The designer of Minton's "Essex Birds" series managed to distill the experience of a stroll through the English countryside into simple, but ever so artful, compositions featuring avian and plant life In the realm of tableware design, the series represents the equivalent of the music of Percy Granger or Frederick Delius, inspired by nature and quintessentially English.

In this set of six plates and one low compote--each with a different songbird perched on a different flowering branch--we find that the variety of intriguing arrangements is just as important as the documentation of wildlife.

As was its practice with successful designs, Minton produced "Essex Birds" in a number of different color variations, different clay bodies, and different ground colors. This finely potted porcelain set obviously represents the upper reaches of the pattern's production. Adding to its elegance is the delicate celadon green ground, a color perfected by Minton in this period and employed to great effect. A narrow gold edge is all that was needed to finish the design.

We think of the Japanese influence on aesthetic movement ceramics in terms of highly stylized designs, fretwork ground patterns and specifically Japanese motifs. Yet another ceramic strain of the time shows the influence of Japanese prints with spontaneous views of nature that abandon traditional composition for odd angles and unconventional placement on the plate. In this vein, "Essex Birds" is the airborn equivalent of Minton's watery "Aquarium" series.