Marc Louis Solon

'Worse and worse became the shapes and models; lower and lower sank the work of the decorators; nor could this deplorable state of things be altered by the inspiring study of fine works of art. The Potteries were situated very far from the artistic centre; good examples and good advice were equally wanting. It is not to be denied that all that remains of the most pretentious examples of the pottery of that period (1800 - 1850) bears the stamp of an unmitigated bad taste.'

Solon, was less critical of his host country in general, the adopted country whose language he mastered with rare fidelity. Towards the end of his career in Staffordshire, he wrote:

'My efforts have not remained unrewarded, and when I cast a backward glance at the years gone by, I may say that I could not wish for a better life than the one I have spent among my English friends'.

Josiah C. Wedgwood, historian of the English Potteries, wrote of Minton and its French employees:: 'He [Arnoux] improved the decoration of their porcelain and the whiteness of its body, but his chief claim to notice rests on his majolica and his imitation of the old Palissy. For 30 years nothing was more popular than Minton's majolica... Arnoux was followed by such artists as Jeanest, Lessore, Protat, and in 1870 by Monsieur M. L. Solon, whose special work - pâte-sur-pâte decoration - still holds the public taste.‘ That was written in 1913. Solon had gone to a higher workshop.