Page [482]

 
DELFTWA RE Other Tiles, Plaques, 
               and a Wall Niche 
D428, D429, D430. TILES 
Liverpool 
1756-1765 
(Each) L.: 5 1/16"-5 1/8" (12.8 cm-13 cm); 
W.: 5 1/16"-' 1/8"(12.8 cm-13 cm) 
BODY CLAY: (D428, D429) Fine- 
grained pale buff. (D430) Medium- 
grained buff with inclusions, 
TIN GLAZE: Slightly bluish white. 
Sides and reverses unglazed. 
SHAPE: (Each) Shaped in tile frame. 
([D428, D429] Modern wooden frames.) 
DECORATION: Painted. Pastoral 
scenes (some duplicated) with figures 
and, in some cases, distant ships. 
mages appearing on the few surviving sheets from a drawing book published
by John Bowles and Son on November 24, 1756, at the Black Horse in Cornhill
(London) indicate that the book was an important source of English delftware
decoration. (The artist and engraver of the book's illustrations are now
unknown.) 
Tiles B1, C2, D3, and E2, for examples, all show versions of scenes in the
book., 
Other book illustrations or published prints also appear to have inspired
relat- 
ed scenes on delftware. 
   Some Liverpool delftware tiles made by John Sadler bear transfer-printed
ver- 
sions of the painted designs seen here on the single tile (no. D430) and
on E2 and 
G2 in set D429.1 The single tile (no. D430), like A2, D2, El, and ttl, depicts
"The 
Bird's Nest," which appears in a print after Boucher on page 17 in a
Drawing Book 
published by John Bowles on July 2, 1757. (The same design appears in printed
form on Worcester porcelain.)' The single tile differs enough in painting
style 
from those in the sets to indicate that they are from different factories.
The 
reuse of designs also is illustrated by the fisherman scene on tiles Al and
F2 that 
occurs in reverse within at least two different types of elaborate frames
on blue 
and white Liverpool tiles.' 
   The G2 scene, depicting a couple standing by a fence, appears printed
on a 
Bow bowl and in reverse as a vignette in the songbook Clio and Euterpe, or
British 
Harmony, published by engraver James Roberts in 1758.7 A virtually identical
scene, referred to as the "Milkmaid at the Gate," shows a milk
pail rather than 
a hat on the woman's head and is printed on Worcester porcelain." 
   One tea canister (no. D337) in the Longridge collection displays "Fazackerley-
type" flowers and depicts (with slight differences in details) the scene
shown 
here on tiles A2, D1, and El. The second side of the canister portrays a
woman 
who conceivably derives from the group shown here on the single tile (no.
D430) 
and on A2, D2, El, and H1. Alternatively, it may be after a woman from a
differ- 
ent group that is depicted on some printed tiles! The tiles in this entry,
like the 
tea canister, can be attributed to Liverpool and were made during the period
1755 to 1775. As is true of the sets of bird tiles in entry number D426,
the sets 
shown here once formed part of a fireplace, in this case in a house in Shilton,
Coventry." 
1. Archer comments (1998), from which much 
infiormation in this entry are derived; Archer, 
V&A, p. 37. No complete copy of the publication 
seems to have survived. For details from the sur- 
viving Bowles sheets, see Ray, Liverpool Printed 
Tiles, figs. 1, 9-11, 13, 14a&b; Toppin, Ceramic 
Designs, pl. 97; Ray, Tiles, pl. 22, figs. 43, 45. For 
a differently detailed version of the Longridge BI 
land Gl) tile, see Ray, Tiles, no. 216. 
2. See Ray, Liverpool Printed Tiles, nos. B3 2, 
C2 1, 15-13, and fig. 14b (Archer comments 
119981); Ray, Tiles, nos. 632. 
3. Mr. Archer states that he is indebted to Nor- 
man Stretton for this reference and that a very 
similar print was produced by Robert Hancock 
(Cook, Hancock, item 12, depicting a c. 1765 
Worcester mug with the scene). For other 
Worcester, see Handley, Collection, no. 2.39. For 
a tile very much like Longridge no. D430, see 
Ray, Tiles, no. 222. 
4. Archer, V&A, no. N.148; Austin, Delft, 
nos. 677 678; Ray, Tiles, nos. 206-207; nos. 220, 
217, for other versions of Longridge tiles D.3 and 
C2, H3. 
5. Archer comments (1998), citing Toppin, 
Ceramic Designs, p. 269, pls. 93d&e (bowl detail 
and published vignette), and Cook, Hancock, 
item 72, fig. 2. 
6. Handley, Collection, nos. 2.11, 2.22. 
7. For versions ofthe single woman on Liverpool 
tiles, see Ray, Tiles, no. 185; Archer, V&A, 
nos. N.144, N.145. For the alternative woman on 
a printed tile, see Ray, Tiles, no. 625. 
8. Ray, Tiles, nos. 215-223. 
9. Horne comments (January 1999).