Lord Alwyne Compton (1825-1906) undertook in the mid-1840s to document as many medieval tile patterns as he could find. With the help of A.W. Franks he travelled widely to trace old tiles. Friends who learned of his project sent him tile tracings. His interest in the designs had probably been inspired in part by the work of John Gough Nichols who had published earlier in the decade his illustrated study of encaustic tiles, and who later printed tile designs for Compton. Compton bequeathed his collection to the Society of Antiquaries. It consists mostly of British tile designs with a few from France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
Lord Alwyne Compton collection on tiles
Archive Collection
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- ReferenceGB 118 COM
- Dates of Creation19th century
- Name of Creator
- Language of MaterialEnglish
- Physical Description5 boxes and 3 oversize portfolios.
Scope and Content
Access Information
open for consultation
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https://collections.sal.org.uk/com
Archivist's Note
A detailed index of the tile drawings and tracings in this collection (not including the large volume of tracings COM/02/03) was prepared by Cleota Reed in 2000. This information will be included in the online catalogue in due course. In the meantime, the pdf is available on the online catalogue of the Society of Antiquaries at the bottom of this page under 'Related documents'.