Minton is a fine bone china — thin, strong, white pottery with bone ash in the clay — made in Stoke-on-Trent, in the English Midlands. Thomas Minton (1765–1836) started the factory, and the family name became the mark on the plates. People often say Minton for the dishes themselves, the way they say a maker's name for the thing it made. It feels fancy: you meet it in antique shops, museums, and careful dinner sets more than in everyday kitchen talk. The famous blue-and-white willow pattern, with a Chinese-looking garden, a bridge, and birds, is said to have been made first by this company. Because it is a maker's name, it takes a capital M. It has nothing to do with mint the plant, or with a mint where coins are made; it only looks like those words.