These simple, round salad plates represent one variant of Minton's "Aquarium" pattern, designed by William Coleman, one of Minton's premier artists of the aesthetic period.

In the arrangement presented here, Coleman has created a Japanese-style water lily study totally filling the plate from edge to edge with luscious blooms and pads. This study is balanced by three flying insects placed asymmetrically toward the top left edge. The result is a composition in which the white space is as important as the transfer decoration in the overall effect.   

While many transfer patterns appealed to the aesthetic consumer by simply incorporating Japanese motifs, Coleman penetrates deeply into the Japanese mode of depicting nature in these aquatic studies. He defies the western tradition of floral depiction and china decoration, filling the plates with an asymmetrical, spontaneous, unconventional views. While "Aquarium" was produced in may variations, this blue version, with a hint of flow in the printing, effectively conveys the quality of an Asian ink brush study.