Antique Majolica George Jones Rustic Blossom Hawthorn Creamer Pitcher 4"

Description

Antique Majolica George Jones creamer pitcher featuring a rustic tree / bark theme with mayflower / hawthorn tree / flower blossoms and branch handle. Marked 3368.

George Jones majolica is one of the most coveted names in majolica. It's very easy to see why this is the case. Majolica made at the George Jones factory is some of the most elegantly designed, whimsical and beautifully crafted majolica ever created.

The great demand for Jones majolica, and the great prices that the demand brings, have elevated the Jones name to the pantheon of fame and collectibility usually reserved only for great eighteenth century pottery names like Meissen or Josiah Wedgwood. And just like Meissen and Wedgwood, the Jones name is one of the most abused names in pottery. Some of this abuse is intentional, created by people hoping to make a dishonest buck but some of this abuse is simply ignorance based in the irregular manner in which Jones marked its majolica. Of the top three potteries in majolica—Minton, Jones and Wedgwood—Jones was the least consistent in the marking of their wares. The confusion this causes is hard for general pottery dealers and beginner collectors to understand, but it is this confusion we will try to clarify in this post. First a little background.

History

George Jones was born in Nantwich, Cheshire on June 27, 1823. He began as a potter's apprentice in the Minton factory in 1837 and remained there until 1844. From 1844 to 1845 he worked as an agent of Wedgwood & Boyle of Etruria. Dismissed by Wedgwood & Boyle in 1845 he became an itinerant clerk and salesman, the same year he married milliner Frances Jackson, a union that was to eventually produce eight sons and three daughters. In 1850 Jones opened his own business as a commission agent and earthenware broker, establishing relationships with many of the businesses in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

In 1856 Jones opened his first pottery showroom and five years later opened his own pottery at Bridge Pottery, one which produced utilitarian cream ware, toilet items and some decorative ware. Participating in the 1862 London Exhibition brought Jones some fame for the quality of his wares and he continued to expand into more decorative and tableware items. In 1864 Jones expanded into a larger facility first called the Trent pottery and later the Crescent Pottery. It was around this time that Jones set up his own majolica works. Unfortunately in 1865 a devastating fire damaged the pottery forcing a curtailing of operations. Jones rebuilt the facility but suffered a second fire the following year. Again, Jones rebuilt and used the opportunity to expand the works.

Beginning in 1866 Jones began potting majolica in direct competition with the two largest majolica manufacturers in Staffordshire, the Minton and Wedgwood factories. In the 1870s Jones' majolica developed a reputation for its quality and soon became a large portion of the company's business.

Jones seemed to know that the key to great majolica was in the basic design of the ware. For this he depended on his designer John Bourne, and on his son, Frank Jones who was trained in pottery design in France. Perhaps this French connection explains the strong Art Nouveau influence on many GJ designs.

The great beauty of Jones work has rarely found an equal in nineteenth century English pottery being surpassed perhaps only by Minton. Add to that an appreciation for the impeccable craftsmanship that distinguished Minton and Jones majolica and you get a pottery that is spectacular in its beauty and glorious in its execution. The work was described by Llewellynn Jewitt in The Ceramic Art of Great Britain (1878):

The firm also make a large and striking variety of articles in majolica, in which they successfully view with most houses in the trade. In this they make both useful and ornamental articles, most of which are of a high order of art, being well modelled (sic), carefully finished, and of a quality that will bear comparison with most others. Some of the productions exhibited at Paris in 1867 (when they obtained a medal), at London in 1871, and at Vienna in 1873…

The imitation Palissy ware is highly successful. In vases, candelabra, centre and side pieces, flower shells, and numberless other articles, Messrs. Jones have produced many striking and good designs…especially an aquatic centre-piece… in Cupids, shells, dolphins, and coral; a flower-pot, in which the magnolia forms the basis of ornamentation; and an ew^er(sic) abundantly decorated with lizards, snakes, &c.(sic),are bold, good, and highly effective in design.

By 1880 the company was exporting 50% of their product to the United States. In the early 1880's a recession hit the industry hard and majolica sales declined. Most majolica manufacture at the GJ pottery ceased by the late 1880s, approximately twenty years after the first introduction of majolica at the plant. The majolica molds continued in use but were repurposed to create other wares in different bodies.

George Jones died on August 18, 1893 at the age of 70. He is buried in Greenbank Cemetery in Bristol. The Trent Pottery continued operations into the 20th century as the Crescent Pottery first under the management partnership of the four sons and later different owners until it closed in 1951.


One thing that remained consistent about the company was the application of their pattern numbers on the underside of their majolica shapes. As mentioned earlier, these numbers were taken from the company pattern books and were applied by hand on an unglazed area, or "thumbprint" as some call it, on the base of the piece.

Condition

Fair antique condition - wear/crazing; hairline crack

Dimensions

4" x 2.25" x 3.25" (Width x Depth x Height)