WALL AND FLOOR TILES.
71
2. "Armorial bearings of the Sovereign or iudividuals connected
witli the monastery by benefactions or otherwise;
personal devices or mottoes.
3. " Ornaments conformable to the style of architecture or
character of decoration prevalent at the period, but devoid of
any special import.”
Some of the emblemätic figures, of which examples characteristic
of these old ecclesiastical tiles are here given,
consist of lions, dragons, and adders, and have beeil
supposed to have reference to the text, " Thon slialt
go upon the lion and the adder: the young lion and
the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet.”
The tiles of the earlier manufacture generally measure tive
inches square, and the later, six inches. Some have been
found niue inches square and two and a quartcr inches thick.
A specimen in the writer’s collection, probably from the
Malvern kilns, is a little over five inches square and threequarters
of an inch thick.
The material is ordinary coarse red clay, such as is used
for making brick, and the design appears to be formed by a
lighter colored clay filling incisions or impressions in the surface,
and subsequently glazed. The design is supposed to
have been impressed by a stamp while the clay was still
moist, and the depression so formed was filled by the lighter
clay in the condition of thin paste, for the cavities are frequently
seen to be but partially filled.
Prosser’s Method.
But tiles are no longer made in Great Britain in this
manner. Prosser’s method, patented some thirty or forty
years ago, and perfected by Mr. Minton, marks a new era
in tile manufacture, and has contributed greatly to the
advance of this branch of artistic decoration. It consists
chiefly in the use of powdered clay, instead of the wet,
plastic mass. The paste being duly compounded of the
proper clays and silex, and strained through cloth, is dri'ed
and then ground to powder. This powder, when slightly
damp, is pressed in steel moulds by a powerful screw.
The size and form of the moulds determine the size and
