Very Fine Aesthetic Printed Tile
Style/technique: Aesthetic print Manufacturer: Steele & Wood* Dimensions: 6" x 6" Date: circa 1885   A superb design in the aesthetic taste featuring a very dramatic bold and highly stylised sunflower set against a most complex hatched ground of cracked ice with parquet shading and ringlets and with alternating sun motifs forming side borders. Very well printed in dark brown on white. Steele & Wood were major tile makers in the 1880s producing hundreds of mostly transfer printed designs but also some very early majolica and complex multicolour prints and of course hand coloured prints too. High quality throughout, design, decoration, biscuit and glazing, they probably sold biscuit to and made tiles for others, Jackson Bros being one likely candidate. Some designs on their tiles by notable designers are seen, Landseer animal prints and also Steele & Wood blanks handpainted by Lucien Besche are known. *Confidence is extremely high that this is by Steele & Wood but there is still, as is often the unstated case with historical research, some element of doubt. We have many references that point to this conclusion but more would be welcome, what is for sure is that several well reputed Steele & Wood designs appear with this precise verso. Most Steele & Wood blanks bear no identification and are simple grids or rails often mistaken for Minton and Wedgwood respectively despite clear differences, relatively few have their brand name. There is also a school of thought that contends and evidence that suggests that Wedgwood bought blanks in to decorate. Verso very clean, generic rail back but with subtle yet distinctive characteristics.
Condition: Near perfect Price: £70 (approx $135) Ref: 02920 Four very tiny/minute stun chips lower right and one lower left otherwise flawless. UK Special Delivery £78 US and World Airsure £85 Full order information Contact us Currency Converter
Generic rail verso at first glance similar to those found from Sherwin & Cotton, Wedgwood, E Smith, Cleveland and others but each have their unique attributes.
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.

Information

Tiles For Sale

Contacts

Order Information

Copyright 2000 - 2008, All rights reserved