A fabulous pair of arts & crafts
tiles, entirely hand decorated on a
hand made biscuit and of totally
exceptional quality throughout.
Fabulously handpainted in a good range
of brilliant glaze colours on the best
handmade biscuit I have ever seen. Six
glaze colours (at least) and fully
handpainted. These are very rare, very
difficult to manufacture, very
expensive to manufacture tiles so rare
that even the most enthusiastic
collector may never have seen their
like.
The tiles presented a dilemma, at
first the intent was to sell them
individually but they look so good
together and were paired by the artist
or designer as they have numbers on the
backs. Having had a pair on display
just above the computer and another in
the house they just look so great that
it's a shame to split them but we will
if asked as we do have a split pair
already. Also as we present them on a
computer screen this severely limits
the viewing and the understanding of
what they look like.
When viewing images on a screen they
all look similar in as much as screens
emit light whereas objects reflect
light the differences in quality of the
surface are therefore misrepresented or
not apparent at all. For example it is
difficult to see the difference between
a translucent glaze and an opaque glaze
onscreen. The image on screen is
static, when viewing an object in the
hand one naturally moves position a
little (of oneself or the object) thuse
gaining perspective and adding to the
viewing pleasure, onscreen shifting
position will not add to the visual
input if anything will detract as most
screens image reproduction capabilities
diminish when viewed at an angle.
Due to the limitations of onscreen
viewing we automatically make
assumptions, we compare the image to
similar objects that we have seen in
real life and make our judgment. These
tiles produce an immediate like de
Morgan' reaction due to the full design
and its free interpretation however Wm
de Morgan & Co never produced any
tiles by this technique, put these
amongst a collection of de Morgan tiles
and they will shine out for rather than
being underglaze painted and covered
with a flat glaze these are hand
painted in glazes which is a
tremendously difficult technique and
requires incredible technical as well
as artistic skills.
Very few tile makers decorated in
hand painted glazes it was the most
demanding of techniques. Glazes of
course melt in the kiln and run
together at times forming an unsightly
mess hence the popularity of
cloisonné, other moulding
effects and tube line techniques to
keep the glazes separate. All
conditions had to be perfect to produce
glaze painted tiles, the materials
technology of the glazes, the skill of
the artist, the skill of the
kilnmaster. Such tiles were amongst the
most expensive of all around the turn
of the century.
Glaze colours tended to run in to
each other and so the range of colours
used for this and similar techniques is
limited by the qualities of the glazes.
Usually limited to natural autumn
colours these tiles have a great range
from the blue background, at least two
greens, two golden browns and pink.
With all the colours in the glazes
which are highly translucent they look
even better in direct light, in
sunlight they are totally amazing, I am
sure they would have looked nearly as
brilliant in firelight.
The only companies noted for using
the glaze painting technique are
Sherwin & Cotton, Craven Dunnill,
Marsden and Wedgwood the latter whilst
Marsden was engaged there. Most use a
transfer printed outline rather than
the hand painted outline used here, of
course many companies glaze painted
with moulded, tube lined or cuerda seca
outlines. One of the first reactions is
"William de Morgan" yet these tiles
surpass many of the attributes of de
Morgan tiles. A design that fills the
tile with a coloured background yet
having complexity, there are few
suchlike de Morgan tiles. Furthermore
the biscuit is of genuine fireclay, not
de Morgan's purported fireclay, and is
genuinely handpainted.
Freehand painted without the use of
an outline - de Morgan's tiles were
transfer painted, the outline was
traced on to transfer paper from a
master copy, the transfer paper applied
to the tile. Sometimes the line was
transferred to the tile which was then
filled with the colours, some designs
were fully painted on to the transfer
paper before being applied to the tile
[1] indeed Wm de Morgan &
Co also had transfers fully painted in
Italy and imported to England where
they were applied to tile [2].
It is possible that these had a pounced
outline or otherwise an outline or
guide was applied to the tile which
completely burned off in the kiln. An
outline may have been drawn on freehand
as with charcoal, it is quite frankly
impossible to tell for 100% surety if
any tile is freehand painted as there
are and were techniques to make the
outlines disappear in firing but with
five pairs of these tiles to compare
and the nature of the technique
precluding the use of some 'artistic
tricks' these tiles surely are hand
decorated in their entirety.
The quality extends further although
this will not be apparent to the
customer. They was part of a pair of
slabs with Godwin's patent mark, that
does in itself not indicate Godwin made
the tiles as they were specialist
slabbers and slabbed up tiles from many
different companies according to the
wish of the customer. The plain
surrounding tiles were indeed Godwin's
and had their Patent Keys, something
few will have come across save for
prople trying to dismantle them often
in frustration as they really did work
well to bind the tiles to the slab.
Furthermore the five tiles in the
slab even though similar were numbered
so that they were assembled in the
correct order as defined by the
artist/designer/customer a further sign
of quality.
Attribution is difficult for there
are few indicators, perfectly plain
verso and unusual nay unque clay. One
company stands out as neing capable of
such wares, Craven Dunnill & Co.
the alternative being a hithertofore
unknown or largely unrecognised art
pottery who both understood pottery and
tiles. Sherwin & Cotton were
capable but their fireclay as seen to
date is dictinctly different, Leeds Art
Pottery are another candidate.
Verso completely plain save for
number in pencil indicating the
position on the slab. A very high
quality fireclay, exceptional in my
experience, finely ground and without
the lumpy grog associated with fireclay
tiles.
[1] Catleugh reports de
Morgan painting on to transfer papers
page 142.
[2] Barnard reports de Morgan
transfers were painted in Italy on page
122.
