Tile

Item number 3401/16 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

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Data
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Description

Square ceramic tile painted white with light and dark blue designs overtop. Surface and sides are glazed. Central design of five white flowers inside of a dark blue circle. Eight grouping of leaves surround the circle, painted to look like they are growing out of it. Circle is inside of an eight-pointed star outline. Outline made of a light blue band with white dots inside it. In the spaces between the outline and the tile edges are floral and curvilinear motifs. Raised grid across entire back of tile, with smooth rectangle in middle. Inscription on back.

Iconographic Meaning

Design was likely influenced by Victorian taste for Persian and Turkish art. The registration mark on the backside dates the pattern between 1884 and 1885.

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.