Tile

Wall tile. Minton, Hollins & Co.

The bird depicted is Sandpiper, a type of shorebird. Design may have been by John Windsor Bradburn, an in-house designer at Minton, Hollins & Co.

Tile was manufactured by dust-pressing, a technique that uses clay milled to a fine powder with low moisture content, then pressed in a die at high pressure. The design was transfer printed, a technique in which an image from an engraved plate is transferred to a tile, usually, requiring transfer paper to be run through a printing press with the engraved plate to pick up the ink, the design from the transfer paper could then be rubbed onto the tile.

Square ceramic tile painted black with light grey-blue designs overtop. Surface is glazed, sides partially glazed. Border on all sides with rectangles inside of it. Rectangles filled with diagonal lines. Small squares at the tile corners, inside of the border, with crosses in their middles. Central design of a sandpiper, standing on one leg, surrounded by reeds. Raised grid across entire back of tile. Manufacturer’s mark, Minton Hollins & Co., stamped inside grid, with each letter in its own square.