STOVE IN THE MEDLEYAL STYLE.

stoves and other fictile ware; and it is not unlikely that the Dutch tiles, with blue figures, which were soextensively used during the last century, were originally manufactured in these towns.

It was not until the middle of the sixteenth century that the art of applying to pottery a white stanniferousglaze became generally known in Europe; although it was certainly in possession of the Arabs in the thirteenthcentury, and had been re-discovered in the fifteenth by the labours of the celebrated Luca della Robbia . Ithas, however, been supposed that the secret was known to the Arabs as early as the ninth century; and itis still a disputed point whether they were the inventors or had received the art from some of their moreeastern neighbours. They certainly brought it with them into the countries they conquered and colonisedin their great westward movement, and to this day the walls of their monuments at Cadiz , Cordova, andSeville , glow with the imperishable colours of the “Azuleijos;” a species of tile, manufactured in no verydissimilar manner from those which form the materials of the “ Mediseval Stove.” The chief peculiarity consistsin the pattern being raised, and after the whole surface had been covered with the white stanniferous glaze,the interstices between the raised parts were partly filled with variously-coloured enamels; these were, however,so thin that the pattern retained nearly all its original prominence. It is not exactly known whether thetile had to be passed several times through the kiln, or whether one or two firings were sufficient. The

Azuleijos were highly esteemed by the Arab architects, as forming a durable facing for the internal walls,

where the coloured plaster-work could not be employed without great risk of getting disfigured. In this positionthey play an important role among the decorations of the Alhambra ; and some few of them even found theirway to our own country* at a time when we might imagine that there would have been but little commercein such articles between Spain and the West of England.

When the opaque stanniferous glaze became better known, many attempts were made to apply it to the

manufacture of tiles; some of these productions may be seen in the Museum of the Hotel de Cluny at Paris ,

and present simply an incised pattern, like those of the eleventh and twelfth centuries: others, however, havefinely-drawn heads in circles, and other ornaments of the Renaissance style, most of which are executed in ablue colour upon the white ground. They deserve attention as the prototypes of the common Dutch tiles,concerning which we may hazard the remark, that had they been executed in the thirteenth or fourteenthcenturies, in Italian ateliers, instead of in the seventeenth and eighteenth, they would have formed a class ofart-manufactures worthy to be placed with those of Etruria and Faenza , instead of, in many cases, provokingour ridicule by the awkward drawing of the figures and ornaments.

White tiles, presenting various painted patterns in bright colours, may occasionally be found in Italy and Belgium , but they are exceedingly rare, and, as objects of antiquity, command high prices. Of lateyears, many of the French and German stoves have their tiles enriched with the most charming arabesques,often copied from the works of Raphael and Giulio Romano . In our own country, Mr. Minton and othermanufacturers have lately produced paipted tiles of great excellence, the principal application of which hasbeen to line the cheeks of fireplaces; and the object now illustrated shows how they may be further usedto add to the utility and improve the appearance of our stoves, which are at present too often only unsightlyencumbrances.

* In the Mayor’s Chapel at Bristol.