In August, 1845, Mr. Michael Daintry Hollins joined Mr. Minton in the general manufacturing business; and the tile department formed a separate concern, under the style of Minton, Hollins, & Co. Mr. Hollins was a nephew of Mr. Minton’s deceased wife (who was Miss Hollins, of Shelton,) and had been educated for the medical profession. In 1846, Mr. Samuel Barlow Wright, son of the original patentee, was admitted to a share in the business of the tile works, under the style of Minton, Hollins, and Wright. The patent of Mr. Wright was for fourteen years, and was renewed for seven years in 1844. At that period the works continued to be conducted at a loss, and but a small amount of business was done. It may be safely asserted that during the entire existence of the patent, so far from profit being the result, Mr. Minton had sacrificed many thousands of pounds to perfect the manufacture; to say nothing of the extraordinary liberality of his gifts of tiles. In other hands the manufacture might have proved a pecuniary success at an earlier period; but Mr. Minton was lavish in his expenditure in adopting every mechanical or other improvement--hydraulic presses under Prosser’s patent, Napier’s steam hammer, &c.--that promised further success. [Illustration: Figs. 244 to 246. Minton’s Vases.] [Illustration: Figs. 247 and 248.--Minton’s Majolica.] Previous to the year 1848, the only process of printing which had succeeded for the decoration of pottery, was the one from engraved copper-plates. In this process all the lines that form the picture are cut into the metal, and these lines were filled in by the printer with the required colour, which had previously been mixed with boiled oil. The impression was then taken on tissue paper, at the ordinary copper-plate printing press, and from the paper transferred to the ware. In that style the picture or ornament was formed by a succession of lines, so that it was almost impossible to produce an even layer of colour, so desirable in flat-surface ornamentation. In 1848, Messrs. Collins and Reynolds, who had for some years carried on in London the business of decorative and picture printers, submitted to Mr. Minton some trials they had made of transferring to pottery impressions taken on paper from the flat surface of metal or stone, instead of from the engraved lines; and by that process broad and flat layers of colour could be produced, and several colours transferred at the same time to the ware. These first-trials were made with ordinary pigments; and, therefore, only served to show the power of transferring the impression from the paper to the ware. Mr. Minton perceived at once that the process would, in all probability, prove of advantage, and supplied the proper enamelling colours for further experiments. It was now found, however, that these colours were much more difficult of management than the ordinary pigments. This arose from their being