s William De Morgan Carnation Tiles, Made at Sands End Pottery, Fulham, c.1888-1897 - Hull Museums Collections

William De Morgan Carnation Tiles, Made at Sands End Pottery, Fulham, c.1888-1897

William De Morgan designed these tiles. He was a well known member of the Arts and Crafts movement, which looked to nature for inspiration. William used flower pictures on many of his tiles. He preferred flowers with a simple shape, like this carnation. He often used round or fan-shaped flowers to make patterns. William admired tiles made in Persia (modern day Iran) in the 1400s and 1500s. Like this tile, Persian tiles were decorated with flowers with swirling, curving leaves. Natural forms, especially flowers, were often used to decorate objects made in the Victorian age (1837-1901). Flowers were probably the most popular and frequently produced decoration for tiles. The carnation is a traditional Turkish and Persian flower. It was often used to decorate Islamic ‘Isnik’ tiles made in Persia. William De Morgan’s tiles were inspired by these designs. The picture on these tiles is hand painted using a method invented by De Morgan. However, it has not been painted directly onto the tiles. De Morgan’s workers used a ‘painted paper’ technique. The tile design was painted onto a thin piece of paper. This was done by tracing the outline of the design from a master drawing. The colours were painted in by referring to a coloured drawing or a completed tile. The painted piece of paper was then placed onto a tile covered with a thin layer of porcelain. The back of the paper was brushed with glaze. When the tile was fired, the fine paper was reduced to a film of ash that mingled with the glaze. The porcelain surface, painted decoration and glaze fused together. This made the painted design a permanent part of the tile. The painted paper technique allowed tiles to be decorated with precision, whilst giving the look of hand painting. De Morgan abandoned the usual approach to hand painting tiles. Traditionally, the outline of the design was applied to the tile through a piece of paper pricked with holes. The outline was filled in by painting directly onto the tile.