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Tile: C.29A-F-2020

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Production: Wincanton Pottery

Entities

Categories

Description

Tile of pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed, the front half-painted in dark cobalt-blue glaze, extremely bubbled, corner to corner (A). Five fragments from a tile of similar form and decoration (B-F).

Notes

History note: The donor witnessed the excavation of the fragments approximately ten metres from the site of the kiln on the site of the Wincanton Pottery. The donor was given these fragments in 2007. The donor purchased the tile from dealer, Roger Little, in 2008.

Legal notes

Given by Philip Hamish Cole

Place(s) associated

  • Wincanton ⪼ Somerset ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2020-11-16) by Cole, Philip Hamish

Dating

18th Century, Mid
George II
Circa 1730 CE - 1750 CE

Note

Only two other Wincanton tiles to this design are in public collections (in the V&A and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). This pattern may have been made elsewhere, including in Friesland, but the close resemblance between the whole tile and the group of small tile fragments from the site, indicate that this tile was almost certainly from the Wincanton factory. Alongside, the tile, these few fragments usefully illustrate the importance of archaeology in the attribution of delftware.

The donor of this tile was involved in various excavations at the site of WIncanton pottery, including investigating the site of the kiln. During one visit, he witnessed a friend of his (Alison Nugus), who owned a property on the site of Ireson House (the Wincanton kiln site) excavate these fragments while planting a tree, about ten metres from where the kiln had been discovered previously. Ms Nugus gifted these fragments to the donor in 2007 (for details of this excavation, see Documentation 2008). In 2008, the donor purchased the complete tile from dealer, Roger Little. It may have been one of those excavated from the site of Wincanton pottery by archaeologist W. J. Pountney in 1916/17 (other ceramic fragments discovered by Pountney are in the collections of British Museum and V&A) and therefore although not marked, was firmly attributed to Wincanton based on proximity to the kiln site.

Components of the work

Decoration

Materials used in production

pale buff Earthenware
Tin-glaze

Techniques used in production

Tin-glazing

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.29A-F-2020
Primary reference Number: 276853
Object entry form: 514
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 24 November 2020 Updated: Tuesday 2 November 2021 Last processed: Friday 8 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" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/276853 Accessed: 2024-12-18 14:24:27

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/276853 |title=Tile |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 14:24:27|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-276853

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