Seville Vs. Stoke-on-Trent

Spot the difference...

From left:

1. Spain, unknown maker (late 19th/early 20th Century). Stenciled by hand.

2. Robert Minton Taylor (1869-71). Block printed.

3. Minton's China Works (circa 1880). Block printed.

Late 19th Century, Iberian, 'cuenca arista' tile.

Maw & Co. 'majolica', (circa 1875).

However, in a rare moment of almost Ruskinian sentiment, Jones confessed that the perfection of the tiles manufactured by Minton 'rather diminishes than enhances the effect, the very irregularity of the glazed surface...and the unequal breadth of the joints, served to take off that stiffness and hardness which the arrangement of purely geometrical forms produces.'

Colour and Geometry: The Tile Designs of Owen Jones by Kathryn Ferry.

Journal of the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, (Volume 11, 2005).