Victorian Mintons Pictorial Transfer Print Tile
Style/technique: Pictorial print Manufacturer: Mintons China Works Dimensions: 6" x 6" Pattern number: 2024 Date: circa 1890   One of a series of twelve British and European landscapes engraved by L T Swetman for Mintons around 1884. Quite a popular series in its day, certainly manufactured in to the1890s when generally the popularity of landscape tiles was declining. This is a view of the 'Village of Splügen, The Alps' (at the Switzerland end of a pass with Italy) and features buildings constructed on the edge of the gorge and fantastic water powered machinery made from timber. The tile is fully marked Mintons etc and has both the name and the partly obscured LTS monogram. The standard literature of Lockett and Austwick confuses this distinct series with other pictorial tiles some of which are (apparently) by Wise and some by Swetman. This series has long since been fully accounted for although as far as I know three of the suffix letters remain unallocated, this scene is suffix E. The source artwork for several of the series has also been traced, neither Swetman or Wise were designers of much of the artwork they signed rather they were the engravers. It has been standard practice in ceramic (and indeed other) industries to copy from books whether approved or not, Mintons were no exception. There were of course art books published with the intent that they become source material but the popular illustrated novels were the soruce for many pictures on tiles. Continued......
Condition: Very good Price: £90 (approx $133) Ref: 02322 Some very tiny chips/roughness on the top and right edges, one tiny stun chip just above left of centre, a couple of very light scratches, some extremely light discolouration in the crazing, other very minor surface marks. Very clean and bright. UK Special Delivery £98 US and World Airsure £105 Click for full order information Click to contact for more information
The image is full size at 72 dpi (about 430 pixels wide) in maximum quality JPEG format. A larger 120 dpi image also in maximum quality JPEG format can be forwarded by email if required. The image is a little oversize rather than cropped close to the edges so that the edges can easily be seen and any chips etc can be quickly spotted. Other marks described are usually not visible at all when the tile is viewed straight as one normally sees it and can only be seen with a critical eye when the tile is tilted to catch imperfections in reflected light. For more details of how we describe marks see Condition. To convert prices to other currencies try this Universal Currency Converter.
All tiles in the series feature buildings in landscapes but otherwise they are quite a unique mix, each scene is allocated a suffix letter which is, unfortunately all too rarely, shown on the back of some tiles. There are scenes from England (3), Scotland (2) and Wales (2), France (2), and one each from Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. All the views have historical significance making them one of the most interesting series to collect and a great talking point. When the scenes are named they have a distinctive style of lettering compared to other Mintons China Works pictorial series. Examples of this series are found signed with monogram or initials and unsigned, also some are named and other times unnamed. It appears the earlier examples are signed and later examples are named. They are also found on pot stands the tiles having feet attached at the corners, later pot stand examples had the corners and edges fettled down to make them less prone to chipping when in use. Most are in brown, sepia and 'deep brown', some are found in Indian Blue. A few are found in brown nicely coloured in, there are also eight inch versions (pattern number 2029) with the scenes as per the six inch tiles surrounded by a bead border. There are several quite similar landscape and architectural series hence the confusion, Mintons themselves recycled patterns and renamed some views, certainly Cow Gate Foot from this series also appears with the different style of lettering associated with the scenes on trivets apparently made for the tourist market. It also appears, if I recall correctly, named St Mary's Street which is the other road (along with Cowgate as it is now known) in the picture. There are series of historic buildings, cathedrals, ruined abbeys and of countryside views of rivers often including man made structures like bridges. The historic buildings and cathedrals may not be a defined series as such rather made as giftware for tourist locations, Edinburgh, Derbyshire Peak District (verl close to Stoke upon Trent) and Stratford upon Avon feature, somewhat surprisingly there are none, or perhaps just one, scene noted of a London location. The other aforementioned countryside views series appears to focus on waterside man-made structures including bridges across rivers, mills, riverside cottages and castles with moats. These other series are to my knowledge still not completely and fully identified either in scope or by artist although it is assumed some are by Wise and others by Swetman. It may be that Wise was preferred for figurative work and Swetman for architectural subjects and/or that Swetman continued when Wise passed away in 1889 after a period of illness. It should be noted that neither were necessarily the artists in the sense of the creators of the original works, they were engravers interpreting other source works for use as ceramic decoration. The full list of the scenes is: Boppart on the Rhine Cardinal Beaton's House, Edinburgh Conway Castle Westgate, Warwick Old Houses, Rouen Village of Splugen, The Alps Rodez Cathedral Dittisham on the Dart The Old Gateway Winchelsea Criccieth Castle Ruins of Hougomont, Belgium Cow Gate Foot, Edinburgh   Recently it has come to light that the 'Animal Groups' tile by Wise on page 109 in Austwick is no such thing! The true Animal Groups from Wise are very different, this tile is from a later series dating from 1894 a few years after Wise had passed away.

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