•
Style: Arts & crafts
• Technique: Lustre
• Designer: Lewis Foreman Day
• Maker: Maw & Co
•
Dimensions: 6" x
6"
• Date: 1895
(circa)
A fabulous pair of stylised lionesses almost
in the heraldic pose with an especially
aggressively coutenance in two shades of copper
lustre. The heraldic Lion Rampant Regardant
symbolises deathless courage and I sure would
not like to meet these beasts for they make the
Hound of the Baskerville's look timid! One of a
series of six designs each painted in left and
right versions, they are elusive and sought
after, a somewhat inferior example from the
series achieved
£588 at Christies in 2002.
Illustrated in Barnard (plate 54) and another
tile from the group is shown in Austwick on page
98, four including this are shown on page 181 of
Lewis Foreman Day, by Joan Maria Hansen. In a
rich ruby red lustre, John Catleugh makes an
interesting comment about lustre colours in his
book about de Morgan tiles.
Day rarely included animals in his designs
thinking them too bold to be used in general
decoration just in features as this design
clearly is. Day's work is
mostly that of wallcoverings and fabrics and
designed to create a pleasing environment rather
than make a bold statement although he sure
could when he wanted to.
Maw & Co together
with their near neighbours Craven Dunnill and
the Welsh company J C Edwards* produced the best
quality lustre tiles in the more usual copper
(red) and silver (gold). The process relying on
a reaction between the atmosphere in the kiln
and the painted stain results in a brilliant
metallic sheen that is literally on the very
surface and hence is often subject to marks like
scratches and wears. The difficulty and
unpredictability of the process also means that
rather more less than perfect lustre tiles were
acceptable. They were vastly more expensive than
tiles decorated by other techniques, up to eight
times more expensive than other handpainted
tiles of the day.
Despite the quality of
lustre tiles in both design and execution by the
Jackfield companies those by William de Morgan
achieve higher prices for lesser items, if these
were de Morgan they would be 2 - 4 times the
price.
Copper lustre is
so-called because the element that makes the
colour is copper, the effect however is of
brilliant red and lustre was the only way to
achieve this colour in the 19thC.
Maw & Co were the greatest of all the
Victorian tile makers, not only mass producers,
the largest company in the world for a decade or
more, but also producing fine artistic works of
such quality not normally associated with large
companies. Not only did their mass production
techniques exceed the quality of all the better
known names such as Mintons and Pilkington but
they also used more techniques than any other
company. In the 19thC there are just a few small
niches in which other companies surpassed Maws
excellence, de Morgan in exotic seascapes
especially panels, for a time W B Simpson with
their brilliant underglaze colours (they were
London agents for Maw & Co), Mintons Ltd in
Reynolds Patent multicolour printing, Marsden
for stencilled slip and Sherwin & Cotton for
their émaux ombrants (mostly 20thC
really). No tile printer was as good at fine
printing, or glazing, or moulding, or as
versatile, Maw & Co. produced more patterns
than all the Minton companies combined, it was
only when art nouveau came along in the
twentieth century and George and Arthur were no
longer involved that the company lost its
preeminence.
Versos perfectly clean
embossed Maw & Co Ld England.
They were bought
together from an original fireplace although
amazingly good condition for fireplace tiles, it
is nice to see them as a pair as they don't
often come along paired but we may consider
splitting.
Condition: Near perfect
Price: £1450 (approx $1876)
Ref: 05901A/B
