WALL AND FLOOR TILES.
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2. "Armorial bearings of the sovereign or individuals connected with the monastery by benefactions or otherwise; personal devices or mottoes.
3. " Ornaments conformable to the style of architecture or character of decoration prevalent at the period, but devoid of any special import.”
Some of the emblematic figures, of which examples charac teristic of these old ecclesiastical tiles are here given, consist of lions, dragons, and adders, and have been supposed to have reference to the text, " Thou slialt go upon the lion and the adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet.”
The tiles of the earlier manufacture generally measure five inches square, and the later, six inches. Some have been found nine inches square and two and a quarter inches thick. A specimen in the writer’s collection, probably from the Malvern kilns, is a little over five inches square and three- quarters of an inch thick.
The material is ordinary coarse red clay, such as is used for making brick, and the design appears to be formed by a lighter colored clay filling incisions or impressions in the surface, and subsequently glazed. The design is supposed to have been impressed by a stamp while the clay was still moist, and the depression so formed was filled by the lighter clay in the condition of thin paste, for the cavities are frequently seen to be but partially filled.
Prosser’s Method.
But tiles are no longer made in Great Britain in this manner. Prosser’s method, patented some thirty or forty years ago, and perfected by Mr. Minton, marks a new era in tile manufacture, and has contributed greatly to the advance of this branch of artistic decoration. It consists chiefly in the use of powdered clay, instead of the wet, plastic mass. The paste being duly compounded of the proper clays and silex, and strained through cloth, is dried and then ground to powder. This powder, when slightly damp, is pressed*in steel moulds by a powerful screw. The size and form of the moulds determine the size and