Tile mosaic designed by A.W.N.
Pugin
Made by Minton & Co., Stoke-on-Trent,
England, AD 1845
From the floor of St George's
Cathedral, Southwark
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52), the
celebrated architect and designer, was a prominent figure in the
revival of Gothic and medieval styles, creating a strong influence
on Victorian taste. He published widely, and produced designs for
furniture, metalwork, textiles and ceramics, often intended to be
used in the buildings he designed. His designs for St
George's Cathedral are dated to 1840, a few years after he
was responsible for the interiors of the Palace of Westminster,
which was also fitted with colourful inlaid floor
tiles.
The inlaid technique
(also misleadingly known as 'encaustic') can be
traced back to the Middle Ages: a design is impressed into a clay
blank and then filled with liquid clay (slip) of another colour.
The colour scheme was usually buff and red.
Pugin worked in
collaboration with the Minton factory to successfully revive the
inlaid technique, introducing such new colours as blue, white and
green. The motifs are taken from medieval sources but Pugin
achieved remarkable originality in his clear designs. In the case
of 'sandwich' tiles such as these, a layer of
coarse clay is sandwiched between two layers of much finer clay,
then used as the blank. This method reduced shrinkage in the
firing, and was more economical.
P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright (eds), Pugin: a Gothic passion (New Haven and London, 1994)
K. Beulah, Church tiles of the nineteenth (Shire Publications, 1987)
J. Jones, Minton: the first two hundred (Shrewsbury, Swan Hill Press, 1993)