• Style/technique: Pictorial print
• Manufacturer: E Smith of Coalville
• Dimensions: 6" x 6"
• Date: circa 1880

 

A good illustration of a scene from the William Shakespeare play As You Like It entitled, 'Will You Or Not Have To Wed This Rose' (or perhaps Rosalind). The story is of a love quadrangle plus, Rosalind has been impersonating a young man.

The design shows very much the economy of line favoured by Walter Crane and is rather different from many contemporary works, signed in the lower left corner with the initials JB for John Bradburn who also did designs for Minton Hollins and Maw & Co.

E Smith commenced trading as The Midland Brick and Terra Cotta Co in 1859 and made tiles quite soon afterwards certainly from 1868. Their leading position in the early british tile industry is largely unrecognised, they produced pictorial series, aesthetic and floral designs of merit, the pictorial series tending to be lively and amusing, they did a super series of medieval musicians and the first 'Christopher Dresser style' crane and lake design we have seen.

Verso very clean with distinctive moulded back and embossed Tamar, Coalville, Tamar was a brand name used by Smith's.

Condition: Excellent
Price: £140 (approx $280)
Ref: 02668

A mark on the bottom of the left edge more wear than a chip, a few other minute edge and surface marks. Very clean and bright.

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.