PLATE CXXVIII.
It seems probable that the manufacture of encaustic tiles may have originated in the endeavour to imitatethe Roman Mosaic pavements by means of coloured substances inlaid upon stone or marble. Of this work afew examples have escaped destruction, and may be seen on the eastern side of the altar-screen in Canter-bury Cathedral, and at the Abbey Church of St. Denis, and the Cathedral of St. Omer, in France . There area few specimens of pavements, both in England and France , which seem to form a transition from the marblemosaics to the tile pavements so universally employed during the middle ages. In these each tile is of asingle colour, but they are so combined as to form a polychromatic pavement in regular geometric designs.Such pavements existed at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire ;* also at Ely, where the tiles presented a great varietyof form and size; and although the patterns were principally formed by the outlines of the tiles, other lineswere sometimes impressed upon them to carry out the details of the design. The most elaborate exampleof such a pavement is that of the Prior’s Chapel, built by Prior Crauden, a.d. 1321-1341.f
Amongst the earliest specimens of ornamented glazed tiles may be mentioned those discovered in theruined Priory Church at Castleacre, Norfolk, some of which are preserved in the British Museum ; they arecoarsely executed, and the pattern which is impressed upon them is not filled up with any other colour.
The manufacture of encaustic tiles with more than one colour cannot probably be referred to a more
remote date than the beginning of the thirteenth century; and one of the earliest and most beautiful specimensof the art is that of the pavement in the Chapter House at Westminster.J We have sufficient authority forreferring this pavement to the date of the building itself, in an order of Henry III. , “quod Parvam capellam
apud Westm. tegula picta decenter paveari faceatis.Ӥ The process of the manufacture may be thus briefly
described; upon the quarry of red clay, partly hardened in the sun, the design was impressed by means of astamp cut in relief, and the cavities thus formed were usually filled up with a whitish clay, sometimes of sothin a consistency as when dry scarcely to fill up the hollows; the tile was then thoroughly dried and burntln a kiln, after which it was faced with a metallic glaze, which gave a yellow tint to the white clay, andimparted a richer colour to the red. Three ancient kilns have been discovered, which it is considered wereused for baking pavement tiles. The first was found near Great Malvern, || and probably supplied the tilesused at the rebuilding of that Abbey Church about the middle of the fifteenth century. Another kiln wasdiscovered near Droitwich, with a number of tiles in it identical with specimens existing at Worcester Cathedral ,and at Malvern. The site of the third kiln is in Staffordshire , near Great Saredon, adjoining the WatlingStreet. It would, however, appear that the manufacture of encaustic tiles was usually carried on in everyabbey or religious house whose lands contained the proper description of clay. This will in some measureaccount for the great variety of design which is to be met with; more than one hundred varieties existingat Malvern alone.
* Published in 1800, by William Fowler, of Winterton. - t Also engraved by Fowler.
t For parts of this pavement, see “Examples of Decorative Tiles,” &c., by John Gough Nichols, F.S.A., London , 184o, where also a gieatnumber of other beautiful specimens of art are engraved.
§ Rot. Claus. 22 Henry III . m. 19 (a.d. 1237-38).
|| A representation of this kiln, with a description by Harvey Eginton, Esq., may be seen in Dr. Card’s account of the church.