children at ends of oval bowl, vine decor, 15.5" wide, 8.5" tall, 19th century....Minton & Co. In 1851, Herbert Minton and his French ceramic chemist, Leon Arnoux, presented "majolica" to the world of ceramics. It was well received at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. The excitement generated by the richly colored majolica inspired Minton artists to develop art revival styles parallel to those of the Renaissance, Palissy design, Gothic revival and medieval styles, naturalism (by far the most prolific), oriental and Islamic styles, and figural pieces, both human and mythological. Minton's lead and tin glazes were impermeable to damp English weather: many pieces, in the shapes such as cache pots, urns, fountains, umbrella stands for large birds and animals, were made for the garden or conservatory. The Victorian dinner table highlighted the growing Victorian interest in culinary variety: oyster, crab and lobster plates and fish platters were made in great numbers. There were game designs illustrating the contents of the game dish, humorous and bizarre tea pots made for conversation at tea parties, cheese bells with placid cows as finials, and strawberry serving dishes and spoons used at strawberry-time. Pitchers of every size and every naturalistic design poured water, milk, and cream. Different marks of Minton & Co. could include the name of the factory, the British registry mark and a lozenge-shaped symbol that, when deciphered, would reveal the date of registration of a design or shape, including the year and the date of design. A date code would reveal the exact date of manufacture of an individual piece, whereas earlier pieces of the same design would have an earlier date code. The ornamental shape number allows the collector to verify a piece In the factory's design book. Finally, in the case of major majolica manufacturers, there may be the artist's mark of his name or his monogram. Examples of these are seen on Minton majolica pieces, with names such as Hugues Protat, Paul Comolera and John Henk, all major artists at Minton. Unattributed English majolica was decorated with many patterns similar to marked pieces. Popular patterns were pond lilies, storks, corn, pineapple, leaves, blackberries, roses, fish and the ubiquitous shell-and-seaweed.