Tile — Cobweb, Etruria, 1878
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1878
Tile in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum number WE.14588-2014), made in Etruria, dated 1878, attributed to Miles, Helen Jane Arundel. The museum's brief description reads: Tile, 'Cobweb', Creamware with transfer printing, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Etruria, 1878.. Museum description: Square tile, Creamware with cream glaze and transfer-printed image in brown of a figure with wings sitting inside a cobweb, with a spider in the upper left of the web. Bottom left corner is 'COBWEB' printed in banner. Back has seven raised horizontal lines. The museum records it as Creamware with transfer printing, measuring Height 9 mm; Width 152 mm; Length 152 mm. These details come from the museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
Tile, 'Cobweb', Creamware with brown transfer printing. The tile is designed by Helen Jane Arundel Miles, and is one of a set of twelve depicting characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Miles was a watercolourist and book illustrator who exhibited regularly between 1860 and 1883. She provided many designs for tiles for Wedgwood from the 1870s onwards. Josiah Wedgwood undertook a series of experiments and trials in the development of his new clay bodies: Creamware, Jasperware and Black Basalt. Around 5000 trials were created in the process of perfecting the creamware alone, and this was repeated for Jasperware. The majority of his trials for creamware were completed by 1763, but individual experiments continued to be made until the 1770s. From 1765, Wedgwood marketed his creamware as ‘Queen’s ware’ following Royal approval by Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- earthenware
- Dimensions
- Height 9 mm; Width 152 mm; Length 152 mm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- Creamware with transfer printing
- Maker recorded
- Miles, Helen Jane Arundel
- Place recorded
- Etruria
Design
- Inscriptions recorded
- JOSIAH / WEDGWOOD & SONS / ETRURIA' (embossed)
Identification
- Museum object name
- Tile
- Museum object number
- WE.14588-2014
- Museum system number
- O1818812
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and catalogue references against a specialist reference.