Bernard Palissy was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain. He is best known for his so-called "rusticware", typically highly decorated large oval platters featuring small animals in relief among vegetation, the animals apparently often being moulded from casts taken of dead specimens. It is often difficult to distinguish examples from Palissy's own workshop and those of a number of "followers" who rapidly adopted his style. Imitations and adaptations of his style continued to be made in France until roughly 1800, and then revived considerably in the 19th century.
Bernard Palissy, self-portrait in faience, reproduced in a lithograph
Detail of a Palissy still-life platter of c. 1550 (see below for the whole piece)
Workshop of Palissy, rusticware platter, 1575–1600
Rusticware featuring casts of sea life (1550)
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
Vase in coloured lead-glazed Victorian majolica, designed by Carrier-Belleuse, 1868.
Creamer, fluted Old Oval shape, c. 1797-1799
Creamer, Old Oval shape, c. 1800-1815
Teapot and stand, New Oval shape, c. 1800-1805