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Tile

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© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

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Basic Information

Accession Number:1934A480
Collection:Antiquities - Mediaeval
Date:1300 - 1400

Notes

This mediaeval glazed floor tile was found during excavations of foundations for a new post office near Coventry.Floors made of tiles like this became popular with the rich in England from the 1230s. The tiles were decorated with all sorts of designs - flowers, real and imaginary animals, heraldic shields, inscriptions and single letters, like this M.To make a tile, an engraved wooden block was pushed into a square of red clay. The sunken design this left was filled with white clay and the surface of the tile was coated with a lead glaze. When the tile was fired in a kiln the impurities in the glaze made the red clay look brown and the white clay look yellow.

Presented by Alfred Stainton, 1934.

Further Information

Production Period:14th century
Material(s):Terracotta
Place of Origin:Coventry - near, Warwickshire, England
Place of Excavation:Found during excavations of foundations for a new post office.
Coventry - near, Warwickshire, England

Dimensions

Height:120 mm
Width:120 mm
Depth:30 mm