A-Z of Ceramics - M is for Maiolica / Majolica

The term 'maiolica' was used in 15th-century Italy for lustrewares imported from Spain. It is usually said that the name derives from Majorca, an island that played an important part in this trade. But it has recently been argued that the name derives from 'obra de Mallequa', the term for lustred made in Valencia under the influence of Moorish craftsmen from Malaga. The name was soon adopted for Italian-made lustre pottery copying Spanish examples, and during the 16th century its meaning shifted to include all tin-glazed earthenware.

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Italian Renaissance maiolica became increasingly popular among collectors and museums in Britain. At first it was referred to, romantically, as Raffaelle ware or Urbino ware, but soon also with the anglicised term 'majolica'.

In the mid 19th century, the term 'majolica ware' was also used by the Minton factory for their newly introduced, painted tin-glazed earthenwares. But at the Great Exhibition of 1851 Minton launched colourful lead-glazed earthenwares in neo-Renaissance or naturalistic forms called 'Palissy-ware'. Gradually the title 'Palissy' was dropped and by the 1880s the name 'majolica' was instead commonly used to describe this popular colourful ware.

In the early 1870s, the curators of the South Kensington Museum returned to the original Italian 'maiolica' with an 'i' to describe all Italian tin-glazed earthenware, doubtless to stress the Italian pronunciation and to avoid confusion with contemporary majolica.

Plate, Jacopo (Maestro), Cafaggiolo, Italy, 1510. Museum no. 1717-1855. During the Renaissance maiolica painters were regarded as artisans who copied or freely followed printed sources or designs by major artists, but some regarded themselves as artists in their own right and signed their work. This dish shows a maiolica painter at work and watched by wealthy patrons. It was made at Cafaggiolo, a small potters' workshop set up in the grounds of a Medici villa near Florence. It was probably painted by Maestro Jacopo, one of the most skilled maiolica painters of his time.

Chestnut dish, made by Minton, Hollins & Co., 1855. Museum no. 3568&A-1857. This dish and spoon feature realistically moulded half-open chestnuts and leaves. The use of decoration to indicate the function of the piece was a Victorian pre-occupation. The development of these rich, natural coloured majolica glazes made this all the more possible