Tile Item Number: 3470/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Square ceramic tile with floral motif painted on front. Surface and sides are glazed. Background is off-white. Plain yellow border along edges, next to thinner band with black dots throughout. Central design of an ornate vase full of flowers. Vase has a wide opening, rounded shoulder, tapering base and flared foot. It is off-white and decorated with yellow, black and purple-red bands full of linear, geometric and curvilinear motifs. Three large hibiscus flowers extend from the vase, towards the top of the tile, and the left and right sides. Flowers are white and dark purple-red, with yellow centres. Offshoots of leaves, berries and smaller flowers fill rest of space. Most are done with black stippling, with larger leaves painted green and dark purple-red near the top. Raised grid across entire back of tile. Handwritten inscriptions on back.
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 with the relief pattern at high pressure.