Illustration: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ceramic tile design, 1850.
It is sometimes difficult when faced with obvious medieval styling to consider the artefacts produced as belonging to the modern world. In many respects, much of the work produced by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin falls into this category. Although Pugin is well known as an identifier of the Victorian Gothic revival of the 1840s onwards, some would even say that he came to encapsulate its style; it is perhaps somewhat misleading to see him as a form of retrogressive designer, someone who deals in pastiches and reimaginings.
Pugin produced work for the modern era. He was well aware of the increasingly industrial processes of the contemporary world of the early to mid-nineteenth century. He had a number of creatively productive relationships with companies that supplied a range of goods both industrially and by hand and was therefore a designer and architect of his time, a period where both systems, machine and hand, still had relatively large representations allowing for an often complex situation where interiors employed both mass and single production pieces.
Illustration: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ceramic tile design, 1850.
One of Pugin's creatively interesting relationships was with Minton who supplied large-scale ceramic floor and wall tiles for both domestic and religious use. The ceramic tiles illustrating this article were all designed by Pugin and produced by Minton in about 1850. Although superficially appearing genuinely medieval in style and description, they are in fact Victorian and should be seen as modern interpretations or inspirations of medieval rather than copies or pastiches. Ceramic tiles for the ecclesiastical market became particularly profitable during the mid-nineteenth century as demand for supplies to both new and old churches were increased. Most were representational of the medieval style although it was made clear at the time that the new encaustic tile floors were a contemporary addition to an older church, and not necessarily a cosmetic lie. Many parishioners and local church leaders were often proud of their newly laid ceramic floors as it was often seen as an acceptable element of decoration in older churches that had often been stripped of their own colourful decoration, ornament and pattern work in the Protestant reformation.
Illustration: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ceramic tile design, 1850.
Most of the tiles were not glazed, as this was considered dangerous for floor surfaces. However, tiling around altars could be glazed and therefore more obviously decorative. It is interesting that so many nineteenth century church floors are so often mistaken for the original medieval, not so much because that was their intention, but more because of our present day limited knowledge of genuine medieval in all its intricacies and differing styles, compared to the average knowledgeable mid-Victorian.
It is fair to say that during the career of Pugin there seemed some confusion as to the purpose of his work. What at first appeared to be genuine praise for Pugin's championship of the medieval turned to dismay in certain sectors when it became apparent that Pugin was not resurrecting the medieval but in fact redesigning the style for a modern and contemporary audience. The attitude of the increasingly disgruntled ecclesiastical critics who were adamant for a true medieval revival can perhaps be seen in the following 1846 quote from The Ecclesiologist magazine. 'Mr Pugin's Churches are not literal revivals of medieval churches, but rather conventional and modernised reflections of them.' The statement was no doubt intended as a critical note of Pugin's work. However, that his career was producing increasingly creative work that was obviously not a direct copy of the past was perhaps the point that was missed, intentionally or not.
Illustration: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ceramic tile design, 1850.
The Victorian Gothic Revival as opposed to the earlier Georgian one was a design movement that had industry at its core. New construction and production methods were revolutionising architecture, ornamentation and design. Metal was becoming integral to many new buildings, including ecclesiastical, and large-scale production methods were expanding both choice and availability in early Victorian Britain. Although many buildings gave the appearance of hand crafted medievalism, most were constructed using at least some elements of mass production and many architects were drawn towards the conceivable possibilities of the modern world.
Pugin was no different in this respect and used both industrial mass manufactured products as well as hand crafted and this perhaps seemed too much of a compromise for some. However, along with Pugin's easy comfort with this compromise and his relatively relaxed acceptance of industry, new materials and working methods, his real connection with the connection with the medieval world seemed to many to be tenuous at best. It is perhaps telling that our contemporary world has now begun to recognise Pugin as one of the first prophets of Modernism, mainly due to his break with classicism, through Gothic, but also because of his pragmatic embracing of industrial processes. The fact that Pugin might not have seen himself as a full portent of Modernism is perhaps a compromise on our own part, that he was a creative individual of his own era, which encapsulated both machine and hand production, is nonetheless a factor that should be considered when examining Pugin and the Victorian Gothic Revival.
Further reading links:
God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain
Pugin's Gothic Ornament: The Classic Sourcebook of Decorative Motifs with 100 Plates (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Pugin: A Gothic Passion
A. W. N. Pugin: Master of Gothic Revival
Pugin's Ecclesiastical Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Contrasts and True Principles
Examples of Gothic architecture: selected from various ancient edifices in
Pugin's Floral Ornament CD-ROM and Book (Dover Full-Color Electronic Design)
Gothic ornaments, selected from various ancient buildings, both in England and Franc, during the years 1828, 1829, and 1830
True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture
The Stained Glass of A.W.N. Pugin
Augustus Welby Pugin, Designer of the British Houses of Parliament: The Victorian Quest for a Liturgical Architecture
Augustus Pugin Versus Decimus Burton: A Victorian Architectural Duel
Gothic Revival A&I (Art and Ideas)
The Gothic Revival (World of Art)
Gothic Revival
In Pointed Style: The Gothic Revival in America, 1800-1860
