Mintons’ Secessionist Ware

By the 1890s the public’s love affair with Minton’s top selling Victorian majolica had begun to cool. In an attempt to revitalize sales of Mintons’ products Mintons art director Léon Victor Salon created a line of new inexpensive decorative wares building upon the company’s vast expertise with majolica glazes. With designer John W. Wadsworth the two created the Art Nouveau Secessionist style that was to prove vastly influential in the development of England’s contribution to the Jugendstil movement. 

Mintons Peacock vase 

Originally introduced in the late 1890s under the name Anglosia Ware, the line began with the Léon Salon designed Peacock Vase. Anglosia Ware was designed as an affordable decorative line created to expand Mintons’ middle class market share. The ware specifically was Art Nouveau in design and was marketed under several names: Argentea, Archos and Klyso ware. The Peacock vase could be considered the prototype from which the line was launched in 1901 as Secessionist Ware. 

Original sketch for Anglosiea Klyso Ware advertisement 

The name derived from the popular name of the Vienna Secessionists, a group of artists led by Gustav Klimt whose goals were decidedly anti-Victorian. The Secessionists were a rebellion against the ornamental excess of Victorian decorative sensibilities and the mechanization of society. With Art Nouveau gaining momentum throughout Europe during the late 1800s under the influence of designers like William Morris and Alphonse Mucha, it replaced Classicism and Revivalism as the style of the moment. The Secessionists took the Art Nouveau conceits one step further. As literary critic Hermann Bahr stated in the initial edition of the group journal Ver Sacrum, 

“Our art is not a combat of modern artists against those of the past, but the promotion of the arts against the peddlers who pose as artists and who have a commercial interest in not letting art bloom. The choice between commerce and art is the issue at stake in our Secession. It is not a debate over aesthetics, but a confrontation between two different spiritual states."

Cover of Ver Sancrum

Cover of Mintons’ Secessionist Ware catalog designed by Léon Salon

With the design work done by both Salon and Wadsworth, the ware used a technique popular in Mintons’ tile production—tube lining filled with colored glazes. One of the innovations of Secessionist Ware was that the tube lining on hollowware was often done by hand, giving the work a distinctly hand crafted feel, in agreement with the Secessionist movement’s distancing itself from machine-made arts. Other pieces like plates and some complex hollowware designs largely forsook the thick hand drawn outline for thinner molded lines as found in the Minton tiles. There are pieces in the Secessionist Ware style also created entirely through hand painting and transfer decoration but these tend to be outside of the norm.

An original drawing by Wadsworth for use in Secessionist Ware

Mintons Secessionist charger of the above design utilizing a combination of 

tube lined majolica glazes and transfer decoration.

Original design for Secessionist Ware by John Wadsworth

Original design for Secessionist Ware by John Wadsworth

Original design for Secessionist Ware by John Wadsworth

Title page from Minton Secessionist Ware catalog

Page from Mintons Secessionist Ware catalog showing two vase designs

Page from Minton Secessionist Ware catalog showing plates and a platter

Page from Mintons Secessionist catalog showing a dresser set.

With the clear majolica glazes filling the space between the tube lining, the ware can be eye catching. Unlike the Minton Victorian counterpart the color palette tends to be more muted, favoring natural earth tones, greens and clear blues with only occasional appearances by yellow, red and purple. Salon’s and Wadsworth’s designs took their cue from the Art Nouveau movement with sinuous lines and stylized images. The Arts and Crafts movement contributed an interest in geometric and linear forms on which these designs were placed.

Minton Secessionist vase

Minton Secessionist vase

Minton Secessionist vase

Minton Secessionist vase

Minton Secessionist vases

Minton Secessionist vases

Minton Secessionist jardiniere

Minton Secessionist jardiniere

Minton Secessionist jardiniere

Secessionist Ware designs for jardinieres and pedestals 

Secessionist Ware designs for jardinieres and pedestals

Minton Secessionist pitcher

Minton Secessionist plate

Minton Secessionist plate

Minton Secessionist plate

Minton Secessionist candlesticks

Secessionist Minton wash bowl and pitcher

Wadsworth designs for Secessionist Ware toilet sets

Minton Secessionist soap dish

Minton Secessionist Ware box

Minton Secessionist chamber pot

Minton Secessionist chamber pot

Minton Secessionist Ware ice pail

Unusual tube lined Minton Secessionist tile

Mintons Secessionist Ware was popular with the public and remained in production until around 1916. The designs were generally stylized florals and always identified by their catalog number which was printed on the base. The pieces of Anglosia Ware that predate the 1901 introduction of  Secessionist Ware are marked with an ink Mintons mark. Later Secessionist ware is always clearly marked with the Art Nouveau Secessionist stamp. Some pieces also bear the Minton date codes to aid in identification.

Marked Mintons peacock vase

Despite its popularity with the Edwardian public, Mintons' Secessionist Wares have never really found their proper value on the secondary market. They're not inexpensive by any means but they don't bring prices even remotely approaching those of Mintons' Victorian majolica. My guess is that is likely to change with time.

Léon Victor Salon (1873-1957)

Léon Victor Salon had an interesting career after leaving his position as Art Director at Mintons in 1909. He emigrated to the United States and took on a number of high profile commissions including work as Art Director at the American Encaustic Company, the colorist of the sculpture at Rockefeller Center and of the sculpture in the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He eventually retired to Florida and died in 1957.

Showroom to American Encaustic Company showroom c. 1927

Entrance of the showroom of the American Encaustic Tile Co. at

16 E. 41st St, Manhattan, NY designed by Léon Salon, 

photographed shortly before demolition in 2013

The glazed terracotta pediment at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Victory at Rockefeller Center

Progress in Rockefeller Center

In 1910 John W. Wadsworth wrote a book on his design principles called Designing from Plant Forms. He left Mintons in 1915 to become the Art Director of Royal Worcester where he expanded their design work by developing innovative shapes and printed linear patterns for dining use and Art Deco styled ware.

Cover of Designing from Plant Forms

Title page from Designing from Plant Forms

John W. Wadsworth (1879-1955)

Queen Elizabeth Coronation Vase designed by Wordsworth

He returned to Mintons in 1935 and designed many of the best known Mintons china patterns as well as the commemorative pieces associated with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. He remained as Art Director at Mintons until his death in 1955 at the age of 76.