Lot 104
A very rare Minton majolica match box and cover, dated 1864
23 February 2022, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,083.75 inc. premium
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A very rare Minton majolica match box and cover, dated 1864
In the form of a crusader's tomb, the cover moulded in high relief with the recumbent knight, his shield at his side and his crossed feet resting on the head of a coiled dragon or wyvern, picked out in bright glazes, the rim inscribed in gothic script 'The knights are dust and their good swords are rust their souls are with the saints we trust', the interior with turquoise glaze and the underside textured to act as the match strike, 10cm long, impressed MINTON mark and date code (2)
Footnotes
This probably corresponds with shape number 705 in the Minton Shape book, listed as 'Match box with reclining male figure', where it is noted that the shape was produced in majolica.
The inscription on the cover is taken from Sir Walter Scott's 1820 classic 'Ivanhoe', in which he quotes Samuel Taylor Coleridge's then unpublished poem 'The Knight's Tomb'.