[140071] Salford Museum & Art Gallery : Pilkington's - Fireplace Tiles

Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester.

 

Pilkington’s.

Fireplace, c1905.

 

The fireplace on display was built into a house in Fallowfield, Manchester in 1908. Some time later, when the owner sold the house to a developer, the owner’s nephew luckily decided to save some of the architectural pieces, this fireplace being one of them. It was identified as Pilkington’s, and with the help of the Friends of Salford Museums Association, Salford Museum and Art Gallery bought the fireplace in 2001 and got it restored.

 

From the mid 19th century there was a growing interest in designs from the Middle East based on Muslim decorations. The ‘Persian’ style of tile was named after Persia, the old name for Iran. These designs were rich in abstract shapes created by floral subjects and geometric configuration, as the religion does not allow figurative representation. Pilkington tiles in the Persian style were decorated in blues and greens and often spotted with rhodian red.

 

The designer of the fireplace, John Chambers, joined Pilkington’s in 1893 as Chief Designer. As head of the architectural pottery department he worked with consultant designers and supervised modellers, engravers and mould makers. He retired in 1938.

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As tiles were not only decorative but easy to keep clean and sterile, they adorned hospitals and railway stations, and with mass production, domestic bathrooms, hallways, fireplaces and kitchens. Pilkington’s was a world class leader in tile design and production.

 

Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Company Ltd was based at Clifton Junction near Swinton, Salford. They were one of the most important international suppliers of high-quality decorative tiles and art pottery in the early 20th century. Their products were stylish, desirable and expensive, which was perfect for furnishing fashionable middle-class homes. Pilkington’s success was due to superior design combined with technical expertise and good publicity.

 

The company was formed in 1891 by four Pilkington brothers who were colliery owners. They employed as manager the dynamic William Burton, previously the chemist at Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. Burton encouraged collaborations with leading British designers such as Walter Crane, CFA Voysey and Lewis F Day, producing new, fashionable designs for tiles and pots.

 

The company began tile making with local clay in 1893, in a spacious purpose-built and ultra-modern factory. In 1904, when pottery production in the Art Nouveau style began, Pilkington’s started to rival known ceramic names like Minton, Bernard Moore, Doulton and Maw & Co. In 1913 the company was awarded a Royal Warrant by George V and began trading as Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian Pottery Company.

 

Whilst Pilkington’s continued to produce tiles until its closure in 2010, pottery production ceased in 1938, although it was briefly revived in the 1950s and 1970s. Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s Pilkington collection is the largest in the UK.

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Salford Museum & Art Gallery.

North & South wings by Travis & Mangnall, 1853 & 1857.

East wing by WA Walker & RG Morgan, on the site of the demolished Lark Hill mansion.

Grade ll listed.

Done