Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Offered in support of Art Fund
Lot 148
Four early English delftware paving tiles, end 16th or early 17th century
15 April 2025, 10:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £704 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Private & Iconic Collections and House Sales specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Fergus Gambon
Director
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
Four early English delftware paving tiles, end 16th or early 17th century
A pair of London tiles, possibly Aldgate Pothouse, painted in ochre, green and blue with a dancing bear standing in a roundel, the concentric frames banded in blue and manganese, the corners in blue with a trefoil leaf design, 13cm wide, together with a Southwark tile in colours with a quarter 'Tudor Rose' and strapwork and a 'Renaissance' design tile in blue, possibly a kiln waster (4)
Footnotes
Provenance
Graham Slater Collection
A label on the back of one animal tile states that it was removed from a house in Canterbury in 1938.
Excavations have shown that this early tile design with different animal subjects was popular in London. Kiln wasters from Pickleherring and Aldgate and fragments recovered from buildings in London are generally crude and much inferior to their Dutch counterparts. The painted corners on the present pair are unusual, and match an example in the Museum of London recovered from Spitalfields Market. This is illustrated by Betts and Weinstein, Tin-Glazed Tiles From London (2010), p.101, fig.55. See also fig.43 for a fragment with a bear-baiting scene found on the site of the City Ditch, very close to the Aldgate Pothouse.
The Tudor Rose tile was excavated by Nigel Mills in 1986 near the Tower of London. This appears to be the most popular tile design made at Southwark, and other examples have been excavated in London from buildings that pre-date the Great Fire. The blue and white Renaissance design tile was formerly in the Louis Lipski Collection and was a gift to Graham Slater from Jonathan Horne. It is similar to tiles recovered by Ivor Noel Hume on the Old Hays Wharf site.