Pugin-designed polychrome glazed terracotta stove tile

• Pugin - Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, (1812-52) was an architect and designer and leader of the Gothic Revival movement which was so important an influence on Victorian taste. His father had an architectural drawing school, and artists from that school, including Pugin, then 15 years old, were employed to make drawings of the furniture to be taken to Windsor palace. Later in the year he was employed to design and make working drawings of furniture for the palace. He also designed silver for the royal goldsmiths Rundell Bridge & Rundell. By the 1830s he was insisting on historical accuracy, and published a number of influential books on the Gothic style. He was responsible for furniture in the Houses of Parliament (1836-7) the design of the tower that houses Big Ben. He became a Catholic in 1833, and he and his son Edward Welby Pugin (1834-75) designed and built several churches. In his short life, he married three times. After his death Pugin's two sons, Edward Welby Pugin and Peter Paul Pugin, continued operating their father's architectural firm under the name Pugin & Pugin.
• Terracotta - Terracotta is lightly fired earthenware, red or reddish-brown in colour, used in ancient times. Fired at higher temperatures terracotta was used in the nineteenth century for decorative vases and similar objects, but rarely for utilitarian goods. Other uses for terracotta include roofing tiles, garden pots and ornaments. Glazed terracotta is known as faience.
• Polychrome - Made or finished in many colours. For furniture, it is used to indicated a painted finish.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• exhibitions, exhibits and memorabilia - Great Exhibition of 1851, London 69
• tiles - Mintons Ltd. (England) 27