Tile of red earthenware covered with a tin glaze and painted in green and brown. French, from the abbey of Escaladieu, late 13th or early 14th century

Red earthenware covered with a tin glaze and painted in green and brown.A trellis pattern of foliage.

Given by Ivan D. Frossard

From the Abbaye de l'Escaladieu, France. Given by Ivan D Frossard, La Fere (Aisne).

There is a letter in the Registers (for 1551-1903) from Rackham to a Mons. Nicaise dated 11 February 1937. Rackham says that we have two tiles similar in technique to the Brioude tiles which came from the Abbey of Escaladieu in the Pyranees. The Abbey was founded in the 12th century and is in the neighbourhood of a castle occupied by the Counts of Foix. He goes on to say that it has been suggested that the tiles were brought from Italy by Gaston de Foix who died in 1512. Rackham says that their design of very formal foliage and rosettes is crude and hard to date and so just conjectures the 15th century.

Painted tin-glazed tiles of this period are known from several sites in south-western France, including the abbeys of Escaladieu and Flaran. These were possibly all products of the same workshop.

This early example of a painted tin-glazed earthenware floor tile comes from the Cistercian abbey of Escaladieu in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. Related tiles are known from several other sites in south-west France, and these may all be the products of the same medieval tile workshop.

C.962-1922