Marlborough tile panel, 1888–1897

Marlborough tile panel decorated by William De Morgan (1839-1917) 1888-97.

One of two tiles forming a tile panel featuring a sunflower surrounded by leaves in yellow, green and blue 'Persian colours'.

William De Morgan’s firm was based in Fulham, London, from 1872 to 1911, this example dates from the earlier part of this period. William De Morgan is the most important ceramicist of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was fascinated by the scientific challenges of ceramics and ran his own business in and around London for thirty years. Surprisingly, De Morgan embarked on a second career as a writer of dickensian novels in his sixties, which were highly acclaimed. De Morgan was strictly a ceramic designer and used factory made blank tiles, vases and dishes. He acted as sole designer and used a team of skilled decorators to paint his designs onto the ceramics. Tiles were his core product and he produced hundreds of designs featuring flowers, animals and sailing ships. They were used in fireplaces, on walls and as decorative framed panels. He also produced designs for vases and dishes. Historical ceramics inspired most of De Morgan’s designs. His greatest achievement as a ceramicist was his use of lustre glazes in red and blue inspired by 16th Century Italian wares. He was also an expert on middle eastern ceramics, particularly 16th century Turkish Iznik wares, which inspired his ‘Persian Patterns’, as he called them.