Fig. 694.
Messrs. Maw have from the first laid themselves out for applying the very highest art and architectural talents to their manufactures, and, in 1856, commissioned Mr. M. D. Wyatt to design a series of patterns of geometrical mosaic, which were issued as a small lithographed volume of fourteen pages. This little book, which first established their reputation as art manufacturers, was subsequently superseded by a much larger volume, published in 1867, including the designs of Digby Wyatt, George Goldie, J. P. Seddon, George E. Street, J. Burgess, and others, as well as the reproduction of all the best obtainable examples of ancient tiles, geometrical, and Roman mosaic, majolica, &c.
Fig. 695.
In 1851 Messrs. Maw began the manufacture of plain tiles, geometrical mosaic, and the ordinary encaustic tiles of two colours, to which their productions were for several years limited: but since 1857 their progress has been marked by the continual grafting on of specialities, the yearly production of new colours, and new phases of ceramic art applied to tiles. In 1861 they commenced the manufacture of very small tesseræ for the formation of pictorial mosaics, and produced for the Exhibition of 1862 their well-known mosaic of “The Seasons,” here engraved (Fig. [695]), and which is now in the South Kensington Museum, from a design expressly made for them by Digby Wyatt. The result was so successful that Mr. Wyatt commissioned Messrs. Maw to execute a mosaic frieze for the inner quadrangle of the New India Office.
The production of coloured enamels for the surface decoration of majolica tiles next occupied their attention, and after years of experimenting, all the colours employed in the ancient tiles of Spain or Italy were successfully reproduced, as well as others which were unknown to the mediæval and Moorish manufacturers.
A stone chimney-piece, enriched with tiles executed for the International Exhibition of 1862, was their first attempt in the application of enamels and majolica in architectural work. Shortly afterwards the successful decoration of ceilings was carried out in the corridors of the India Office. And now the production of majolica tiles and enamelled terra cotta for all kinds of internal and external decoration forms an important branch of Messrs. Maw’s manufacture. Among the more important of their works in enamelled terra cotta may be mentioned the beautiful staircase executed for Sir D. Majoribanks, a portion of which was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1871, and the chimney-pieces manufactured for the board-room of the South Kensington Museum, and the Museum of Science and Art, at Edinburgh. Messrs. Maw were the first in this country to produce the transparent celeste, or turquoise blue, employed in ancient Chinese enamels, specimens of which were exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1867.
Among their more recent productions may be mentioned tesseræ for mosaic work, decorated with rich enamels; embossed tiles; “sgrafito,” a ware the decoration of which is produced by the cutting away of superimposed layers of different coloured clays, after the fashion of cameo carving; “slip painting,” the production of a pattern by the painting of liquid clay on a ground of another colour, and the whole glazed over, after the first burning, with transparent coloured enamels; “pâte sur pâte,” tiles in which the design in high relief is superimposed on a ground of a different colour; mixed coloured glasses and enamels for the decoration of pottery, by which the most subtle and brilliant effects are produced; terra cotta and Parian plant-markers, forming an economical and indestructible substitute for the old wooden and iron name tallies. On these the names of trees and shrubs are written in a permanent black enamel and burnt in.
The special processes employed by Messrs. Maw have been made the subject of a number of patents, among which may be mentioned their mill machinery, used in the preparation of clay for the manufacture of tiles by Prosser’s process; the steam blunger, by which the rough clay is levigated, sifted, and refined ready for drying on the slip-kilns, without the intervention of manual labour; the manufacture of encaustic tiles out of pulverised nearly dry clay, and their patent press worked by steam power for the pressing of tiles, which is the only successful application of steam power to screw presses which has yet been attained.
The geometric and tesselated pavements produced by Messrs. Maw are of the most elegant, elaborate, and beautiful character, and the tesseræ and tiles of which they are composed are made with the utmost mechanical accuracy, and of the finest quality both in body, in colours, and in glaze. The patterns they have prepared are of exquisite beauty and of endless variety, and suitable for every possible purpose both for public and private buildings.