Object Type
This vase was made entirely for show. Renaissance Revival forms and decoration suggested that the owner was a person of education and taste, and this vase, a grand example of Minton's technology, would impress guests as evidence of superior knowledge. Renaissance Revival design was increasingly popular during the mid-19th century, not least as a result of the teaching in design schools, headed by that at South Kensington. This classical shape, with raised handles in the form of coiled snakes, is modelled on 16th-century Italian examples.

Design & Designing
Under the art director Léon Arnoux (1816-1902) the Minton company was interested in design and ceramic technology of many periods and cultures. It was the only British firm to take such care in the research and replication of historic techniques and designs. In the late 18th century and the 19th, Italian Renaissance maiolica, covered with a white tin-glaze and hand-painted, became increasingly popular among collectors and museums in Britain. At first it was referred to, romantically, as 'Raffaelle ware' or 'Urbino ware', but soon the anglicised term 'majolica' was adopted. Maiolica was among the many forms of Renaissance ceramics that interested Arnoux. He studied wares made at Urbino, Castelli and other Italian centres, and by the 1850s had introduced tin-glazed painted earthenwares into Minton production.