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Tiny chip bottom edge, a couple of very tiny
chips and slight roughness to the tip of the edge
in places. Surface is flawless and brilliantly
glazed. • Style/technique: Pictorial Print An early picture series from Mintons
introduced around 1872, rather more adventurous
than most of their series, not often found and
here in an excellent blue and most brilliantly
glazed. The Spirits of the Flowers series
features twelve subjects, this being
Foxglove. The series is widely attributed to Moyr Smith
but this is questioned by the author of a book
on his works Annamarie Stapleton who says there
is no evidence that Smith did these but there is
evidence for C O Murray who was a colleague of
Smith's. The book includes two pictures on page
47 of stained glass panels designed by Moyr
Smith and a series of nursery rhymes that he
designed for W B Simpson which are very similar
in style to the Spirits of the Flowers and Water
Nymphs tile series. John Moyr Smith was an adaptable artist
perhaps most famous at the time for his works
that appeared in such publications as the
satirical magazine Punch. I certainly believe it
feasible perhaps likely that he adapted his
style to suit the subject matter the classical
style being most appropriate to literature and
classical subjects such as Shakespeare and the
Musicians and a more irreverant style for the
humorous nursery rhymes and other light hearted
subject matter. I think it matters little who designed the
tiles, having myself collected art nouveau tiles
many of which the manufacturer was unknown let
alone the designer, beauty is in the eye of the
beholder and should not be constrained by the
perceived wisdom of who is a great artist and
who is not for often those perceived as great
artists were really just great at marketing and
adopted the artistic visions of
others! *Pattern number 1347 is for the series in
light blue, Mintons usually applied different
pattern numbers to different standard
colourways. Verso very clean with Mintons name and
badge. The image is full size at 72 dpi (about 430
pixels wide) in maximum quality JPEG format, 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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