Paving Tile
Date1600-1650
OriginEngland, London
MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft / delftware)
Dimensions4 1/4 inches square; 5/8 inch thick
Credit LineGift of Sir David Burnett, Bt.
Object number1990-200,1A
DescriptionSquare tile. White tin glaze decorated in blue, green, yellow, and tan with a camel standing among leaves encircled by five concentric lines. Glaze puddled, leaving some areas exposed.This tile is one of about 500 archaeological shards of tin-glazed earthenware, excavated from Hayes Warf properties in the vicinity of Tooley Street, Bermondsey, London.
Label TextThe collection of delft shards presented by Sir David Burnett to Colonial Williamsburg contains about thirty early seventeenth-century tiles. Some, like this one, are kiln wasters and therefore can be attributed to the Pickleherring factory, the site near which they were found. Two other fragments of tiles from the same series found at this site are also in the Burnett collection at Williamsburg, one depicting the head of a bear, the other the tail of some kind of fowl. Many tiles of this basic design, but with some differences, were imported from the Netherlands; were this tile not a waster, therefore, it would be impossible to determine whether it was made in England or imported. Remnants of plaster on the tile indicate that it was used at the pottery, perhaps because it was a waster. The softness of the body and glaze of many of these tiles suggests that they were too fragile to be used on a floor, but "paving tyles" were included in Christian Wilhelm's monopoly in 1628. Another tile in this pattern, CWF accession 1990-200, 2a, also alleged to be a waster, was found in 1965 at nearby Vine Lane.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceSir David Burnett, Bt
Ivor Noel Hume
