Born and bred in the environs of Birmingham, Sheila Hughes (1937-2006) first began collecting tiles in the early 1970s.
Driven by a desire to save her local architectural heritage at a
time when so many old houses in the city were lost to
redevelopment, she began by encouraging demolition men to save her
cast iron fireplaces. Later, as her passion for the subject grew,
she would catch the coach to London where she would visit
specialist dealers for a day on the tiles.
When family members began to clear the contents of her Arts and
Crafts home they found, on the third floor, banana box upon banana
box of largely Victorian and Edwardian tiles, some of the rarest
lovingly preserved within an almost equally impressive collection
of over 500 pairs of trousers and a similar number of woollen
sweaters. Imagine the look on the face of her granddaughter's
schoolteacher when presented with more than 300 pairs of shoes for
a Blue Peter appeal.
Will Farmer, director of Fieldings, was offered a task of
greater magnitude late last year when, with typical enthusiasm, he
emerged from Hughes' home and declared to her family: "I have had
the most wonderful morning of my life".
There were, alongside a collection of some 2000-3000 garden
tools and a tail-lift van full of clothes, close to 3500 tiles
arranged according to a somewhat byzantine filing system.
Rather than keeping sets together Hughes sorted her tiles into
subject matter: frogs in the frog box, farmyard animals in another
and so on. A box themed 'flowers', for example, could throw up a
William De Morgan alongside a run of pedestrian T&R Boote
transfer prints.
This is the sort of sale, in a field where the average unit
value is relatively low that, increasingly we must look to the
provinces or the internet to find. While we are not yet at the
stage where London salerooms are turning away De Morgan beast
tiles, there is no doubt that the best would have been creamed off
for a decorative arts catalogue before selling the rest on referral
or in massive single lots of the type collectors perennially
dislike.
Sale Marketing
Not constrained by bean counters demanding minimum lot values,
Will Farmer took a stand at a specialist tile fair to display some
of the highlights and ask members of the Tiles and Architectural
Ceramics Society (TACS) how they would like to see such a large
collection dispersed. Unlike Sheila Hughes they wanted to see tiles
sold by factory and in as few multiples as possible.
Among 212 registered bidders and 140 successful buyers at the
sale on January 12 it was often those collectors who came away with
the 'trophy' lots.
Predictably many of the major sums were paid for the 16 tiles by
De Morgan.
In the wake of the Creffield collection sold in two parts by
Bonhams last year this market has become a little saturated but
with realistic estimates designed to avoid the casualties seen in
London these held up well.
Most highly rated were two 6in (15cm) early Fulham period
'beast' tiles painted in deep blue to a turquoise ground. A
stylised peacock in walking pose took £1550 and a tortoise £1600
(estimates £600-800).
Above: two William De Morgan early Fulham period beast tiles
painted to a turquoise ground. The tortoise tile took £1600 and the
peacock made £1550 at the sale of The Sheila Hughes Tile Collection
at Fieldings.
But perhaps a more interesting feature of this sale was the
competition for rare Victorian and Edwardian dust pressed transfer
printed tiles. There were tiles here that many dealers and
collectors had not seen outside reference works.
Sold at £620 (estimate £120-150) was a 8in (20cm) tile by
Mintons sepia line printed and painted with a scene of a young
fisher girl with a catch of lobster. It carried the signature of
William Wise the prolific graphic designer who worked freelance for
Minton China Works during the 1870s and 1880s. He specialised in
these depictions of rural life - most of which are worth around
£40-50 - but this larger tile with coloured decoration is evidently
a rarity.
Six (of the 12) tiles from the Mintons China Works' Gastronomic
series depicting Victorian characters preparing and digesting food
were valued at around £100 a tile. Like the best Minton tiles they
were also line printed and then hand enamelled.
They sold at £1550.
Mr Farmer described the cataloguing of this sale as "one of the
steepest learning curves of my career."While aided greatly by a
copy of Chris Blanchett's 20th Century Decorative British Tiles and
TACS members happy to share their knowledge, he was still learning
much during and after the sale.
He had tried and failed before the sale to identify the designer
of four Minton, Hollins & Co dust pressed tiles each hand
enamelled in sepia and black over white glazed ground with scenes
from Aesop's fables.
They were estimated at £120- 150 but sold at £800.The reason?
They were among a small number of designs done for Minton Hollins
by Clement Heaton who is best known for his Arts and Crafts work in
stained glass and enamelling.
Above: Minton, Hollins & Co tile hand decorated with a
stylised pelican feeding its young after design by Dresser - £760
at the sale of The Sheila Hughes Tile Collection at
Fieldings.
Equally contested were both a pair of two tile panels by Maw
& Co line transfer printed in blue with geishas in kimonos
(estimated at £100-150 each) and a pair of early 20th century
Pilkingtons tiles hand decorated with cottages to a lakeside
setting in majolica style glaze colours (estimate £80-120).
The Japanese ladies are the two sides of a fireplace triptych -
the horizontal panel depicts a geisha lying on a bed - and two
buyers had to have them. One panel raised £840.The other sold at
£800.
Helped by the presence of two collectors, Pilkingtons tiles were
a particularly strong section. This pair set in dark stained oak
frames took £780.
Outstanding for their sheer quality were two 8in (20cm) Steel
& Wood dust pressed tiles that had been hand painted with
profile portraits of young ladies emblematic of summer and autumn.
One bears the full signature for the freelance decorator Lucien
Besche, the second signed in monogram. They took £1120 (estimate
£600-800).
Above: one of a pair of Steel & Wood tiles later painted
with profile portraits depicting Summer and Autumn by Lucien Besche
- £1120 at the sale of The Sheila Hughes Tile Collection at
Fieldings.
Most of the interest in this sale was from the UK but there was
a strong American presence and bidders from Europe who often
focused upon specific areas: Dutch for the small volume of delft
tiles, Germans for Art Nouveau and French for Continental
productions.
Tiles designed by Christopher Dresser naturally attract
crossover buyers. Another of the much-coveted 'singles' was an 8in
(20cm) Mintons China Works dust pressed tile printed and enamelled
with bluetits resting on stylised grasses.
This design (listed as pattern book number 1143) comes in two
colours: with a terracotta ground and pink flowers, as seen here;
and with a white ground and red flowers as seen to two examples in
the Harry Lyons Collection sold at Christie's South Kensington in
October 2004. The pair (with minor damage) at Christie's made
£700.
The single terracotta example here, with small imperfections,
took £540 (estimate £80-120).
A Minton, Hollins & Co 6in (15cm) tile hand decorated with a
stylised stork feeding its young in a nest in imitation of stained
glass was also a Dresser design.
Estimated at £80-120 it took £760.
Not so popular were the J.&W.Wade & Co relief moulded
tiles and productions by some of the lesser factories such as T.R.
Boote or Packard & Ord.
But these did not remain unsold for long. Shortly after the sale
the auctioneers were approached by a client interested in the 16
per cent of the collection that had not sold. A deal was struck
with the vendors to bring the selling rate to 100 per cent.
The buyer's premium was 15%.
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