Square Roots

The earliest use of decorative tiles was found in Egypt, dating from about 4000 BCE. Tiles were also made by the Assyrians and Babylonians. The Romans and Greeks also favored decorative tiles, and many examples of beautiful tilework can be seen in mosaics, murals and more.

During the Islamic period, decorative tiles became popular; they were often used as embellishments for both inside and outside buildings. Beautiful tilework can be found in 9th-Century Tunisia and 11th-Century Kashan, Iran, and many mosques dating from the 12th Century on. Beautiful examples of Islamic tiles include examples in the Seyyed Mosque in Isfahan from about 1122 CE and the Jame Mosque of Gonabad from 1212 CE.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that decorative tiles became popular in Europe. They first spread in Spain during the time of the Moors, then to neighboring countries, finally reaching the rest of Europe.

Beautiful examples of Islamic tiles from what was Persia appear quite often at auction and always sell for large sums of money. The appearance of a dog is very, very rare, and on the odd occasion when a dog does appear, it is of a Saluki type. The earliest example in Europe of dogs on tiles is a hound baying on tiles in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

Jump forward a good few centuries and dogs can be found on Dutch Delft tiles, but both the beauty and quality of European tiles from the 17th Century are no match for the Islamic ones. Collecting antique tiles with dogs from this period is, by comparison to Islamic and other rare earlier tiles, an inexpensive area to collect.

Delft tile-making originated as far back as the 16th Century, following the large shipment of porcelain from China coming into the hands of the Dutch through piracy. Artisans in the Netherlands began experimenting to create their own version for the middle classes. Delft was originally made of earthenware, and the blue-and-white tiles have changed little. The tile with the naive decoration of a dog tethered to a post drinking was made at Delft circa 1780.

From the middle years of the 19th Century, with advances made in the pottery industry and the development and standardization of dog breeds, dogs began to appear on tiles from many manufacturers, the most popular of which was Wedgwood.

The company was founded as long ago as 1759 by potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, and by the late 19th Century had become one of the largest manufacturers of the Staffordshire potters. The company enhanced the reputation of British ceramic art more than any other manufacturer, exporting all over Europe, Russia and the Americas.

Many of their transfer-printed sporting scenes were influenced by the engravings of Sir Edwin Landseer — himself, like Wedgwood, hugely successful. The head of an Irish Water Spaniel is one of a number of heads — various dog breeds, horses and camels — that were depicted on plates and other wares from designs attributed to a member of the family, Godfrey Wedgwood. The tile, which also appeared in green, was manufactured in 1878.

The Pointer was one of the most popular dog breeds up to the late 19th Century, when spaniels and retrievers took their place following the land closures when a dog more suited to closer work became necessary. The first dog show along the lines we know dog shows today was confined to pointers and setters, as were the earliest field trials. Three further Wedgwood tiles all depict the Pointer; a particularly finely engraved head study from the “Dogs’ Heads” series, a second beside a gun and a selection of dead game, and a third that has just flushed a grouse, the latter two coming from the “Game” series.

The head of the Deerhound is from the “Dogs’ Heads” series and is a direct copy of a Landseer engraving. Landseer’s original picture of his favorite hound, “Hafed,” from which the engraving was taken, was completed in 1835 and was commissioned by “The Sportsman’s Annual.”

Thomas and Richard Boote moved to Burslem in 1850, and their sole output there was transfer-printed tiles. They concentrated their production on the aesthetic movement of 1860 to 1900, which aimed to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Industrial Age by focusing instead on producing art that was beautiful — “Art for Art’s Sake.” The tile “Winter” from the “Four Seasons” range very much portrays what they were aiming at. Classically inspired, two Greyhounds — a breed that appeared in classical art down the centuries — sit beside an open fire with a stag’s head hanging on the wall, emphasizing that this is the interior of a grand house.  

In 1850, George Maw and his brother Arthur founded their company on the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire. They specialized solely in the manufacture of tiles, and over the years covered every conceivable subject. They became the largest manufacturer of tiles in the world. The list of persons and establishments they supplied tiles to ran to five large pages, and in addition to the British and Russian royal families included two maharajahs, nine dukes, 12 earls, the railway companies, 13 cathedrals, 36 hospitals, 53 public buildings, 19 schools and colleges, and five warships. They closed their doors in 1970.

“The Dog and His Shadow” illustration is from Aesop’s Fables. The Bulldog is crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth when he sees his own shadow in the water and takes it for another dog. This tile is from the 19th Century; the sleeping Bull Terrier tile is from the 1930s. The image is a copy of a picture by Cecil Aldin of his dog “Cracker.” After the end of the First World War, Aldin acquired two puppies, “Micky” the Irish Wolfhound and “Cracker” the Bull Terrier, and by the end of the 1920s they were the two most famous dogs in the British Isles.

Finally, the tile featuring a dog in relief set into a panel was manufactured by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, which is now a history museum located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It is now owned by Bucks County and operated as a non-profit organization, producing tiles to the original designs.

It was founded in 1898 by Henry Chapman Mercer, a major proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement in America. They produced tiles for hundreds of private and public buildings such as the John D. Rockefeller estate in New York, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and the State Capitol in Harrisburg.