Moon flask with stylized floral decoration
1867
Medium
Bone china with enamel decoration and gilding
Dimensions
confirmed: 7 5/8 × 5 7/8 × 3 1/8 in. (19.4 × 14.9 × 7.9 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
British, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Helene Fortunoff and Robert Grossman, 2017
Accession Number
2018.62.1
Art Historical Context
This elegant moon flask, crafted by the renowned Minton factory in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, exemplifies the refined taste of Victorian Britain in 1867. Minton, a leading producer of fine ceramics, specialized in bone china—a durable, luminous material developed in England that combined kaolin with bone ash for strength and translucency. The flask’s flattened, circular form draws from Middle Eastern and Asian prototypes, adapted here with stylized floral motifs rendered in vibrant enamels and accented by delicate gilding, creating a luxurious yet harmonious surface. As a product of the E...
About the Artist
Minton(s) · 1793–2001
Minton is among the most distinguished names in the history of British ceramics, a firm whose two and a quarter centuries of production encompass everything from blue transfer-printed earthenwares to the most rarefied decorative porcelain of the Victorian age. The company was founded in 1793 by Thomas Minton (1765–1836) in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire — the heart of England's pottery industry. ...