Pictures & Portraits
 
Pictorial series
Portraits
Landscapes and Views
Animals, Birds, Fish, Food and Fruit
 

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Please click on an image for a larger view, details and pricing information, pages will open in a new window.

We may have more of a particular pattern/series than shown as it is not always possible to list all together. Please ask if you require several matching tiles, more than 4 or 5 in very good or better condition is unusual.
For order, contact and other information please use the links at the top or bottom of the page.

Click the thumbnail image for a larger picture and description

 

For larger groups
see the
pairs,
fireplace sets and
panels & groups
pages

For larger groups
see the
pairs,
fireplace sets and
panels & groups
pages
For larger groups
see the
pairs,
fireplace sets and
panels & groups
pages
For larger groups
see the
pairs,
fireplace sets and
panels & groups
pages


 

Information
Tiles For Sale
Contacts
Order Information

 

About Pictures & Portrait Tiles

The most popular subjects for picture series are taken from literature, Shakespeare's plays, Aesop's fables, nursery rhymes, novels and poems. The calendar; seasons, months and times of the day feature strongly as do musicians and sporting scenes. Many of the earlier designs are inspired by the past, medieval and greco-roman styles abound. Oriental landscapes were popular early on, in the1880s british landscapes became more popular often featuring scenes from an idyllic rural life, sporting scenes that most often represent the country sports of hunting and fishing, later still architectural themes became more prevalent featuring pictures of some of Britains great historiuc buildings. Some of the sporting series exhibit somewhat of a sense of humour but Moyr Smith's series from folklore like Elfins and Water Nymphs are the most irreverant. Most major companies did a series of farm animals, birds weren't so popular as printed series but feature strongly in hand painted tiles, there are quite a few with butterflies and insects on them too.

Majolica pictures tend to be more figural than landscapes the latter perhaps being too detailed for a good representation in the process, many majolica pictures are portraits of famous personalities of the times. Pictorial tiles had faded in popularity by 1900, at least few new designs were commissioned, sales could have relied on back catalogues. Along with majolica colour had become more important and making detailed, especially figural, colour majolica tiles was very difficult as it was more problematic to keep the glazes colours from bleeding than with painting stains. Majolica pictorial tiles were overwhelmingly single colour as indeed had been printed picture tiles but in the heyday of the picture tile, 1870 to 1890, the range of underglaze colours was limited anyway by the technology available. Some designs cried out to be coloured, the few William Wise landscape tiles that are seen coloured are a real joy, it's a wonder that more were not made although Mintons China Works did very few handcoloured prints of any genre preferring to concetrate on their printing expertise.

In the Edwardian era coloured rural scenes tiles were made, both handpainted and hand coloured prints, often in bright colours and at times naive they are cheerful and charming. To some extent Dutch subjects and scenes became fashionable again, both landscapes and figural, featuring windmills and canals and the inevitable clogs.

 

 

 

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