70
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
requirements of the details of design led to tbe quicker and
cheaper method of stamping the figures upon the clay. For
a long period after the use of the red or Samian wäre, intro-
duced by the Romans, ceased, tiles appear to have becn the
only brauch of the decorative fictile art in Britain. They
were applied chiefly in ecclesiastical decoration, about the
altars and choirs, and for memorial purpose,s. The excel-
lenco of this mediceval tile-work is regarded as having stimu-
lated and led the way to improvement in decoration of house-
hold pottery. Sorne of the earliest specimens of the art, pre-
served in the British Musem, are froin ruined churches in
Norfolk. The neighborhood of Great Malveru appoars to
have been one of the chief centres of production in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and few churches in
Great Britaiu can show a grcater variety of ancient tiling
than the Priory Church of Great Malvern, the inferior of
which abounded with encaustic tiles in the floors and forming
panels in the walls.
The manufacture in Britaiu has beeil assigned to two
periods. The most ancient tiles are belioved to have been
fabricated betwcen the years 1290 and 1380, and those of the
second period duriug the prevalence of the perpendieular
style in building. Numerous kilns have been unearthed at
Malvern Hills, and it is believed that Tewkesbury Abbey and
Worcester and Gloucester Cathedrals were supplied with tiles
froin tliese kilns. The manufacture is supposed to have been
continued in Worcester County down to about the year 1640,
and .to have been repressed, if not stopped, at that time
throuo;h the influence of Puritauism. In that year visitors
were appointed to visit the ecclesiastical structures of the
kingdom and destroy all Ornaments of a " suporstitious
nature.” * The designs upon the tiles at that time were
largely formed of sacred Symbols and inscriptions, of memo
rial letters and monograms, and of heraldic devices, chiefly
in connection with tombs. These mediseval tiles have beeil
classed accordiug to tlieir decorations, as follows * :—
1. "Sacred Symbols; inscriptions, consisting either of
vorses of the Scripture or pious phrases.
* Antiquarian and Architoctural Year Book, 1844, p. 128.
