Source: The Sentinel
21 April 2009
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The Government has vowed to do all it can to keep a unique ceramic archive in Britain. The Minton Archive, which features drawings dating back to 1793, was set to go under the hammer at Bonhams in London last month following the collapse of owner Waterford Wedgwood. |
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But the planned auction was stopped by North Staffordshire MPs and peers who argued it had great importance, locally and culturally. The archive documents two centuries of design and manufacture by pottery company Minton, which merged with Royal Doulton in 1968 and was acquired by Waterford Wedgwood in 2005. Yesterday, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport was urged by Staffordshire MPs to talk to U.S.-based equity firm, KPS Capital Partners, which bought much of Waterford Wedgwood when it went bust earlier this year and is now in control of the archive. Speaking during Question Time, Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Mark Fisher told Junior Culture Minister Barbara Follett: "I know that you appreciate the extreme importance of this collection and this archive, not only nationally but internationally. "Along with the Spode and the Wedgwood archives, it is one of the great industrial archives of the ceramic industry. "It would be a tragedy if it was broken up." KPS needed "pressure" from the Government to keep the collection together in Britain, Mr Fisher added. Ms Follett promised to "work as hard as I can" to persuade the firm to keep the Minton Archive in the UK. She said she had written to KPS to ask about their plans for the archive and hoped to speak to them within the next 24 hours. Ms Follett added: "I will work as hard as I can to keep the archive in Britain and particularly in North Staffordshire." South Staffordshire MP Sir Patrick Cormack told MPs that Minton made tiles in the Palace of Westminster. He said: "This incomparably rich archive must be kept in this country. Once it is broken up, that is it forever." Ms Follett added: "I am glad that South Staffordshire is weighing in with North Staffordshire on this. "We do need as much help as possible and we do stand ready to do what we can to save it." The archive includes thousands of watercolours and drawings by artists associated with Minton - one of Royal Doulton's most famous brands. Charity Art Fund is also campaigning to stop the archive from being broken up. |