A design so typical of the times that it has
a story to tell. It is actually the first
registered design of its type, a type that has
become so familiar that the concept that there
was a first that set it all of is almost
perverse, yet here it is. A botanical design set
within a geometric pattern border. There are so
many other so similar but not quite, W B Simpson
designs with line or band borders, John Bradburn
designs for Minton Hollins, some designs by
Booths.
Then The Decorative Art Tile Co produced a
design and Sherwin & Cotton sued for
infringement of its design registration and it
does seem tenuous but my understanding of the
judgement as far as I am able having only read a
press report not the judgment itself is that the
case was decided in favour of Sherwins depite
the judge acknowledging the designs in dispute
were not very similar. All rather strange.
So Sherwin & Cotton 'got away with it',
maybe they persuaded a few other tile makers to
abandon designs that were similar, then a few
years later Sherwin & Cotton attempted to
registered a number of designs and they were
refused. Again these could be construed as an
attempt to register the format rather than the
design, perhaps one could say in the manner that
companies registered borders and used them for
different centres. Anyway the designs were
refused which seems to have led the company to
give up with the system for it did not attempt
to register any more designs.
This design is one of the most popular of its
type and indeed of all types, perhaps the second
most popular standalone floral tile design it
being complete in iteself without any overlap on
to adjoining tiles as part of a repeat. Most
extraordinary that it achieved this whilst being
made on green clay, I presume the colour being
called sage. Nothing else comes close in terms
of popularity of coloured clay wall tiles and it
is incredibly rare on ordinary whte clay.
One final distinguishing feature of this
particular tile is that it is thin, a little
thinner than a standard tile where the majority
of this design are actually a little thicker
than standard. So I have seen a lot of this
design on tile, certainly hundreds and it is the
only one quite like it.
Now that's all rather collectobabble, nuances
of little import in the grand scheme of things,
and it may well end up as one of many fixed to a
wall, but it is, in my experience, a unique
tile.
Verso near perfectly clean, Sherwin's
Staffordshire knot mark, printed pattern and
registration numbers.
