Lycett tiles
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890-1895
name: label: maker
content: Lycett, Edward
notes: label: Description
content: About Edward Lycett Pottery:
label: Description
content: Edward Lycett arrived in the United States in 1861 and quickly received important commissions such as the 1865 White House painted porcelain service for President Abraham Lincoln. He produced the first vitrified china in America with pure gilt decoration for Tiffany & Company. Travelling across America, Lycett taught the decorative technique of china painting at major ceramic centers such as Cincinnati and East Liverpool, Ohio, where soon-to-be influential women in the art pottery movement, Maria Longworth Nichols and Mary Louise McLaughlin, began their careers as china painters. Within his own time, Lycett was called “the pioneer of china painting in America” by ceramic historians. In 1890, at the age of 57, Edward Lycett left Faience Manufacturing (See About Faience Manufacturing Company) when it was sold and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to work in his son William’s studio. He continued to experiment with clay and glaze materials as well as different firing techniques until he died in 1910. A number of small pieces were donated to the Smithsonian and illustrate the breakthroughs of Edward Lycett’s experimentation. Rather than making flat test tiles, Lycett chose to make miniature forms to test his various metallic effects. Such cruets, vases, pitchers, and heart-shaped dishes display red iridescence, mirrored and matte gilding, and bubbling glaze techniques.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: Three framed iridescent tiles with patterns in relief; peacock pattern in brown, circles with a flower in center glazed green, and a stylized flower in dark blue as the last tile. Claimed to be a reproduction of the old Persian lustre tiles; made by Edward Lycett who discovered this glaze. The middle tile he regards as his best specimen.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Georgia, Atlanta
topic: label: Subject
content: Art Pottery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Edward Lycett
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.96472
label: catalog number
content: 96472
label: accession number
content: 30736
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tiles
label: Other Terms
content: Plaque; Manuscript
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: black (backing color)
label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (backing material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (backing material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/4 in x 1/2 in; x 10.795 cm x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/4 in x 13 13/16 in x 5 1/8 in; 1.905 cm x 35.08375 cm x 13.0175 cm