MEDIEVAL TILE

1300

Earthenware floor tile length 78mm, width 91mm, thickness 12mm. This is a fragment of a decorated square floor tile. Two processes of applying the design have been utilised on this tile. The first method, used mainly on the small detail, was to press a carved wooden block into clay while it was still wet, the recesses were then filled with a white clay. The second method, used on the bold central decoration, was to print the image directly onto the unaltered surface using a white clay slip. The design is probably floral and consists of a thick branch or trunk and two smaller branches that terminate in trefoils, this would most likely have formed a more complicated pattern encompassing of a number of tiles. The tile has been finished off with a lead glaze on the top. Tiles were manly made for monastic and ecclesiastical buildings and as a result the majority of examples found come from monastic sites and in parish churches, although examples are found in some high status private buildings. Date 14th century