Ball

Pottery is one of the oldest decorative art forms, and Minton is one of its historical masters. For more than 250 years, the English company was a premier producer of porcelain and ceramic wares. Its factory was known for detailed and brightly colored Victorian tableware, including dinner plates and serving pieces.

Thomas Minton founded the Minton factory in 1793 in Stoke-upon-Trent, England. It initially made earthenware but introduced bone china in 1798. When Minton died in 1836, the company passed to his son, Herbert Minton. The younger Minton was a savvy businessman with an eye for design. He introduced glossy majolica earthenware to the factory’s repertoire and hired skilled artists and designers like Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, boosting the company’s reputation.

In 1851, Minton debuted its majolica at the Great Exhibition in London. It became a royal family favorite and was even used to tile the Royal Dairy at Windsor Home Park. Minton majolica was also displayed on the monumental Saint George and the dragon fountain at the 1862 London International Exhibition. 

Colin Minton Campbell, a nephew of Herbert Minton, took over the family business in 1858. He led the company to the head of the 1870s English art pottery movement. In the 1890s, French porcelain artist Marc-Louis Solon helped modernize Minton with his Art Nouveau designs.

Minton ceased operating as an independent company when it merged with Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd. in 1968. It was the end of an era, but not the end of widespread appreciation for Minton ceramics.

In 1982, the ”English Majolica” exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum featured 75 Minton pieces. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened its British Galleries in 2020, it included a display of three colorful Minton majolica bird sculptures. Minton pottery was also on display from September 2021 to January 2022, along with other English pottery, at the Bard Graduate Center’s ”Majolica Mania” exhibition.

On 1stDibs, find exquisite Minton serveware, decorative objects, wall decorations and more.

Set the mood when you’re setting the table. The right antique and vintage dinner plates for the meals in your home can truly elevate the dining experience.

We haven’t had our own plate at dinner for very long. It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century in Europe that individual dinner plates had become the norm, replacing the platters that diners had shared before them. Innovations at the dining table are believed to have been introduced by Italian noblewoman Catherine de’ Medici, who, when she married King Henry II of France in 1533, brought with her decorative table adornments for meals and fine tableware such as silver forks, replacing the fingers and knives utilized during dinner before her arrival. Italy was a bit faster on table settings, and, thanks to Catherine, tableware such as dinner plates would also replace the wooden trenchers and flat slabs of days-old bread that preceded them.

Today, while enthusiasts of mid-century modern furnishings might pine for vintage mismatched dinner plates — a mix of old and new can be refreshing — presenting ceramic vessels, glassware and decorative centerpieces that matched was once actually part of the point as setting the table became more refined during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And as Fornasetti dinner plates and Chinese porcelain tableware have long held weight as collector’s items and status symbols, your dinner dishes haven’t ever really been merely functional. From antique metal dishes and ornamental earthenware designed by celebrated English ceramics makers Wedgwood, dinner plates are statement-making works that bring elegance and likely stir conversation at your table.

Entertaining is an art form, and the kitchen bar island and dining room table in your space are cherished gathering places where families and friends convene and grow closer over good meals. Browse an extensive collection of antique and vintage dinner plates to pair with these important events today on 1stDibs.