Place card holder (one of a pair)
ca. or after 1872
Medium
Bone china with enamel decoration and gilding
Dimensions
confirmed: 5 3/8 × 2 7/16 × 2 7/8 in., 1.764oz. (13.7 × 6.2 × 7.3 cm, 50g)
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
2018.62.35
Art Historical Context
This delicate place card holder, one of a pair crafted by the esteemed British firm Minton(s) around or after 1872, the opulence of Victorian tableware Stoke-on-Trent,—the heart of England's pottery industry. Made of bone china, a translucent and durable porcelain refined in the 19th century with bone ash for superior strength and whiteness, it measures a compact 5⅜ × 2½ × 2⅞ inches. Adorned with vibrant enamel decoration and gleaming gilding, it was designed to elevate formal dining by holding guests' name cards, reflecting the era's strict etiquette and love for elaborate place settings. Mi...
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. ...