A super aesthetic style tile the central
circular vignette with bird on blossoming branch
surrounded by assorted borders and motifs and
printed in a most attractive shade of blue.
E Smith, a virtually unknown company
nowadays, were one of the earliest tile
companies producing decorative wall tiles of
very high quality from the 1860s. This tile is
thinner than usual biscuit we have come to
expect for victorian tiles although for sure
Minton Hollins & Co were making tiles of
similar thickness at just a little over
one-quarter of an inch thick at the time, it
appears that the market preferred tiles at
three-eights of an inch. Biscuit is very high
quality and quite white for the time. Smiths of
course being from Coalville had local supplies
of low cost coal which was the most used raw
material and the major expense in tile
production and also good quality clay from just
a few miles away.
Verso near perfectly clean, embossed E Smith
& Co, Coalville.
