Sunflower tile

Details

Date: c.1867
Dimensions: 15 x 15
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C231
Designer: Holiday, Henry, 1839, 1927
Credit notes: Private donation, 2000

One of a series of six painted tiles by Henry Holiday illustrating Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. This scene accompanies the part of the story “She longs to become a mortal, and obtains from a witch a potion which will effect the change”. The decoration is painted in over glaze enamels on glazed blank tile by Minton, Hollins & Co. The original designs for these tiles are at Standen (National Trust), four tiles (inclusing this design) are also in the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Details

Date: c.1867
Dimensions: 7.6 x 9.6
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C223
Maker: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Richard and Hilary Myers, 1997

This design of alternating swans and leaf scroll motif is attributed to William Morris c.1862. The tiles were decorated in Morris & Co.’s workshops on an imported Dutch tin-glaze tile. Morris later transferred production to the Netherlands, those tiles are slightly larger and decorated using the more durable ‘in-glaze’ technique (see C191), as opposed to the hand painted ‘on-glaze’ technique of this earlier smaller tile. This example was from ‘The Orchard’ in Claygate, nr. Esher, the Surrey home of the writer’s William and Mary Howitt.

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