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William De Morgan TILES |
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2005-03-03 |
by Jon Catleugh
De Morgan's designs are fascinating, delicate and flowing, detailed and elegant, simplistic and inspiring … in a word: exquisite.
[Inside Jacket]:
William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917) was one of the most important potters of the late 19th century, an innovator both in design and technique. A recent writer said of him "that he was an artist in the true sense of the word…distinguishes his work from the mass of Victorian pottery." De Morgan was the friend of William Morris and Burne Jones, and was involved with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. His interests in the traditions of artisanship, his mastery of a range of skills, including stained glass and pottery, and his breadth of vision make him the archetype of the Victorian artist/craftsman.
His great specialty, however, was designing tiles, decorated with vivid patterns of leaves and flowers, birds and monsters, ships and animals. The designs are derived from a variety of sources but share a vigorous individuality, carefully related to the rhythms of tiles design, and the different uses - such as fireplaces and dados-to which tiles were put. His wide range of design sources is matched by his interesting different potting and glazing techniques. Though his business was not financially a success the tiles that he produced were much appreciated in the nineteenth century, and appeal today to a growing group of collectors and ceramic experts and practitioners.
Researching "tiles" I came upon this man and his works. This book contains three essays: De Morgan as a tile designer and history of the craft; De Morgan's design sources and types of design; and technical innovations and pottery methods.
I took four very simple patterns from the book and experimented with them:
Some of the examples shown in the book are derived from the Aesthetic Movement of 1870s and 1880s, rugs and tapestries, material prints, flowers, animals (real and mythical), wallpaper, vegetables, and Islamic influence.
'De Morgan's mind was ever full of original methods and ideas on all sorts of subjects … and he was always loath to accept preconceived systems of doing things until he had made trial of his own.'
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