Who Knew?

Every once and a while I go through the statistics here at Blogger to see what the most popular topics are on my blog, i.e. those that get the most hits. While some of them are totally predictable, such as my posts on the Bethesda Fountain and the ever popular Sarreguemines fruit plates, others catch me totally off guard. In this last category are topics I would have never dreamt would interest the number of people who have sought them out.

The biggest surprise is the interest in my post on Wannopee Lettuce Leaf majolica.

Now Wannopee is not a common majolica form. It was only made for a brief period and isn't as widely collected as, say, Minton Oyster plates--a post in the top ten most popular on this site--yet it has drawn a disproportionate number of hits on this blog. It even draws more traffic than my post on George Jones Cheese stands!

Orchies majolica cat pitcher

Another post that draws considerable traffic to this blog is my post on French Animal Pitchers. Given the popularity of the Sarreguemines Fruit series plates it probably shouldn't surprise me but it does.

The five posts with the most hits are as follows:

1. Bethesda Fountain and Terrace
2. Sarreguemines Fruit series 
3. French Animal Pitchers
4. Minton Majolica Oyster Plates
5. Minton Majolica Tiles

It shouldn't surprise anyone that three of the top five relate to the Minton factory, and indeed it does not. What does surprise are the four posts that follow these:

1. Wannopee Lettuce Leaf Majolica
2. George Jones Cheese Domes
3. In Praise of the Humble Begonia Leaf
4. Choisy Le Roi Game Bird Series

An odd collection of topics if there ever was one! The only comment I can make here references their striking dissimilarity.

So that's what is popular right now on this blog after 219 posts.

I do expect it to change in the near future. My recent posts on Minton Date Codes and Wedgwood pottery marks have in a very short period of time become immensely popular posts that I expect will quickly find themselves in the top five before long.

But if you're at all curious about what people want to know about majolica on the Internet, you have the results right here, for better or for worse.

Who knew?