A totally fabulous tile the design of
interweaving floral style the printed outline is
hand coloured with stains and glazes. A
demanding piece of work with intricacy and with
precision of painting required which has been
executed superbly.
Sherwin's used prefix letters to denote the
decorating technique, tiles with a simple 'R'
prefix are scarce although 'RMB' was used for
Barbotine, simple prints coloured or not had the
prefix 'S', 'RWC' appears on designs created for
R W Crossthwait. Tiles with prefix R pattern
numbers appear in Sherwin & Cotton's c.1908
catalogue with much higher pattern numbers,
there are no prefix R pattern numbers in their
1892 catalogue. It is taken that prefix 'R'
refers to painting with majolica glazes a
demanding technique rarely used and only by the
best decorators like Craven Dunnill and
Marsden.
With three of these tiles to compare it can
be seen that the shading is also painted by hand
so we have an outline print, painting of
shading, stains and glazes. Such multiple
discipline style of decorating tiles produces
some extraordinary visual effects, they are
quite rare as most manufacturers stuck with time
tested processes.
A similar tile was sold recently by a well
known London dealer who suggested that it be by
W B Simpson (and of a commensurately earlier but
even then optimistic date), this tile will stand
out amongst as a beacon of excellence amongst
most examples of the work of W B Simpson.
Verso very clean, Staffordhire Knot badge
embossed and painted pattern number. Being this
verso rather than the lock back it is thought to
be late 19thC rather than early 20thC.
