tile
- Museum number
- 1994,1003.12
- Description
-
Earthenware tile, solid buff body, covered with white slip and handpainted in blue and green with Persian-style flowers and leaves. Registration number on the reverse.
- Production date
- 1880 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 13 centimetres
-
Width: 13 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- A Dutch tile imported for sale at Thomas Elsley, London. This tile formed part of a design named 'Damascus Flower', which was specially commissioned by Murray Marks, a Dutch emigre retailer and collector living in London. For an illustration of Murray Marks seated in front of a fireplace with 'Damascus Flower' tiles, see R. and H. Myers, 'William Morris Tiles', Richard Dennis Publications, 1996, p. 138, fig. 236. The design was registered in 1885 by Charles Marks, who was probably Murray Marks's brother. For an illustration of similar tiles bearing the same registration number but different catalogue numbers, see see R. and H. Myers, 'William Morris Tiles', p. 139, fig. 235.
The design also appears as no. 101 in fig. 241, a tile catalogue issued by Elsley in c 1890, see R. and H. Myers, 'William Morris Tiles', p. 139. For a discussion of Thomas Elsley's import and retailing business, see Myers, pp. 138-141. See also Peter Sprangers, 'Utrechtse tegels 1600-1900', Utrecht 2013, p.130, for illustration of this pattern, made by the firm of Ravesteijn in Utrecht, from Elsley catalogue card 2, no.103, issued c. 1890 (presumably Elsley issued cards with different numbers at different dates).
Ravesteijn seems to have made a number of their own designs, as well as those approved by Morris. Morris's designs were copied by other Dutch firms such as J. van Hulst and Tjalingii in Harlingen, possibly without Morris's approval.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2019-2020 10 Oct - 26 Jan, London, BM, G35: "Inspired by the East: how the Islamic World influenced Western Art”
- Acquisition date
- 1994
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1994,1003.12
