Tile

The high-relief scene on the surface of the square tile shows three bamboo stems on the left, one of them curving towards the centre, with two little birds sitting on it. One of the birds is just about to catch the bug flying slightly below. From a technical point of view it is interesting that the same picture appears on the reverse, in negative. The precise details on the glaze-covered front shade are of painterly manner. The basic, greenish-white glaze is covered with a thick, transparent, intensive turquoise one - a speciality of the Minton factory. Similarly detailed, «pâte­ -sur-pâte»-like, one-colour glazed relief tiles were, at that time, being produced also at Maw &Co. The «d» mark appearing in a contemporary inventory book suggests that this tile was a detail of a larger tile-panel composition.