Object Type
This plant pot and another in the V&A's collection (museum no. 925-1852), were two of several displayed by A.W.N. Pugin in the Mediaeval Court, part of the Crystal Palace allotted to and designed by him. The plant pots differ from each other in design and size, but they were both prototypes with tiles cut to fit the frames, specially created for the Exhibition. Since they are now the only ones known, it is likely that few if any others were made.

People
Pugin probably met Herbert Minton in 1840. Minton was keen to manufacture Pugin's encaustic floor tiles. Pugin met John Hardman, who made the frames, in 1837. Hardman had been a button manufacturer in Birmingham, but Pugin steered his firm towards making ironwork as well as stained-glass windows to his designs. Pugin was on the Design Purchase Committee to buy objects from the Great Exhibition for the School of Design. Naturally, he selected his pots as instructive examples of good domestic product design.

Materials & Making
Pugin was keen to combine good design with efficient modern manufacturing methods. The tiles were made by Prosser's Patent, an economical new method of compressing powdered clay to produce a good, even surface. The tiles were printed by a process resembling wood-block printing. Pugin was familiar with chromolithographic book illustration and encouraged two Clerkenwell printers, F.W.M. Collins and Alfred Reynolds, to experiment with tiles and tablewares. On 14th March 1848, they patented their method of transfer-printing with oil-based inks and stone or metal plates. Herbert Minton bought the patent in 1849. this system was far more efficient than hand-colouring but did not really catch on until the 1870s.