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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Vintage Majolica - pottery

So, I started my collecting with my depression glass but quickly got addicted to "baked dirt" as my friends call it. I bought and collected Roseville, Hull, Well and some other potteries for years. THEN about 4 years ago I learned about majolica. This "category" arose during the late 1880's and the primary feature is "naturalism". Majolica reflects a movement from machine made items that were becoming more prevalent at the time and moved towards a form that incorporated flowers and natural patterns like leaves and basketweaves. The colors also reflect more "natural" colors like greens, yellows and shades of pink/burgundy etc.

Vtg Majolic Pitcher Yellow Cosmo Sunflower Basketweave

One of the prime companies in this genre was Griffin Smith Hill GHS here, in Pa, in Phoenixville, Pa. Most of what I find is a "begonia" leaf pattern which looks like "begonia leaves". They were in business from 1879 to 1890. They marked their items with a interwined GSH and with Etrucscan Majoica and just Etruscan and combinations of all three parts.
Antique and Vintage Majolica on ebay