Rare Minton lozenge shaped dish, decorated in an etched technique fixed with iron red pigment, after a Dutch 17th century engraving with two cows by a post, created as a presentation sample plate by W.J. Goode, presented to J.M. Levy esquire in 1868.

30.5x23cm

Good condition

Provenance: Moorabool Antiques, thence Robert Wilson Collection, Melbourne

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a round example, given by Mr W.J. Goode himself in 1867 when it was new. He had developed the technique of etching into the glaze, filling with pigment & firing, at Minton in 1865. Examples were shown at the 1878 Paris Exhibition, although the technique was never common, it is noted that examples were often copying 17th and 18th century engravings, and this is the case with these ‘Cows’, after a Dutch engraving of the 17th century .

Ref ‘The Dictionary of Minton’ p23 for the V&A example, and write-up.

Also: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O281730/plate-minton–co/

J. M. Levy Esquire was a London pressman, founder of the Daily Telegraph in 1855, the first of the penny newspapers and still going today. This personalised presentation plate was perhaps intended to generate some free press, and Goode was appealing to Levy as a fellow ‘printer’ by sharing this new technique he had developed.