- Style/technique: Aesthetic print
- Manufacturer: Sherwin & Cotton
- Pattern number: S584
- Dimensions: 6" x 6"
- Date: Design registered 29th July 1881
An excellent tile with a bold aesthetic design in
natural colours on a celadon body. Most unusually a
multicolour print with hand coloured white highlights,
Sherwins rarely did multicolour prints preferring the
wider range of colours possible with hand colouring. This
print in four colours demonstrates that just a few years
after the company started they were competent in current
technology.
Sherwin & Cotton are perhaps the most undeservedly
underrated tile company of the Victorian and Edwardian
eras. From their inception in 1877 they were producing
stylish, modern, artistic wares. Largely ignored by the
literature perhaps because a) they didn't do conventional
transfer printed picture tiles, the first group of
Victorian tile collectors almost exclusively preferred
picture tiles; and b) they didn't come from London, had
they done so the artistry of their wares would surely be
widely appreciated. Fired Earth, 1000 Years of Tiles in
Europe barely mentions the company, Blanchett has a
better selection of their wares but still hardly
scratches the surface and has a few errors, Tony
Johnson's book The Morris Ware, Tiles and Art of George
Cartlidge gives a much broader view of the wares of the
company and is highly recommended.
Very clean verso with nice crisp triangle and knot
mark, printed pattern number and design registration
lozenge.
