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Tile panel with red lustre galleon: C.236-2015

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Tile panel with red lustre galleon

Maker(s)

William De Morgan & Co.

Entities

Categories

Description

Dark earthenware tiles, slip coated, glazed and decorated with red and gold lustre.

Panel of three tiles arranged horizontally and decorated with a single image in red lustre, highlighted in gold lustre. A large galleon, with two large sails and a small square foresail and an eagle figurehead carries a crowned figure with sceptre, musicians, sailors, spear carriers and a monkey. Three flags stream fly from its decks. Below, on the waves are three fish and another swims behind. In front a large sun with sleepy face sinks into the sea. The tiles are mounted in a dark wood frame.

Notes

History note: Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor, St Andrew’s, Fife; Sir Ivor died on 24 April 2005

Legal notes

Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor Bequest

Place(s) associated

  • Fulham ⪼ London ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2015-04-27) by Batchelor, Ivor, Sir and Lady

Dating

19th Century, Late#
Circa 1888 - Circa 1898

Note

William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917), now widely regarded as the most important ceramicist of the Arts & Crafts movement, also worked in stained glass and became a successful novelist. The son of a non-conformist mathematics professor, he became a close friend of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones and, in 1887, married the Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn Pickering (1855-1919). As a ceramicist, De Morgan was primarily a designer/decorator and chemist, working on bought-in blanks or pots thrown to his design. He experimented widely with techniques and glazes, re-discovering methods for making and applying lustres and the colours of Iznik and Persian pottery and using them for a range of complex fantasy designs featuring ships, birds, flora and animals. De Morgan produced tiles and lustre-ware in Chelsea from 1872, and at Merton Abbey (next door to Morris’s factory) from 1882-8. From 1888-98 he set up at Sands End, Fulham, in partnership with the architect Halsey Ricardo (1854-1928), continuing from 1898-1907 with his kiln-master Frank Iles and decorators Charles and Fred Passenger as his partners. De Morgan made many, many designs for tiles and tile panels – some 820 are in the V&A collection.

Components of the work

Decoration composed of lustre

Materials used in production

Earthenware

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.236-2015
Primary reference Number: 206783
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 15 September 2015 Updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 Last processed: Monday 18 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Tile panel with red lustre galleon" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/206783 Accessed: 2024-11-21 20:05:45

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/206783 |title=Tile panel with red lustre galleon |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 20:05:45|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

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