- Style/technique: Art nouveau majolica
- Manufacturer: Marsden
- Pattern number: K216
- Dimensions: 6" x 6"
- Date: circa 1900
- Colours: 2
An amazing tile. The bold design fills the tile with
flamboyant flowing movement, embossed and indented indeed
very shallow relief giving a near flat surface to the
tile*. Excellent skills, design and technical, the glaze
qualities to produce the effect, almost like émaux
ombrants but in colour, were very special. Amazing
colours, Take two what one would normally consider fairly
ordinary colours, an olivy brown and orangey yellow, and
combine them with a bold poppy design that fills the
tile. The result, it looks like it's on fire, warm
colours become hot with the flow of the lines and the
brilliance in the glazes.
An early tile too, the pattern number indicates a
19thC origination date making it one of the very first
full blown and unarguably art nouveau designs on tile
(pattern K303 was registered in May 1900). Fewer than one
in one thousand art nouveau tiles are victorian in design
let alone in manufacture, it's quite amazing how there
are usually dozens on eBay at any time :-)
*A flat surface was most desirable for durability and
ease of cleaning for as soon as high relief embossed
tiles became practical to manufacture it was realised
that they compromised these two major benefits of tiles.
With relief tiles dirt got stuck in the indentations and
high points got worn and chipped, manufacturers put great
effort into producing great designs that appeared three
dimesnional but weren't really such as émaux
ombrants and chromo relievo. The technical qualities of
glazes tend to be overlooked by authors, historians and
some collectors who praise design and colour - the easy
things to appreciate. Many of the moulding effects would
not be apparent without great glazes, George Cartlidge's
émaux ombrants tiles were totally dependent on
Sherwin & Cotton's superior glazes. That's why no
other company could equal them, it was not the modelling
but the glazing. Of course the modelling had to be great
too because the glazes would hide nothing.
Verso spotless and with painted pattern number K216B,
earlier grip pattern as used for majolica tiles by
Marsden during the 1890s.
