tiles

In the years since leaving UD and migrating across the pond, I have developed something of a new hobby. This mainly came about because of new friends, who introduced me to old english tiles, and that was that.

My favorite tiles are the ones created by both carving into the tile and creating relief protrusions on the tile. This creates the 3D effect you can see in a lot of the tiles above.

My favorite tile makers are Sherwin & Cotton and Pilkington. You can tell the maker and the date the tile was made by looking at the back of a tile. Each manufacturer had their own 'backs', and changed their back every couple of years, which now makes identifying them a lot easier, though still tricky as you have to look for tiny clues to their origin.

For example, the bird tile was made by Sherwin & Cotton between 1890 and 1902.

Large double-tiles, like the one on the far left, are much more difficult to come by and usually have a price to equal it's rarity. I have seen a few in antique shops on Portobello that run between £800- £1200 EACH. This one is a Minton tile of 'Fountain Abbey'.

Sadly, by the 1930s, the old English tile makers found that the process was both too expensive and posed health problems, and ultimately, with the Japanese beginning to make tiles in the 1920s, they found themselves in stiff competition.

So now we are left with what poses for 'tiles' today.