Tile Item Number: 3401/30 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Square ceramic tile painted white with blue designs overtop. All sides are glazed. Central design of a man and a woman in a field, under a cloudy sky, with trees in the background. The male figure is standing, holding a staff in his left hand and a bunch of grass(?) in his right. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, necktie and long coat. The woman is sitting on the ground, pointing at the man with her right hand and holding a bunch of grass(?) in her left. She is wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a ribbon around it, a short-sleeved white over dress and dark blue long-sleeved under dress. “June” is painted in the bottom right hand corner. Seven horizontal ridges on back of tile. Inscriptions on back.

Cultural Context

Wall tile.

Iconographic Meaning

The tile is part of a 'month series' run, designed by Helen J.A. Miles. This one represents the month of June.

Specific Techniques

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.