A pair of Victorian figural tiles of Dickensian
characters first made by Sherwin & Cotton in
the late 19th century. One of the earliest
moulded figural works of George Cartlidge this
pair are the precursor to his famous
Émaux Ombrants tile portraits. Many were
of famous people, his first of Prime Minister
Gladstone, but he produced many other works both
figural and floral. Many other companies
produced majolica portrait tiles but rarely
matched the excellence of George
Cartlidge/Sherwin & Cotton and few made
tiles by the more complex and demanding
Émaux Ombrants process. These tiles are
made in a kind of cross between the majolica and
Émaux Ombrants processes, an embossed and
indented moulded clay body with a very
translucent glaze.
This pair is perhaps the best I have seen.
The colour is most appropriate for the subject
and medium being green-brown-grey of the olive
family and the glaze consistency perfect without
any inappropriate pooling. The colour gives the
quality of a photograph, the graduated tones,
yet without the severity and sombreness of some
of the greys and browns often used on the
military portraits and the excessive vivacity of
some greens and reds.
The manufacturing process was very demanding,
whilst the skill of the modelling and pressing
is clear what is less clear are the qualities of
glazing. The formulation of the glaze had to be
just right, it had to be applied fairly
consistently but most of all the tile had to be
perfectly level in the kiln. Translucent glazes
run better indeed that is a requirement of the
process of these tiles so that the glaze pooled
in indentations creating darker tones, a tile
that was not quite level in the kiln would
produce unsightly pooling of the glaze towards
the lowest point, an edge or corner.
The first examples of this design would have
been made around 1894 (they are pattern numbers
M377 and Sherwin & Cotton had reached M298
before the end of 1892). It is believed that Geo
Cartlidge kept the rights to these designs when
Sherwin & Cotton were taken over in 1911 by
Johnsons (who continued manufacturing using all
Sherwins tools and expertise and verso branding
and locks for a while) as they were also made by
J H Barratt for whom George modelled some new
designs post 1918.
