Victorian Majolica Bird's Nest Basket c.1880

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Victorian Majolica Bird's Nest Basket c.1880A large Victorian Majolica Basket in the form of a bird's nest in tree foliage with naturalistic crabstock branch handle and a lilac-glazed interior.Decorated with green leaves and ochre branches. Colouration: brown, green, pink, are predominant.Brown and green leafy tree branches with yellow straw bird's nest with 3 eggs nestled in crook of tree limbs. Repeated to each side. No marks. Probably EnglishIllustrated in 'The Collector's Encyclopedia of Majolica' by Mariann Katz-Marks, page 10. 9" (23cm) high (to top of handle), 9.5" (24cm) across, 6" (15cm) deep basket. Weight 1KgIn excellent condition with no chips or cracks or restoration - some crazing to glaze Victorian Majolica was originated by Mintons Ltd, who exhibited it at the Great Exhibition of 1851 under the name Palissy ware. The debt to the eccentric 16th century potter Bernard Palissy is obvious from its naturalistic plant and animal motifs molded in relief and splashed with bold colour and clear glazes.Mintons had for some time been making tin-glazed pottery (which is opaque, white and shiny and painted in colour) somewhat in the style of Renaissance Italian maiolica, which they called majolica ware, anglicizing the Italian maiolica.The Illustrated London News reported with approval of Minton's work at the Paris Exposition Universelle (1855) : "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 coloured by a transparent glaze, Majolica ware contains the colour (opaque) in the material. The care and taste with which these manufactures have been brought by the Messrs. Minton to their present state of perfection, have been amply rewarded. Within a few days of the opening of the Exhibition all the specimens exhibited had been sold".Despite this reminder, the public came to call Minton's Palissy Ware majolica ware; Palissy ware dropped out of use and majolica stuck. In the 1880s, the curators of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) tried to clear up the confusion by reviving the Italian pronunciation maiolica for Italian tin-glaze.Wedgwood began to manufacture majolica about ten years after Mintons. Wedgwood's glazes and modelling were denser and more formal than Minton's, but there were many pieces that displayed the naturalism and humour of Minton shapes. Wedgwood's majolica included cachepots, pitchers, candlesticks, cheese bells, umbrella stands, sardine boxes, plates in naturalistic patterns, bread trays, etc. In Wedgwood's familiar "greenware" the green glaze emphasises the low relief patterning, typically of basketwork and foliage.Majolica was influenced by the design of the old "Cauliflower" and "Pineapple" teapots made by Thomas Whieldon, Wedgwood and other 18th-century Staffordshire potters. Both English and American majolica potters reproduced the "Cauliflower" pattern and other raised fruit, vegetable, leaf, and berry patterns, with green, yellow, pink, brown, light blue and purple-blue glazes. There is also a teapot of yellow corn and green leaves, similar to the old Whieldon "Pineapple" teapots, and a teapot, pitcher and sugar bowl of pink coral and green seaweed with accents of brown and blue, marked "Etruscan Majolica." Many late 19th-century majolica designs had rustic motifs with backgrounds of basketry and wooden-bound buckets decorated with molded flowers, birds, fish and animals. Handles were made like rustic tree branches, rose stems and twined flowers and leaves.Plates, jugs, teapots, and other articles were molded with the shapes of wild roses, lily pads and herons, begonia leaves, shells, coral, seaweed, corn and bamboo stalks, cabbage leaves, strawberries, ferns and sprays of flowers, borders of basketry and oriental motifs.Production had increased since 1875 but with fewer origi... read more

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