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Two minute rim chips and two minute outline
chips, short light scratch on the background top
right otherwise surface is perfect. Slightly
imperfect glazing around the edge and it would seem
that glaze bubles have been filed off otherwise
really glossy and bright and great contrast with
the colours. • Style/technique: Arts & Crafts
majolica A most interesting majolica tile. Intriguing design, a stylised floral design
more arts & crafts than anything else, too
early for art nouveau though one can detect some
similar flow of the line all set within a very
geometric border. Quite high relief especially
the outline to the border, indented too so a
good range, must have been made after 1890 or
maybe just slightly before, the technology only
in the hands of a few companies at the date and
this not known to be by one of them. The design shows some adventure, some
characteristics of the works of Christopher
Dresser but you'd never know it by reading the
books about him. Of course he didn't design any
tiles but authors don't let that stand in the
way of a good story. The best books to learn
about Dresser's thoughts on design are those he
wrote himself which are available as reprints at
a fraction of the price of later books by
pottery dealers. Dresser's interest in designing
tiles is clearly shown in his books, there is no
mention of them. In 1894 Pilkingtons reintroduced the raised
outline technique to keep glazes separated and
it soon became widely adopted for multicolour
tiles although rather more sentitively done than
Pilkington's first efforts. The outline assisted
painters and to a great extent avoided the spill
of glazes as we see here the yellow runs in to
the background green and the red runs in to both
green and yellow. The techbnology used therefore
pretty much ties this down to 1890 - 1895. No idea of the manufacturer, removed from the
porchway of a terraced house in Swadlincote so
Mansfield were a local manufacturer and a
possible candidate, other tiles from the same
installation also without recognised marks. Versos perfectly clean, unmarked generic
bars. Some tiny chips/roughness to the outline and
rim, slightly imperfect glazing around the edge and
it would seem that glaze bubles have been filed
off. Perfect glossy and bright surface and great
contrast with the colours. Enamel loss at the corner motifs, no other
damage - very tiny edge chips are during
manufacture and glazed over. Perfectly clean, no
crazing and most brilliantly glazed. Some tiny chips/roughness to the outline and
rim, slightly imperfect glazing around the edge and
it would seem that glaze bubles have been filed
off. Perfect glossy and bright surface and great
contrast with the colours. The image is full size at 72 dpi (about 430
pixels wide) in maximum quality JPEG format and on
screen is about the size as it would be in real
life at the same distance. 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.
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