The Man of Tiles

 

QUESTION: Several years ago while browsing a semi-annual antique show in my are, I came across a beautiful ceramic tile. It wasn’t the kind you with which I might decorate the walls of my bathroom, but it was large and attractive, featuring.... The antiques dealer said it was by William De Morgan. I had never heard of him but purchased the tile anyway. Since then I’ve discovered a few other tiles by De Morgan which I purchased. Can you tell me about him and his work? I understand his work gained prominence at the turn of the 20th century.

ANSWER: William Frend De Morgan was a British potter and tile designer, as well as a   lifelong friend of William Morris, the founder of the Arts & Crafts Movement. He was born in  London, the son of the distinguished mathematician Augustus De Morgan and his highly educated wife Sophia Elizabeth Frend, both of whom supported his desire to become an artist. 

He entered the Royal Academy School at 20 but became disillusioned. He soon met Morris who introduced him to the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Soon De Morgan began experimenting with stained glass. In 1863, he tried his hand at pottery and by 1872 had decided to work only in ceramics.

He designed tiles, stained glass, and furniture for Morris & Company from 1863 to 1872. He based his tile designs on medieval ones, as well as Islamic patterns. This led him to experiment with innovative glazes and firing techniques. His most popular motifs were of fish and galleons, as well as "fantastical" birds and other animals. De Morgan designed many of his tiles to create intricate patterns when laid together.

In 1872, De Morgan set up his own pottery works in Cheyne Row in the Chelsea District of London where he stayed until 1881. It was there that he developed his 'red luster' tiles and vases decorated with rich majolica colors in what he called the Persian style, commonly known as Iznak. Iznak tiles were difficult to come by, but the more provincial Damascus tiles were readily available. However, De Morgan’s early efforts at making his own tiles were of varied technical quality. 

In his early years, De Morgan used blank commercial tiles. He obtained hard and durable biscuit tiles of red clay from the Patent Architectural Pottery Company in Poole. He also purchased dust-pressed tiles of white earthenware from Wedgwood, Minton, and other manufacturers but De Morgan believed these would not withstand frost. He continued to use blank commercial dust-pressed tiles which his workers decorated in red luster. 

But he developed a high-quality biscuit tile of his own, which he admired for its irregularities and better resistance to moisture. His inventive streak led him into complex studies of the chemistry of glazes, methods of firing, and pattern transfer.

De Morgan handpainted his first tiles on Dutch blanks using a pin-prick method. His workers transferred the outline to the tile by pricking the outline of the design through paper, then rubbed charcoal through the holes to mark the edges.

Eventually, De Morgan developed a paper transfer technique. Workers painted each tile design onto a thin piece of paper, often mounted on a glass frame to allow the light to shine through. They then painted the traced outline of the design from a master drawing placing the completed transfer onto the tile's top porcelain layer, then brushed the back with glaze. When fired, the paper burned away, and the remaining ash mixed with the glaze, appearing as tiny specks on the finished tile. The glazed reverse image fused with the tile.

De Morgan especially liked the look of Middle Eastern tiles. Between 1873 and 1874, he rediscovered the technique of lusterware found in Hispano-Moresque pottery and Italian maiolica. His interest in the Middle East tiles influenced his of design and color as well.

As early as 1875, he began to work in earnest with a "Persian" palette: dark blue, turquoise, manganese purple, green, Indian red, and lemon yellow, De Morgan’s study of the motifs of what he called "Persian" ware, today known as 15th and 16th-century Iznak ware, profoundly influenced his style, in which fantastic creatures entwined with rhythmic geometric motifs float under luminous glazes. Fan-shaped flowers and carnations, traditional Persian themes, that often decorated Perisan tiles made their way into De Morgan's designs. 

In 1882, De Morgan move his tileworks to Merton Abbey in south London, beside the Wandle River, where Morris had several large buildings. 

At Merton Abbey, De Morgan produced larger 8-inch and sometimes even 9-inch tiles, in addition to the 6-inch ones he had produced in Chelsea. Some tiles from this period were the green and red luster fantastic animals series. During this time, he developed high gloss glazes for which his tiles became famous. 

De Morgan moved his operation to Fulham in 1888. These tiles had deep backgrounds, with birds and animals, in turquoise and olive to emerald green colors. Also during this time, De Morgan spent his winters in Florence, Italy, for health reasons. He had his designs painted locally on paper, then sent the papers back to London where his workers placed the papers on the tiles, then glazed them, after which the paper burned away during  firing.

De Morgan left his business in the hands of the Passenger brothers and Frank Iles, who had been worked with him for 25 years. He went on to become a successful novelist.

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Electric Lamps for Everyone

QUESTION: Several years ago, I bought an early electric glass lamp at a flea market. Although it was filthy and needed lots of TLC, I decided that I just couldn’t live without it. After giving it a thorough cleaning and having it rewired, I noticed how much it looked like the Tiffany lamps of the early 1900s. Upon further inspection, I noticed E M & Co. impressed into the base. So far, I’ve been unable to discover who E M & Co. is? Can you tell me who made my lamp and a little about it.

ANSWER: You’re the proud owner of a beautiful silhouette lamp—called that because of the silhouettes created by the shade when the lamp is on—made by the Edward Miller & Company of Meriden, Connecticut.

Unfortunately, when people think of metal and glass lamps of the early 20th century, they usually associate all lamps with Louis Comfort Tiffany. Then their eyes light up with dollar signs. But most of the lamps from this period were not made by Tiffany.

When Tiffany first began making his lamps, they were expensive to make and expensive to buy. Prices for them ran into the hundreds of dollars. Slag glass panel lamps, as they're known  today, had a few large pieces of glass fitted into a cast metal frame that simulated the effects of the more expensive leaded glass lamps. That made them affordable for the average person. A 1925 Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog offers metal table lamps fitted with "art glass" priced from $6.90 to $19.

Many companies made this type of lamp. Often the lamps weren’t signed, but if the makers did mark them, they usually cast their mark into the metal on the bottom of the base. Sometimes they placed a mark on the metal edge of a shade or elsewhere on the base. Some lamps had paper labels, but most of them are long gone. Edward Miller & Company was one of many lamp makers.

The Miller Company began in 1844 in Meriden, Connecticut, as Joel Miller and Son. Originally, the company produced metal candle-holders, then moved on to kerosene lamps, gas lighting, and electric lighting. The name of the company changed, also, becoming Edward Miller & Company, then The Miller Company, both under the mark E M & CO on their lamp bases.

Although Miller produced expensive leaded glass lamps, the company took advantage of the opportunity to sell lighting to the middle classes as more homes became wired for electricity. The company sold lamps in bulk to utility companies in large cities who retailed them to their customers. A 1920 Philadelphia Electric Company catalog shows lamps with prices from $12.50 to $60, depending on size.

Miller took advantage of the latest discovery in lighting—electricity. Up to the last decade of the 19th century, everyone owned and used either gas or kerosene lamps. But the light they gave off was dim. The discovery of electricity led to lamps that glowed brighter in a downward direction, thus offering improved lighting for reading and sewing.

Though electrical lamps offered lots of advantages, there were problems with the carbon filaments in early incandescent light bulbs that didn't last long. The bulbs turned dark inside from carbon, and they used a lot of electricity per watt of light. The invention of the tungsten filament bulb and improvements to it made between 1906 and 1910 established electric lamps as a practical and reliable alternative to gas and kerosene.

These early electric lamps offered a variety of base and shade overlay designs, influenced by several style movements including Art Nouveau with its intricate curvy lines and botanical themes, Arts and Crafts with its simpler forms and straighter lines, and Orientalism with its Middle Eastern flavor. And with the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922 , people’s interest in everything Egyptian grew.

Lamp creators took their inspiration from all of these influences, giving consumers a choice of floral designs, geometric patterns, or scenes with camels, palm trees and pyramids. Other designs reflected Neo-Classical Revival architectural and furniture styles, employing fluted columns, garlands, and urns as design elements.

Manufacturers produced slag glass lamps with amber glass, as well as other colors. Amber was the dominant color because it proved to be the most restful for reading. These lamps often have more than one color of glass. Makers sometimes used various colors of slag glass to simulate sunsets or water behind their metal frames.

Today, these same slag lamps sell for $500 to $1.500, depending on style, size, and especially condition. Smaller varieties, known as boudoir lamps, sell for less while larger ones sell for more.

With the onset of the Great Depression, the market for more expensive dramatic, heavy lamps with glass shades faded and manufacturers responded with cheaper, lightweight lamps with paper or fabric shades.