318 
The Garden Magazine, July, 1923 
GENUINE SPANISH POTTERY 
‘The same use of tiles and flower-pots and 
decorative sculptural pottery prevails to-day 
about the Mediterranean, as several hundred 
years ago.” These pieces are part of an inter¬ 
esting private collection owned by Mr. W. L. 
Bottomley, the architect 
but our eastern American is an eastern facing coast like 
the Chinese. For the purposes of civilization, Professor Ells¬ 
worth Huntington assures us, there is no better climate 
anywhere, but its opportunities and virtues differ from those 
of the climate to which the ancestors of most of us had 
been, no one knows how many thousand years, adapting their 
habits. 
The process of trying out habits on the climate is now visibly 
going on, and it seems to have been noticed at last that our 
Eastern climate has at least as many points of resemblance to 
the southern European as to the northern. Hence along with 
the increase of out-of-door living, comes an increased interest 
in out-of-door architecture of southern Europe, and incident to 
this a greater use, and many uses 
unfamiliar hitherto, of pottery. 
Another way in which color was 
obtained for the stucco walls was 
by the use of colored tiles with 
beautifully designed patterns. These 
are especially noticeable in southern 
Spain. The tradition which the 
Moors carried into Spain no doubt 
came through them from earlier 
sources, from Egypt and Assyria. 
Perhaps the earliest tiles were As¬ 
syrian. Some years ago there was 
in New York a company which im¬ 
ported from Tunis or Algeria old 
tiles and modern ones reproducing 
the old models. 
In southern Spain the use was 
very general, especially in connec¬ 
tion with their patios—Roman or 
Greek, atrium or peristyle, monastic 
cloister, Spanish patio—they are all 
essentially the same thing, a sheltered courtyard for pleasure, 
peace, and health, an adaptation of custom to climate. In long, 
hot, dry summers, even in the city—a Mediterranean civiliza¬ 
tion was a city civilization—it gave them open air privacy, cool 
shade at any hour, the charm of flowers and harmonious color 
for the eye, and for the ear the music of falling water. 
The Spanish tiles were set in the walls, mounted in patterns 
around the basins of fountains and wellheads, and in the sides 
of plant boxes. They were used in garden seats, in floors, in the 
risers of the steps leading up from the patios. There were won¬ 
derful patterns and gorgeous colors in tiles made in early days 
in Mediterranean countries. Not only did each tile have its 
pattern, but a large design might be dispersed over a group of 
F OR the out-of-door use of pot¬ 
tery in Spain and Italy is very 
old, very general and extraordinarily 
varied. Almost any one is familiar 
with the decorative bas-reliefs of the 
Della Robbia types, set in the outer 
walls of buildings, and lending color 
to the stucco walls. They were 
sometimes unframed reliefs in blue 
and white, but perhaps were oftener 
framed with decorative borders of 
fruit and flowers in clear blues, yel¬ 
lows, greens, and oranges. 
Lucca Della Robbia, followed by 
his nephew and his nephew’s sons, 
produced for about a century (in the 
15th and 16th centuries) thousands 
of reliefs in glazed clay, commonly 
lunettes and tondos, pure white fig¬ 
ures on a deep blue ground, and 
also architectural decorations in 
fruits and flowers in more vigorous 
color. The clay was fired a second 
time after tinting and so rendered 
impervious to weather. 
THE POILLON POTTERY 
Notable in particular for its glazes, Mrs. Poillon’s pottery is extremely lovely and varied in color and may well 
be used wherever sparking hues and the more historic forms of ornament are fitting. (Wall-pocket, bird-bath, 
flower-pots and dish shown above) 
