Antique Collecting Magazine - November 2007 Extract


ANTIQUE COLLECTING The Journal of the Antique Collectors' Club

Extract from the November 2007 Magazine

THE TILES AND ART POTTERY OF LEWIS FOREMAN DAY
by Joan Maria Hansen

Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was one of the most influential industrial designers and critics of his time. His design repertoire included clocks and furniture, wallpapers, textiles, stained glass and interiors that revealed his mastery of pattern, colour and ornament as well as superb draughtsmanship. Spanning virtually the entire period from 1870 to 1910, his designs for tiles and art pottery capture all the energy, variety and abundance that characterised the industry as a whole during its heyday. Day's range was wide: from designs for one-of-a-kind pieces of art pottery, to those for tiles that would be executed through larger-scale production by major firms. In his magazine journalism and books Day gave a running commentary on contemporary developments in tile and art pottery manufacture.

Making his reputation
By the time Day set up his independent design practice in late 1869, he had already decided to design tiles and art pottery. However, he did not immediately pursue ceramic design. Over the next few years, his energies were directed towards establishing a solid client base, and his first clients engaged him for design of stained glass, jewellery and book covers. His entree to ceramic design came in the mid-1870s through two clients for whom he had designed other types of furnishings. November 2007 Magazine Page 20

Lewis F.Day, blue and white plate with motif of crab and seaweed. From Day, Instances of Accessory Art (1880):pl.27 (Michael whiteway)

Day had designed church decoration, wallpaper and stained glass for decorators W.B. Simpson & Sons and expanded into tile design for the firm. Some earthen-ware patterns registered by Simpson's between 1876 and 1883 may include designs by Day, though none has been firmly attributed. A number of the registered designs incorporated leaf and pod, daisy and chrysanthemum motifs. Day used these motifs, but they were all popular and in common circulation at the time. He also provided Simpson's with advertisements for the types of furnishings he designed for them, and some of these featured encaustic and mosaic tile pavements, which he may also have designed. Most of the firm's archives were destroyed in Second World War bombings or lost in various moves, thus rendering positive identification difficult. Though the amount of work he did in tile design for Simpson's was small in comparison to that of wallpaper and stained glass, it gave him the chance to gain experience and probably provided a referral to Maw, who became a major client in the mid-1880s.
The early client most significant in raising Day's profile as a ceramic designer was Howell & James, the upmarket Regent Street retailer of home furnishings. Beginning in about 1871, Day designed jewellery for the store and soon began providing designs for furniture, tapestry, plaques and clock cases, many of which had blue and white ceramic faces. In the mid-1870s Day was also designing art pottery on his own, and aside from pieces given to family and friends, it is likely that Howell & James retailed some of these. Mostly dishes and plaques in blue and white, they featured figural subjects or motifs from nature, popular subjects in the current rage for china painting.