© Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent. Inv. 474

Description:

Brown print & color washes, makers mark "TA SIMPSON / STOKE-ON-TRENT". The tile is decorated with shell motifs and it is possible the design was intended for use on a fireplace, perhaps in a bathroom. The demand for wall tiles increased rapidly in the later 19th century. One of the most popular uses of tiles, of the type shown here, was in conjunction with fireplaces. While tiles had been used in this way for centuries, the new cast-iron grates that began to appear in this period were specifically designed to be set with  tiles, which were fitted to metal panels that bolted onto the frame. 

T. A. Simpson & Co. were  based in Hanley and Stoke and produced a wide range of tiles from the 1880s. The earliest tiles made by the factory were decorated on blanks bought in from Minton Hollins & Co. and other firms. By about 1900 they began producing their own tiles for decoration.