decorated pavement tiles seemed to have been entirely replaced by the common buff or red terra-cotta "quarries" so largely used in farmhouse kitchens, dairies, &c, and it is to the painted tiles for walls and fireplaces that we have to look for the progress of the art.
The modern revival of tile-making in Europe dates from about 1830, when Samuel Wright, a potter of Shelton, near Stoke-upon-Trent, was granted a patent for the manufacture of tiles by mechanical means. His patent was extended for fourteen years, and in 1844 was purchased, in equal shares, by Herbert Minton—head of the famous firm of Mintons, of Stoke-upon-Trent—and Fleming St John, of Worcester. In 1848 the firm of Mintons .acquired the sole right of the patent, and
Fig. 7.—A Panel of De Morgan's.
for many years Mintons were the most famous tile manufacturers in the world. In 1850 the firm of Maw & Co. purchased the remaining stock of encaustic tiles made at Worcester, and, on the expiration of Wright's patent, commenced to manufacture at the old works at Worcester, removing in 1851 to Benthall, Shropshire, and afterwards, about 1887, to their present works at Jackfield in the same district.
From the methods thus invented in England all the modern processes of tile-making have sprung. In some cases they resemble the old "plastic" method of encaustic tile-making as it was practised in England in the middle ages, except that the tile is finally pressed in a mechanical press.
The tile-makers of this mid-Victorian period owed much of their success to the birth of modern Gothic architecture, and many of their designs were produced by such famous architects as Pugin, Gilbert Scott, Street, &c, so that between 1850 and 1880 encaustic tiles had a great vogue for pavement work not only in England, but in all civilized countries, and fine examples of the rich encaustic pavements made at Mintons', Maw's, or Godwin's of Hereford, are to be found in most of the restored cathedrals and churches of this period.
Side by side with the revival of this ancient process, there was developed an essentially modern process of manufacturing by compressing pulverized clay in metal dies under a screw press. This was the outgrowth of a patent granted to Richard Prosser in 1840, and worked out and perfected at the works of Minton at Stoke-upon-Trent. The advantages of this method of manufacture consist in (a) greater rapidity in execution than can be effected by the plastic method, and (b) the greater mechanical accuracy of the finished tile due to the steel dies used in shaping the tile and to the diminished contraction in drying and firing. This essentially modern method of tile-making is really an outcome of the methods introduced in the manufacture of English earthenware (see Ceramics), and it has not only been extensively developed in England, but has been adopted, practically without modification, in all the leading countries of Europe and in the United States.
The manufacture of tiles by the compression of powdered clay rendered possible the introduction of many varieties—plain, inlaid, embossed and incised. The designs in these cases, though generally based on old work, are so different, especially in mechanical finish, that they form a class of tiles entirely distinct from old work. Economically, and for all practical purposes, they afford a style such as the world has never before seen, but, like many modern productions—perfect in execution and finish—they lack the spontaneity and artistic charm of the work of bygone days.
Since the middle of the 19th century artist-potters in many countries have gone back to the ancient methods of production for richly painted tile panels, and, in this connexion, the productions of Deck in France, William de Morgan and Pilkington's in England, mark a distinct departure from contemporary modern work.
The extended use of tiles for interior decoration has created a large trade in these articles, either for wall or floor decoration. Among the most important firms engaged in this branch of the ceramic industry must be mentioned Mintons, Hollins & Co., Maw & Co., and Pilkington's in England; Villeroy & Boch in Germany; Utschneider & Co. in France; Boch Freres in Belgium; Thooft & Labouchere at Delft, Holland; and the American Encaustic Tile Co., in the United States.
Literature.—Besides the works mentioned in connexion with special sections in the text a good deal of information about tiles in general, and modern tiles in particular, will be found in Furnival, Leadless Decorative Tiles, &c.; L. L. Jewitt, Ceramic Art of Great Britain; see also Forrer, Geschichte der europaischen Fliesen-Keramik.
(W. B.*)
TILLEMONT, SEBASTIEN LE NAIN DE (1637-1698), French
ecclesiastical historian, was born in Paiis on the 30th of November 1637. His father, a wealthy member of the legal class, being a devoted Jansenist, the boy was brought up in the little
schools of Port Royal. Here his bent towards historical study
was warmly encouraged, and in 1660 he was made a tutor in the
seminary of Buzenval, Jansenist bishop of Beauvais. Ten
years later he came back to Paris, and was eventually persuaded
(1676) to enter the priesthood, and become a chaplain at Port
Royal. In 1679 the storm of persecution drove him to settle
on his family estate of Tillemont, between Montreuil and Vin-
cennes. There he spent the remainder of his life, dying on the
10th of January 1698. He was buried at Port Royal; in 1711,
on the desecration of the cemetery, his remains were transferred
to the church of St André des Arcs in Paris.
From the age of twenty he was at work on his two great books—the Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles, and the Histoire des empereurs during the same period. Both works began to appear during his lifetime—the Histoire in 1690, the Mémoires in 1693—but in neither case was the publication
