View allAll Photos Tagged TileWork
Compared with the Shah Mosque, the design of the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque is quite simple, there is no courtyard and there are no interior iwans. The building itself consists of a flattened dome resting on a square dome chamber.[12] Though, in contranst to the simple structure of this mosque, the decoration of both interior and exterior is exceedingly complex,[13] and in its construction the finest materials were used and the most talented craftsmen employed
At the beginning of the 20th century the roof tiles industry of the Kortrijk area (near the French border) was considered to be the most modern, most mechanized and most productive in Europe. All the historic brick and tileworks of this area have been demolished in the 1980s and 1990s, except the Tuileries du Littoral.
A long weekend in Istanbul, with Janette.
www.sparklytrainers.com/blog/archives/2003/03/08/istanbul...
www.sparklytrainers.com/blog/archives/2003/03/09/istanbul...
www.sparklytrainers.com/blog/archives/2003/03/10/istanbul...
www.sparklytrainers.com/blog/archives/2003/03/11/istanbul...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul
124-2411_IMG
In many ways this chimney piece is typical of the tile work produced in the small town of Iznik in north-west Turkey from about 1550 to 1700. The pottery industry there eventually went into decline, however, and when the Ottoman court renewed its interest in tile production in the reign of Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730), it had to reinvent the industry, which was relocated to Istanbul. Ottoman grandees were again able to decorate their palaces with tile work ensembles such as this chimney piece, dated 1731 and reportedly rescued from the palace of a high official called Fuad Pasha.
The shape is relatively complex, and many of the tiles had to be moulded to fit. The body fabric is an artificial paste called fritware, composed mostly of ground quartz rather than clay. Fritware was preferred because of its whiteness, which provided the background for decoration painted under the glaze in blue, turquoise, green and red. The designs belong mostly to the repertory of ornament developed by the Ottoman court around 1500–1600: scrollwork set with large composite blossoms; arabesque scrolls; and pairs of wavy lines around a group of three large spots – the ‘tiger-stripe and leopard-spot’ motif – here combined with Chinese-style cloud bands. However, the large-scale pattern of leafy scrollwork in blue on white on either side of the hood and running down the sides is in a Europeanising style that was introduced into Ottoman art around 1700–1730.
Seven tiles with inscriptions in the Arabic script form a frieze around the hood. They give the names of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus – a group of Christians who were miraculously rescued from religious persecution under the Roman emperor Decius by falling asleep in a cave and waking several centuries later. Their story is mentioned in the Qur’an, and their names were often displayed in Turkish houses because they were thought to ward off misfortune.
"Architextures" is a series of composite images. Each image is a mashup of multiple photographs. At least one of the sources is of an architectural subject, anything from closeup walls or windows to broad cityscapes. The added images provide texture or pattern. In some, the architectural forms are preserved and obvious. In others, the pictures become pure abstractions. Yet in all of them, the inherent geometry, angles, lines, and repetitions of the architecture are essential to the geometry and esthetics of the final image. Most of the source images used for this series are already posted in this photostream. The links to the original and source images are listed below.
Inspiration for the name “Deco Tileworks” is in the geometry of the images. Decorative motifs suggestive of 1920’s and 1930’s art meld with rectilinear blocks suggestive of tilework in the public spaces and architecture of that era, such as railway and subway stations, movie theaters, and high rise office buildings. The Deco Tileworks sets all share a common foundation image. That base picture derives from views of the Atlanta, Georgia skyline and its tall buildings (source images and explanatory notes are elsewhere in this photostream). Specifically, there were two original source images, Facets #1a and #2a. These were combined to create Facets #2e, which by itself was reworked into the common core for the Deco Tileworks. Image 11a, the first in this set, is the common foundation image for the rest of the Deco series.
Base images used for the Deco Tileworks series are:
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #1a _ (© 2012 megart)
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #2a _ (© 2012 megart)
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #2e _ (© 2012 megart)
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587589876
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587598284
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587599742
The Architextures 11 series of Deco Tileworks uses no other source images or composition elements. Only the Facets #2e image is present. Variations of texture, color, and form come from mathematical merges and blends, and from simple mirrors and rotations.
The Architextures 12 series of Deco Tileworks continues the basic themes and geometries of the Deco Tileworks 11 series, but it introduces bright colors. Whites and yellows were created with no additional source images or composition elements, just various merges and saturations of the common deco tileworks foundation image. Blues and greens were created by overlays with another of the Atlanta Highview images (blue sky facets v2). Oranges and reds were introduced by overlays with an unrelated non-architectural image (sunset trees & red rock cliffs _ arches national park, utah).
Daffodils and tulips at Tudor Grange House, Blossomfield Park, Solihull.
Kept spotting daffodils from the no 6 bus going past here, so wanted to get them before they finished flowering. Looks like tulips now in flower.
Grade II* listed building
Reasons for Designation
Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, terracing and walling forms a coherent group.
Details
SOLIHULL
732/0/10042 BLOSSOMFIELD ROAD 24-OCT-08 Tudor Grange House and Stable Block
II* A large suburban house with attached stable block. It was designed and built in 1887 in a loosely Jacobean style by Thomas Henry Mansell of Birmingham for the industrialist Alfred Lovekin with panelling by Plunketts of Smith Street, Warwick. The house is of red stretcher bond brick with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof and has two storeys with attics and basement. The stable block is T-shaped in plan and attached to the west side of the house. EXTERIOR: The northern entrance front has a near-symmetrical centrepiece which is recessed at first floor level and above but which has a projecting three-bay porch to the ground floor with door to the right. At either side are projecting, gabled wings and these and the central bay all have shaped outlines to their gables. The windows to the ground and first floors are mullioned and transomed, and there are projecting bay windows to the ground floor at either side. There are panels of carved stonework, particularly around the porch, featuring strapwork and grotesque masks. A further bay to the east then joins to the low wall screening a service court and this in turn joins to the stable block. Extending to the west is a single-storey range of two bays added by Sir Alfred Bird with a square bay window and small, elaborately-carved oriel capped by a battlemented parapet. The garden front is composed with deliberate asymmetry, having five bays with shaped gables to the left of centre and far right and a canted and square bay, each of two storeys, as well as a single-storey bay to the far right. At the west end is a low screen wall which connects to the stable block. To the far east is a portion of walling, the southern side of which was formerly inside the conservatory. Attached to this are concrete containers attached to the wall which are moulded in immitation of rock. The skyline on both principal fronts has a very full array of clustered octagonal chimneys with moulded caps. The balustrade at the top of the wall has moulded balusters and the balustrade piers are surmounted by statues personifying a variety of figures including Hercules, Brutus and William the Conqueror some of which were carved by White's, according to George Noszlopy, who has identified the overall scheme as based on late C16 and early-C17 English engravings of heroes from Greek mythology, Roman Emperors and characters from English legend, some of which were added by Sir Alfred Bird who employed Robert Bridgeman. INTERIOR: The ground floor plan approximates to a double-pile plan with a large central staircase and entrance hall at either side of which are corridors leading to the former conservatory and the kitchens and service court. The ground floor has a series of lavishly decorated rooms, including the Dining Room, Morning Room, Drawing Room and Music Room. The Jacobean and Elizabethan styles are freely mixed and there are also elements of Georgian joinery, particularly in the Music Room. Each room has an elaborate fireplace with a carved oak surround and overmantel and panelling to dado height. Many of the fireplaces have tiled cheeks by the De Morgan or Ruskin potteries. The plaster ceilings are decorated with strapwork, fruit and flowers in high relief. Many of the windows contain panels of stained glass of good quality showing coats of arms or mottoes. Several also have panels of Flemish or German C16 or C17 glass. The Study and Music Room are particularly sumptuous, with richly carved woodwork. The Study, which was added to the earlier house by Sir Alfred Bird in the same style, has a screen of free-standing columns behind which is a small, richly-modelled, barrel-vaulted ceiling and, in the Music Room, there is panelling to the full height of the walls, divided by Ionic pilasters with panels of bay leaves to their lower bodies and strapwork and masks above. To the western end of the room are fitted cabinets with glazed doors and a smaller, central fireplace with flambeau glazing to the tiled surround. Above is an inset tapestry panel running the width of the wall showing a Tudor hunting scene. Sir Alfred Bird was a collector of Old Master paintings and several of the panels in the Music Room and Hallway have buttons to their lower rims which allow the panels to be removed and it is possible that pictures were incorporated into the panelling with a mechanism to release them in the event of a fire, as is the case with the heavy frames at the Wallace Collection and other C19 collections. The panelling is recorded as being fitted by Plunkett's of Warwick, and it seems likely that they were responsible for fitting out the rooms in their entirety. The staircase hall contains further panelling and the window has nine panels of Flemish or German glass. To the first floor one bedroom has a fireplace with richly figured wood and ivory inlay. There is a first floor corridor with housekeepers' panelled cupboards to either side and Lyncrusta wallpaper and the former bedrooms contain a series of fireplaces with wood or cast metal surrounds.
STABLE BLOCK: The stables, with coach houses and, possibly, garaging are attached to the west side of the house. They have a T-shaped plan. The cross-stroke is oriented north-south and has a partially-glazed roof. The stables were arranged at either side of the central passageway of the downstroke, which runs east-west, but these have now been re-arranged to form teaching rooms. This part of the building is also richly decorated, with statuary and a louvered octagonal bellcote to the skyline and ball and sceptre finials. Several of the original windows have been replaced with uPVC windows and the openings appear to have been enlarged.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Terrace Balustrade and Stone Bench: Immediately to the south of the house is a terrace which is bounded to its south and east sides by a stone balustrade which has oval and diamond motifs and a moulded handrail. The balustrade connects at its east end to the foundations of the former conservatory. On the terrace is a stone bench with shaped ends which include lions masks and to its back it has a cresting incorporating carved acanthus leaves. HISTORY The opening of the Birmingham-Oxford Railway in 1852 caused the initial expansion of Solihull's urban area and throughout the later C19 and much of the C20, the borough has expanded to become an affluent commuter suburb of Birmingham. Tudor Grange was built for Alfred Lovekin of Adie & Lovekin, jewellers and silversmiths in 1887. The company manufactured a wide range of silver fancy goods at the end of the C19 and had a factory in Regent Street, Hockley. In 1894 they commissioned Mansell & Mansell to design a new factory for them at 23, Frederick Street, Birmingham which became known as `Trafalgar Works' (Grade II). Lovekin's wife died in 1900 and in 1901 the house was sold to Alfred Bird, son of the founder of Bird's Custard Company. He enlarged the house, adding the library and a sizeable conservatory to the east, and had Blossomfield Road moved northwards, away from the entrance front, and built a new entrance lodge at the end of the re-configured drive. He also employed Robert Bridgeman to ornament the house with statuary and furnished it with an extensive art collection which included paintings and also with panels of C16 and C17 Flemish stained glass, which survive in situ. Alfred Bird became M.P. for Wolverhampton West in 1910. In 1920 he was knighted and in 1922, the year of his death, he was made a baronet. His widow lived on at Tudor Grange until her death in 1943 and the house is believed to have been used as a Red Cross auxiliary hospital during and after the Second World War. In 1946 the house was bought by Warwickshire County Council and became a school for children with special needs until 1976 when it became part of Solihull Technical College.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, lodge, terracing and walled garden forms a coherent group.
SOURCES John Cattell, Sheila Ely, Barry Jones, The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, 2002, 219; George T. Noszlopy, Sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, Liverpool University Press, 2003, 301.
Brickhouse Tileworks specializes in the design and creation of one-of-a-kind, site-specific works of art. Every tile at Brickhouse is meticulously hand crafted for our customers. Whether you are looking for three-dimensional sculpted-relief, hand painted, mosaic or handmade field tiles, our artists will work with you to meet your specific needs. Add exquisite beauty and personalized style to your home, indoors or out, with Brickhouse tiles.
Brickhouse will create a one of a kind custom look for your kitchen, bathroom, fireplace, pool or anywhere you’d like to personalize your home; and we can also produce breathtaking full mural designs. Work with Brickhouse artists to create custom-designed tiles or select from the original Brickhouse Tile Line. At Brickhouse Tileworks we are dedicated to the design and development of high-quality tiles that are distinctive, one-of-a-kind works of art.
Brickhouse Tileworks specializes in the design and creation of one-of-a-kind, site-specific works of art. Every tile at Brickhouse is meticulously hand crafted for our customers. Whether you are looking for three-dimensional sculpted-relief, hand painted, mosaic or handmade field tiles, our artists will work with you to meet your specific needs. Add exquisite beauty and personalized style to your home, indoors or out, with Brickhouse tiles.
Brickhouse will create a one of a kind custom look for your kitchen, bathroom, fireplace, pool or anywhere you’d like to personalize your home; and we can also produce breathtaking full mural designs. Work with Brickhouse artists to create custom-designed tiles or select from the original Brickhouse Tile Line. At Brickhouse Tileworks we are dedicated to the design and development of high-quality tiles that are distinctive, one-of-a-kind works of art.
Daffodils and tulips at Tudor Grange House, Blossomfield Park, Solihull.
Kept spotting daffodils from the no 6 bus going past here, so wanted to get them before they finished flowering. Looks like tulips now in flower.
Grade II* listed building
Reasons for Designation
Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, terracing and walling forms a coherent group.
Details
SOLIHULL
732/0/10042 BLOSSOMFIELD ROAD 24-OCT-08 Tudor Grange House and Stable Block
II* A large suburban house with attached stable block. It was designed and built in 1887 in a loosely Jacobean style by Thomas Henry Mansell of Birmingham for the industrialist Alfred Lovekin with panelling by Plunketts of Smith Street, Warwick. The house is of red stretcher bond brick with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof and has two storeys with attics and basement. The stable block is T-shaped in plan and attached to the west side of the house. EXTERIOR: The northern entrance front has a near-symmetrical centrepiece which is recessed at first floor level and above but which has a projecting three-bay porch to the ground floor with door to the right. At either side are projecting, gabled wings and these and the central bay all have shaped outlines to their gables. The windows to the ground and first floors are mullioned and transomed, and there are projecting bay windows to the ground floor at either side. There are panels of carved stonework, particularly around the porch, featuring strapwork and grotesque masks. A further bay to the east then joins to the low wall screening a service court and this in turn joins to the stable block. Extending to the west is a single-storey range of two bays added by Sir Alfred Bird with a square bay window and small, elaborately-carved oriel capped by a battlemented parapet. The garden front is composed with deliberate asymmetry, having five bays with shaped gables to the left of centre and far right and a canted and square bay, each of two storeys, as well as a single-storey bay to the far right. At the west end is a low screen wall which connects to the stable block. To the far east is a portion of walling, the southern side of which was formerly inside the conservatory. Attached to this are concrete containers attached to the wall which are moulded in immitation of rock. The skyline on both principal fronts has a very full array of clustered octagonal chimneys with moulded caps. The balustrade at the top of the wall has moulded balusters and the balustrade piers are surmounted by statues personifying a variety of figures including Hercules, Brutus and William the Conqueror some of which were carved by White's, according to George Noszlopy, who has identified the overall scheme as based on late C16 and early-C17 English engravings of heroes from Greek mythology, Roman Emperors and characters from English legend, some of which were added by Sir Alfred Bird who employed Robert Bridgeman. INTERIOR: The ground floor plan approximates to a double-pile plan with a large central staircase and entrance hall at either side of which are corridors leading to the former conservatory and the kitchens and service court. The ground floor has a series of lavishly decorated rooms, including the Dining Room, Morning Room, Drawing Room and Music Room. The Jacobean and Elizabethan styles are freely mixed and there are also elements of Georgian joinery, particularly in the Music Room. Each room has an elaborate fireplace with a carved oak surround and overmantel and panelling to dado height. Many of the fireplaces have tiled cheeks by the De Morgan or Ruskin potteries. The plaster ceilings are decorated with strapwork, fruit and flowers in high relief. Many of the windows contain panels of stained glass of good quality showing coats of arms or mottoes. Several also have panels of Flemish or German C16 or C17 glass. The Study and Music Room are particularly sumptuous, with richly carved woodwork. The Study, which was added to the earlier house by Sir Alfred Bird in the same style, has a screen of free-standing columns behind which is a small, richly-modelled, barrel-vaulted ceiling and, in the Music Room, there is panelling to the full height of the walls, divided by Ionic pilasters with panels of bay leaves to their lower bodies and strapwork and masks above. To the western end of the room are fitted cabinets with glazed doors and a smaller, central fireplace with flambeau glazing to the tiled surround. Above is an inset tapestry panel running the width of the wall showing a Tudor hunting scene. Sir Alfred Bird was a collector of Old Master paintings and several of the panels in the Music Room and Hallway have buttons to their lower rims which allow the panels to be removed and it is possible that pictures were incorporated into the panelling with a mechanism to release them in the event of a fire, as is the case with the heavy frames at the Wallace Collection and other C19 collections. The panelling is recorded as being fitted by Plunkett's of Warwick, and it seems likely that they were responsible for fitting out the rooms in their entirety. The staircase hall contains further panelling and the window has nine panels of Flemish or German glass. To the first floor one bedroom has a fireplace with richly figured wood and ivory inlay. There is a first floor corridor with housekeepers' panelled cupboards to either side and Lyncrusta wallpaper and the former bedrooms contain a series of fireplaces with wood or cast metal surrounds.
STABLE BLOCK: The stables, with coach houses and, possibly, garaging are attached to the west side of the house. They have a T-shaped plan. The cross-stroke is oriented north-south and has a partially-glazed roof. The stables were arranged at either side of the central passageway of the downstroke, which runs east-west, but these have now been re-arranged to form teaching rooms. This part of the building is also richly decorated, with statuary and a louvered octagonal bellcote to the skyline and ball and sceptre finials. Several of the original windows have been replaced with uPVC windows and the openings appear to have been enlarged.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Terrace Balustrade and Stone Bench: Immediately to the south of the house is a terrace which is bounded to its south and east sides by a stone balustrade which has oval and diamond motifs and a moulded handrail. The balustrade connects at its east end to the foundations of the former conservatory. On the terrace is a stone bench with shaped ends which include lions masks and to its back it has a cresting incorporating carved acanthus leaves. HISTORY The opening of the Birmingham-Oxford Railway in 1852 caused the initial expansion of Solihull's urban area and throughout the later C19 and much of the C20, the borough has expanded to become an affluent commuter suburb of Birmingham. Tudor Grange was built for Alfred Lovekin of Adie & Lovekin, jewellers and silversmiths in 1887. The company manufactured a wide range of silver fancy goods at the end of the C19 and had a factory in Regent Street, Hockley. In 1894 they commissioned Mansell & Mansell to design a new factory for them at 23, Frederick Street, Birmingham which became known as `Trafalgar Works' (Grade II). Lovekin's wife died in 1900 and in 1901 the house was sold to Alfred Bird, son of the founder of Bird's Custard Company. He enlarged the house, adding the library and a sizeable conservatory to the east, and had Blossomfield Road moved northwards, away from the entrance front, and built a new entrance lodge at the end of the re-configured drive. He also employed Robert Bridgeman to ornament the house with statuary and furnished it with an extensive art collection which included paintings and also with panels of C16 and C17 Flemish stained glass, which survive in situ. Alfred Bird became M.P. for Wolverhampton West in 1910. In 1920 he was knighted and in 1922, the year of his death, he was made a baronet. His widow lived on at Tudor Grange until her death in 1943 and the house is believed to have been used as a Red Cross auxiliary hospital during and after the Second World War. In 1946 the house was bought by Warwickshire County Council and became a school for children with special needs until 1976 when it became part of Solihull Technical College.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, lodge, terracing and walled garden forms a coherent group.
SOURCES John Cattell, Sheila Ely, Barry Jones, The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, 2002, 219; George T. Noszlopy, Sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, Liverpool University Press, 2003, 301.
Now a Royal Palace of the Spanish Monarchy, the site was originally built as a Moorish fort under the Almohad Caliphate in the 12th Century A.D.
As a fine example of Mudéjar architecture, it is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Daffodils and tulips at Tudor Grange House, Blossomfield Park, Solihull.
Kept spotting daffodils from the no 6 bus going past here, so wanted to get them before they finished flowering. Looks like tulips now in flower.
Grade II* listed building
Reasons for Designation
Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, terracing and walling forms a coherent group.
Details
SOLIHULL
732/0/10042 BLOSSOMFIELD ROAD 24-OCT-08 Tudor Grange House and Stable Block
II* A large suburban house with attached stable block. It was designed and built in 1887 in a loosely Jacobean style by Thomas Henry Mansell of Birmingham for the industrialist Alfred Lovekin with panelling by Plunketts of Smith Street, Warwick. The house is of red stretcher bond brick with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof and has two storeys with attics and basement. The stable block is T-shaped in plan and attached to the west side of the house. EXTERIOR: The northern entrance front has a near-symmetrical centrepiece which is recessed at first floor level and above but which has a projecting three-bay porch to the ground floor with door to the right. At either side are projecting, gabled wings and these and the central bay all have shaped outlines to their gables. The windows to the ground and first floors are mullioned and transomed, and there are projecting bay windows to the ground floor at either side. There are panels of carved stonework, particularly around the porch, featuring strapwork and grotesque masks. A further bay to the east then joins to the low wall screening a service court and this in turn joins to the stable block. Extending to the west is a single-storey range of two bays added by Sir Alfred Bird with a square bay window and small, elaborately-carved oriel capped by a battlemented parapet. The garden front is composed with deliberate asymmetry, having five bays with shaped gables to the left of centre and far right and a canted and square bay, each of two storeys, as well as a single-storey bay to the far right. At the west end is a low screen wall which connects to the stable block. To the far east is a portion of walling, the southern side of which was formerly inside the conservatory. Attached to this are concrete containers attached to the wall which are moulded in immitation of rock. The skyline on both principal fronts has a very full array of clustered octagonal chimneys with moulded caps. The balustrade at the top of the wall has moulded balusters and the balustrade piers are surmounted by statues personifying a variety of figures including Hercules, Brutus and William the Conqueror some of which were carved by White's, according to George Noszlopy, who has identified the overall scheme as based on late C16 and early-C17 English engravings of heroes from Greek mythology, Roman Emperors and characters from English legend, some of which were added by Sir Alfred Bird who employed Robert Bridgeman. INTERIOR: The ground floor plan approximates to a double-pile plan with a large central staircase and entrance hall at either side of which are corridors leading to the former conservatory and the kitchens and service court. The ground floor has a series of lavishly decorated rooms, including the Dining Room, Morning Room, Drawing Room and Music Room. The Jacobean and Elizabethan styles are freely mixed and there are also elements of Georgian joinery, particularly in the Music Room. Each room has an elaborate fireplace with a carved oak surround and overmantel and panelling to dado height. Many of the fireplaces have tiled cheeks by the De Morgan or Ruskin potteries. The plaster ceilings are decorated with strapwork, fruit and flowers in high relief. Many of the windows contain panels of stained glass of good quality showing coats of arms or mottoes. Several also have panels of Flemish or German C16 or C17 glass. The Study and Music Room are particularly sumptuous, with richly carved woodwork. The Study, which was added to the earlier house by Sir Alfred Bird in the same style, has a screen of free-standing columns behind which is a small, richly-modelled, barrel-vaulted ceiling and, in the Music Room, there is panelling to the full height of the walls, divided by Ionic pilasters with panels of bay leaves to their lower bodies and strapwork and masks above. To the western end of the room are fitted cabinets with glazed doors and a smaller, central fireplace with flambeau glazing to the tiled surround. Above is an inset tapestry panel running the width of the wall showing a Tudor hunting scene. Sir Alfred Bird was a collector of Old Master paintings and several of the panels in the Music Room and Hallway have buttons to their lower rims which allow the panels to be removed and it is possible that pictures were incorporated into the panelling with a mechanism to release them in the event of a fire, as is the case with the heavy frames at the Wallace Collection and other C19 collections. The panelling is recorded as being fitted by Plunkett's of Warwick, and it seems likely that they were responsible for fitting out the rooms in their entirety. The staircase hall contains further panelling and the window has nine panels of Flemish or German glass. To the first floor one bedroom has a fireplace with richly figured wood and ivory inlay. There is a first floor corridor with housekeepers' panelled cupboards to either side and Lyncrusta wallpaper and the former bedrooms contain a series of fireplaces with wood or cast metal surrounds.
STABLE BLOCK: The stables, with coach houses and, possibly, garaging are attached to the west side of the house. They have a T-shaped plan. The cross-stroke is oriented north-south and has a partially-glazed roof. The stables were arranged at either side of the central passageway of the downstroke, which runs east-west, but these have now been re-arranged to form teaching rooms. This part of the building is also richly decorated, with statuary and a louvered octagonal bellcote to the skyline and ball and sceptre finials. Several of the original windows have been replaced with uPVC windows and the openings appear to have been enlarged.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Terrace Balustrade and Stone Bench: Immediately to the south of the house is a terrace which is bounded to its south and east sides by a stone balustrade which has oval and diamond motifs and a moulded handrail. The balustrade connects at its east end to the foundations of the former conservatory. On the terrace is a stone bench with shaped ends which include lions masks and to its back it has a cresting incorporating carved acanthus leaves. HISTORY The opening of the Birmingham-Oxford Railway in 1852 caused the initial expansion of Solihull's urban area and throughout the later C19 and much of the C20, the borough has expanded to become an affluent commuter suburb of Birmingham. Tudor Grange was built for Alfred Lovekin of Adie & Lovekin, jewellers and silversmiths in 1887. The company manufactured a wide range of silver fancy goods at the end of the C19 and had a factory in Regent Street, Hockley. In 1894 they commissioned Mansell & Mansell to design a new factory for them at 23, Frederick Street, Birmingham which became known as `Trafalgar Works' (Grade II). Lovekin's wife died in 1900 and in 1901 the house was sold to Alfred Bird, son of the founder of Bird's Custard Company. He enlarged the house, adding the library and a sizeable conservatory to the east, and had Blossomfield Road moved northwards, away from the entrance front, and built a new entrance lodge at the end of the re-configured drive. He also employed Robert Bridgeman to ornament the house with statuary and furnished it with an extensive art collection which included paintings and also with panels of C16 and C17 Flemish stained glass, which survive in situ. Alfred Bird became M.P. for Wolverhampton West in 1910. In 1920 he was knighted and in 1922, the year of his death, he was made a baronet. His widow lived on at Tudor Grange until her death in 1943 and the house is believed to have been used as a Red Cross auxiliary hospital during and after the Second World War. In 1946 the house was bought by Warwickshire County Council and became a school for children with special needs until 1976 when it became part of Solihull Technical College.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Tudor Grange, Solihull is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The house contains a series of carefully designed reception rooms which incorporate panelling, plasterwork, antique glass panels and tilework of considerable quality. * Tudor Grange is an interesting example of a new type of late-C19 house which was built for a generation of confident businessmen who did not establish themselves as country gentlemen but preferred to build houses which were within easy reach of their businesses but enjoyed the attributes of country house life. * The plan form of the house has been little altered and all of the principal areas and many of the different rooms can be identified. * The exterior of the house, with its joined stable block, lodge, terracing and walled garden forms a coherent group.
SOURCES John Cattell, Sheila Ely, Barry Jones, The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, 2002, 219; George T. Noszlopy, Sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, Liverpool University Press, 2003, 301.
The Moraga Street tiled stairway. This is the longest tiled stairway in the world and started as a local initiative fromthe community www.tiledsteps.org. The tilework is wonderfully detailed at it takes a long time to go up or down the stairways since one is looking closely at all of the detail.
"Architextures" is a series of composite images. Each image is a mashup of multiple photographs. At least one of the sources is of an architectural subject, anything from closeup walls or windows to broad cityscapes. The added images provide texture or pattern. In some, the architectural forms are preserved and obvious. In others, the pictures become pure abstractions. Yet in all of them, the inherent geometry, angles, lines, and repetitions of the architecture are essential to the geometry and esthetics of the final image. Most of the source images used for this series are already posted in this photostream. The links to the original and source images are listed below.
Inspiration for the name “Deco Tileworks” is in the geometry of the images. Decorative motifs suggestive of 1920’s and 1930’s art meld with rectilinear blocks suggestive of tilework in the public spaces and architecture of that era, such as railway and subway stations, movie theaters, and high rise office buildings. The Deco Tileworks sets all share a common foundation image. That base picture derives from views of the Atlanta, Georgia skyline and its tall buildings (source images and explanatory notes are elsewhere in this photostream). Specifically, there were two original source images, Facets #1a and #2a. These were combined to create Facets #2e, which by itself was reworked into the common core for the Deco Tileworks. Image 11a, the first in this set, is the common foundation image for the rest of the Deco series.
Base images used for the Deco Tileworks series are:
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #1a _ (© 2012 megart)
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #2a _ (© 2012 megart)
atlanta highview _ grey sky facets #2e _ (© 2012 megart)
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587589876
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587598284
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587599742
The Architextures 11 series of Deco Tileworks uses no other source images or composition elements. Only the Facets #2e image is present. Variations of texture, color, and form come from mathematical merges and blends, and from simple mirrors and rotations.
The Architextures 12 series of Deco Tileworks continues the basic themes and geometries of the Deco Tileworks 11 series, but it introduces bright colors. Whites and yellows were created with no additional source images or composition elements, just various merges and saturations of the common deco tileworks foundation image. Blues and greens were created by overlays with another of the Atlanta Highview images (blue sky facets v2). Oranges and reds were introduced by overlays with an unrelated non-architectural image (sunset trees & red rock cliffs _ arches national park, utah).
Part of the fantastic decorative tilework. I first noticed these faces yesterday despite having visited the arcade many, many times over the past forty years. Wikipedia says that the tiles were made by Rust Vitreous Mosaics of Battersea, but I have yet to find out who the designer was. The Edwardian arcade was a retrofit to the original Central Exchange building through which it passes, following a disastrous fire.
The tilework for the Bloor-Danforth platform at the Spadina TTC station. The font seems fairly unique to the TTC; while I've seen variations here and there, I've only found one (very good) reproduction.
Seeing Grand Central Terminal after being inside Detroit's Michigan Central Station was like seeing a ghost in reverse. The same architect designed both. The tilework, the arches, the metalwork of the windows, were all the same. But In Detroit, I'd only seen them in ruin. Here they are alive and whole. Comparing the two in my head as I wandered through was a surreal experience.
Pilaster Tilework (1911)
Hartford Faience for Taylor & Levi
J.L. Kesner Co.
695–709 Sixth Ave.
Ladies Mile, New York
Julius, Samuel, Louis, and William Ehrich opened a dry goods store at Eighth Avenue and 24th Street in 1857. They joined other retailers on burgeoning Sixth Avenue in 1889. The store was known for hats and silk goods. To combat falling trade, they introduced a small movie theatre into the store in 1910. But the store bowed to the inevitable and closed in 1911.
The store was bought by Chicago dry good merchant, J.L. Kesner. After some renovations (Note the “K” on tile pilasters), they heavily promoted their new business. But Sixth Avenue was dying, and they were forced to close their doors by 1913.
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI10-2502
Royal Albert 1 v 3 Clydebank
Macron Scottish Junior Cup
4th Round
Tileworks Park
Stonehouse
Saturday 24th November 2018
"Architextures" is a series of composite images. Each image is a mashup of multiple photographs. At least one of the sources is of an architectural subject, anything from closeup walls or windows to broad cityscapes. The added images provide texture or pattern. In some, the architectural forms are preserved and obvious. In others, the pictures become pure abstractions. Yet in all of them, the inherent geometry, angles, lines, and repetitions of the architecture are essential to the geometry and esthetics of the final image. Most of the source images used for this series are already posted in this photostream. The links to the original and source images are listed below.
The Gothic Tileworks images use the same common foundation image used by the Deco Tileworks sets 11 & 12. See pictures from those series for explanations about the basis for these Architexture images. In the Gothic series, the Deco tilework images are combined with other elements.
Gothic Tileworks 13a. Added to the base Deco tile images is a lancet window from a stone cathedral. It is from the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, a facility of the New (Swedenborg) Church, in Bryn Athyn, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Philadelphia. (The lancet window image is pending posting to this photostream.) In this image, “Gothic” refers to the historical period and architectural style circa 1100-1500 CE, because the cathedral is built in the Gothic style of basilica plan churches.
Gothic Tileworks 13b. Added to the base Deco tile images is an image of a tree. This is the image used in the Deco Tileworks 12 set to create orange and red coloration. In this case, the image merge used different mathematical operators to preserve the tree branches. In this image, “Gothic” refers to the dark mood of culture and arts that was popularized in 19th century Romanticism.
Additional images used for the Deco Tileworks 12 series are:
atlanta highview _ blue sky facets v2
sunset trees & red rock cliffs _ arches national park, utah
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7587580966
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/7284703594
Deco Tileworks 11 & 12, explanatory text & images:
architextures 11a _ deco tileworks
architextures 12d _ deco tileworks
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/33302633221
www.flickr.com/photos/meg99az/33431068215
Additional images used for the Gothic Tileworks 13 series are:
sunset trees & red rock cliffs _ arches national park, utah
Citizens National Bank (Gold Dome) Building
Designed by Robert Roloff of Bailey, Bozalis, Dickinson and Roloff
OKC
1955
This gorgeous, reflective bronze tilework is found throughout the stunning Gold Dome building; it's one of my very favorite features of this incredible structure.
Nice sinks!
Ahmed's hostel "Chez les Berbers" was wonderfully colourful.
For more of the story behind the world cycle attempt, visit www.2010tillwhen.com
"Christelijke Voorbereidende School / Luk. 18:16" (St. Luke 18:16: "But Jesus called unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God").
On a building dating from 1881. The tilework is probably from a later date: a "voorbereidende school" is what later was called a "kleuterschool", but until about 1890 it was called a "bewaarschool" or "kleine kinderbewaarschool". At some point in time this school was called "Piggelmee". It now houses an art gallery and shop.
[Earlier picture replaced on 18 Dec 2011.]
Blaine Avery of Avery Pottery and Tileworks at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters in November 2011
Celebration of Seagrove Potters - November 2011
The November Celebration of Seagrove Potters takes place at the Historic Luck's Cannery located on Pottery Highway 705 just around a mile from the town of Seagrove, North Carolina.
This is a unique and special once a year event where the local Seagrove Potters annually gather under one roof in November the weekend before Thanksgiving.
www.celebrationofseagrovepotters.com
The Seagrove Potters are open throughout the year and we welcome the public to our pottery shops to learn, talk, and buy pottery.