Arts and crafts tiles
Posted on September 1, 2007 -Author: fish
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Pottery was one of the most prolific branches of the decorative arts during the arts and crafts period. It was produced both by factories employing many potters and decorators and by individuals working on a very small scale. A great deal of experimentation resulted in a number of innovative glazing and firing techniques. These were then applied to reinterpretations of historical motifs and new forms of decoration to produce some of the most interesting products of the time. As described by a writer for House Beautiful in 1899: “In the manufacture of pottery, oftener perhaps than in other crafts, one meets with this renascent spirit; possibly because its subtle chemistry offers an opportunity to the scientist as well as the artist. It is a fascinating and absorbing art, claiming the utmost devotion, but lavishly rewarding the man who can discover its secrets.”
One such man was Ernest Allan Batchelder, who founded the Batchelder Tile Company in Pasadena, California, in 1909. He was no stranger to the tenets of the arts and crafts movement as he had studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Birmingham, England; taught at the Harvard Summer School of Design; established the Handicraft Guild of Minneapolis; and directed the arts and crafts department at Throop Polytechnic Institute (now the California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena. He published Principles of Design in 1904 and his articles for The Craftsman were compiled in a book entitled Design in Theory and Practice in 1910.
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