The combination of the Mintons' simple dark blue transfer "China Aster" pattern with their durable ironstone body creates a dramatic and surprisingly elegant statement. The pattern is a direct copy of a Chinese pattern featuring a center with four stylized blossoms in a field of vining tendrils. The border features the same blossoms, this time with simplified stem and leaves, framed in a ring of panels.

The Mintons "China Aster" pattern is copied verbatim form Owen Jones 1867 work, "Examples of Chinese Ornament Selected from Objects in the South Kensington Museum and Other Collections," (plate no.7 in the 1990 Dover reprint). This and his earlier The Grammar of Ornament, provided an international sourcebook for those interested in elevating the aesthetic quality of English manufactured goods. It is not clear whether Jones provided the design for "China Aster" or if Mintons simply copied from the publication. In any case the patterns provides a good example in the period's interest in exotic patterns.