"This volume in a series of sixteen that features the more than two thousand works of art in the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art focuses on Italian majolica or earthenware." -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

The Museum’s outstanding collection of maiolica is significant because most of the major pottery centers, maiolica forms, and styles are represented. This current catalogue presents the collection in a chronological progression according to stylistic trends. Lavish color plates accompany the detailed entries

The first comprehensive study of the most important ceramic innovation of the 19th century Colorful, wildly imaginative, and technically innovative, majolica was functional and aesthetic ceramic ware. Its subject matter reflects a range of 19th-century preoccupations, from botany and zoology to popular humor and the macabre. Majolica Mania examines the medium’s considerable impact, from wares used in domestic settings to monumental pieces at the World’s Fairs. Essays by international experts address the extensive output of the originators and manufacturers in England—including Minton, Wedgwood, and George Jones—and the migration of English craftsmen to the U.S. New research including information on important American makers in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia is also featured. Fully illustrated, the book is enlivened by new photography of pieces from major museums and private collections in the U.S. and Great Britain.

The form of tin-glazed earthenware known as maiolica reveals much about the culture and spirit of Renaissance Italy. Engagingly decorative, often spectacularly colorful, sometimes whimsical or frankly bawdy, these magnificent objects, which were generally made for use rather than simple ornamentation, present a fascinating glimpse into the realities of daily life. Though not as well known as Renaissance painting and sculpture, maiolica is also prized by collectors and amateurs of the decorative arts the world over. This volume offers highlights of the world-class collection of maiolica at the Metropolitan Museum. It presents 135 masterpieces that reflect more than four hundred years of exquisite artistry, ranging from early pieces from Pesaro—including an eight-figure group of the Lamentation, the largest, most ambitious piece of sculpture produced in a Renaissance maiolica workshop—to everyday objects such as albarelli (pharmacy jars), bella donna plates, and humorous genre scenes. Each piece has been newly photographed for this volume, and each is presented with a full discussion, provenance, exhibition history, publication history, notes on form and glaze, and condition report. Two essays by Timothy Wilson, widely considered the foremost scholar in the field, provide overviews of the history and technique of maiolica as well as an account of the formation of The Met's collection. Also featured is a wide-ranging introduction by Luke Syson that examines how the function of an object governed the visual and compositional choices made by the pottery painter. As the latest volume in The Met's series of decorative arts highlights, Maiolica is an invaluable resource for scholars and collectors as well as an absorbing general introduction to a multifaceted subject.