Mediæval Tiles.
TILE FROM CHAPTER HOUSE, WESTMINSTER.
Probably of the reign of Henry III. (Thirteenth century).
TILE FROM VERULAM ABBEY.
Bearing arms and initials of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510–1579).
(By the courtesy of Mr. F. W. Phillips, Hitchin.)
TILE FROM MALVERN ABBEY.
(English, fifteenth century.)
TILE FROM WHITMORE PARK, NEAR COVENTRY.
(Early fourteenth century.)
So here, then, is a subject ready to hand for the collector willing to specialise in a branch of ceramic study and collecting not greatly inquired into, and the way has already been pointed out by experts. There is every reason why these ecclesiastical tiles should be studied with as much assiduity as are the Bristol delft painted tiles and those of Liverpool.
Slip Ware.—This ware is peculiarly English and owes little or nothing to any foreign influences, as no ware like it has ever been made on the Continent. White or light-coloured clay was used in the form of "slip," that is, a mixture of water and clay of such consistency as to be dropped in fanciful pattern upon the darker body of the ware much in the same manner as the confectioner ornaments his wedding-cakes with sugar. Candlesticks, cups, tygs (drinking vessels having several handles for use in passing round), posset-pots, jugs, besides the large ornamental dated dishes by Toft and others were all made of this slip-decorated ware.
Wrotham, in Kent, claims superiority in the manufacture of this ware, of which many pieces exist. The earliest Wrotham specimen is dated 1656 (Maidstone Museum). There are other dated pieces, one as early as 1621, of red clay with more elaborate slip decoration than is found in Staffordshire and elsewhere, and in some cases with fine incised decoration cut through the white dip and exposing the red body beneath. But considerable doubt exists as to whether to ascribe some of this slip ware to Kent or to Staffordshire. It is probable that it was made at many other places, certainly in Derbyshire, in Wales, and in London. As some undoubted Wrotham pieces betray a slightly advanced type of decoration although prior in date to other pieces made elsewhere, it has been fairly conjectured that the style originated in Kent, and was brought thither by some foreign refugees from the Continent. But as it became practised more generally in England it assumed a national character entirely its own, and took to itself a quaint humour racy of the soil.
