DECORATIVE PAVEMENT TILES FROM CAEN.
(Vol. viii., p. 493.)
The tiles presented, in 1786, to Mr. Charles Chadwick, of Mavesyn-Ridware, Staffordshire, are preserved in the church at that place. They form two tablets affixed to the wall in the remarkable sepulchral chapel arranged and decorated, at a great cost, by the directions of that gentleman towards the close of the last century, when the greater portion of the church was rebuilt. The north chapel, or aisle, containing the tombs of the Mavesyns and the Ridwares, the ancient lords of the estates which descended to Mr. Chadwick, was preserved; and here are to be seen two cross-legged effigies, a curious incised portraiture on an altar-tomb, representing Sir Robert Mavesyn, 1403, with other incised slabs and interesting memorials; to which were added, by Mr. Chadwick, a series of large incised figures, which surround the chapel. These last are not shown in the view given in Shaw's History of Staffordshire, vol. ii. p. 191., having been executed since the publication of that work; and it is stated that they were engraved by the parish clerk under Mr. Chadwick's direction, being intended to pourtray the successive lords of the place from the Norman times to the sixteenth century, each in the costume of his period. There are also numerous atchievements and other decorations attached to the walls; amongst these are the pavement tiles from Caen, one of which bore the same arms as are assigned to the family of Malvoisin-Rosny, and on that account probably Mr. Chadwick placed these relics from Normandy amongst the enrichments of his mausoleum.
In regard to Mr. Boase's first inquiry, "Who was Charles Chadwick, Esq.?" it may suffice to cite the detailed account of the family given by Shaw, and the short notice of that gentleman which will be found in the History of Staffordshire, vol. ii. p. 185.
On a visit to Mavesyn-Ridware in 1839, I was struck with the appearance of these tiles; their design and fashion at once recalled those from Caen with which I had been familiar in Normandy. Having ascertained their origin, I took occasion to state the fact of their preservation at this church in the "Notes on Decorative Tiles," communicated to Mr. Parker by me, and given in the fourth edition of his useful Glossary of Architecture, in 1845: see p. 367.
It should be observed that the number of tiles composing the two tablets now to be seen is forty; whilst the number, as stated Gent. Mag., vol. lix. part i. p. 211., and in a second letter from Mr. Barrett, in vol. lx. part ii. p. 710., not cited by Mr. Boase in his Query, is twenty. Mr. Boase is probably aware that the sixteen tiles from the Great Guard Chamber at Caen, which supplied the subject of Mr. J. Major Henniker's memoir, were presented by him to the Society of Antiquaries of London, and are now in their museum, as noticed in the catalogue, compiled by myself, p. 30.
A coloured drawing of an heraldic pavement at Caen, taken about 1700, is preserved in a volume of the great collection formed by M. de Gaignieres, and bequeathed by Gough to the Bodleian Library. It comprises chiefly drawings of French sepulchral monuments, arranged by localities; and there is one volume, entitled Recueil de Tapisseries, d'Armoiries et de Devises, in which may be found the interesting memorial of this decorative pavement of tiles, which was destroyed during the fury of the Revolution.
Albert Way.
Charles Chadwick, Esq., of Healy Hall, Lancashire, and Mavesyn-Ridware, in the county of Stafford, to whom the monks of St. Stephen, at Caen, presented, in the year 1786, a series of encaustic tiles with heraldic devices taken from the floor of the (so called) "Great Guard Chamber of the Palace of the Dukes of Normandy," died in 1829. I infer that the tiles were brought to the Lancashire residence of Mr. Chadwick because the description and the drawing for the engraving were both supplied to the Gentleman's Magazine by a Lancashire antiquary, Thomas Barnett, of Hydes Cross, Manchester: but as the descendants of Mr. Chadwick no longer reside in Lancashire, the hall being occupied by a woollen manufacturer, I have been unable to obtain any information respecting the tiles, though long desirous to do so.
I direct attention to another series of the same tiles, sixteen in number, which were presented to the Society of Antiquaries through the president, the Earl of Leicester, in 1788, by John Henniker, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., S.A., and M.P., who afterwards took the additional name of Major. This gentleman received the tiles from his brother, Captain Henniker, then resident at Caen; and in 1794 he published an interesting account of them with engravings, entitled Two Letters on the Origin, Antiquity, and History of Norman Tiles stained with Armorial Bearings (London, John Bell, Strand). The engravings both in this volume and in the Gentleman's Magazine are indifferently executed, and too small in scale to be of use. Mr. Henniker describes the colours of his tiles to be "yellow and brown," while Mr. Barnett states that the tiles in Mr. Chadwick's possession were "light grey and black;" a curious discrepancy, seeing that in all other respects they were exactly similar. These tiles are of so much heraldic and antiquarian interest that if either set could be made available for the purpose, it is very desirable that they be engraved of full size, and printed by the modern easy process to imitate the colours.