Tile

Item number 3401/7 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by MOA: University of British Columbia. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

Description

Square ceramic tile with floral motif painted on front. Surface and sides are glazed. Background is off-white. Orange-brown border around edges with repeating pattern of diamonds with dots inside them. Squares in the border, at the four corners, with triangles and dots inside of them. Central design of two large light blue flowers with a light green leaf behind them. Small groupings of off-white and red-pink flowers surrounding the blue flowers. Six vertical ridges on back of tile. Inscription on back.

Iconographic Meaning

The blue flower depicted is Nymphaea caerulea also known as a blue lotus. This is a significant flower in ancient Egypt, symbolizing a divine source of life.

Specific Techniques

Tile was manufactured by dust-pressing, a technique that uses clay milled to a fine powder with low moisture content, which is 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. The colour was painted in by hand.