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About the De Morgan Centre Ceramics Collection

The De Morgan Centre is fortunate in owning the largest collection of William De Morgan's ceramics.

His greatest artistic legacy is his rediscovery of the lost art of lustre and the brilliant colours of Islamic pottery, especially the bright turquoise he had first admired on Iznik work of the 16th century which he had studied at the recently opened South Kensington Museum, which is today known as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Lustre and Islamic Pottery

Red Lustre grotesque animal, double gourd shaped vase

Lustre pottery has the surface appearance of oil on water, an opalescence that reflects the light like polished metal. The technique, a sophisticated chemical reaction created within the kiln, was first used in the ninth century but the most successful lustre production was at Kashan in Persia in the 13th century. From there the Moors took the technique to Spain in the 15th century, and it found its way from there to Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, where it died out.

De Morgan's discovery of this technique was accidental. At the end of the 1860's he was working only as a stained glass artist. He noticed that "the yellow stain of silver on glass" when overfired showed iridescence. He thought if it could be achieved on glass, it could also be done on ceramics, whether on tiles or on vessels. He was soon able to produce copper red, gold, and silver lustres.

His knowledge of Iznik design and their distinctive colours was recognised by Frederick (later Lord) Leighton who had installed original Iznik, Persian and Syrian tiles in the Arab Hall of his home in Kensington (now Leighton House). De Morgan was asked to tile the entrance hall and staircase which he did using his own intense Turkish turquoise design. Many of De Morgan's Iznik-inspired designs use traditional Turkish flowers - carnations, tulips, hyacinths, often formalised into an ogee pattern.

Animal Designs

William De Morgan is well known for his animal designs which were used on pots, dishes and tiles, frequently against leafy backgrounds.

Important Commissions

Tile panel designed by Halsey Ricardo and made by William De Morgan for one of the P&O liners for which he made the tiles c.1888-1897. South London Gallery.

Between 1882 and 1900 De Morgan designed tile panels for public rooms on twelve new passenger liners for the P&O Steam Navigation Co. None of these ships survive today, but many of the original design drawings are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and some panels that were produced as duplicates still exist. Here De Morgan's imagination ran wild with depictions of fanciful landscapes inspired by the exotic cities and countries to be visited by the ships as they sailed to the Far East. De Morgan also made a series of tile panels for the Czar of Russia’s yacht, Livadia’.

Find out more about some of his work by choosing a link below.

• Dragon tile panel
• Bedford Park daisy tile
• Vase with ship and fish design
• Galleon Tile Panel