The social identity of medieval tile makers working at Keighton, Nottingham
The social identity of medieval tile makers working at Keighton, Nottingham: representation through ceramic technologies
Edward Faber
Funded by: A Small Research Grant from the Humanities Research Centre, University of Nottingham. The analytical work was carried out at the Microanalysis Research Facility, University of Nottingham. The floor tiles are part of the collection at the University of Nottingham Museum.
The social relations of medieval tile makers have been studied with an emphasis on identifying the products they made by using the same stamps. It is maintained that ceramic production reflects socially embedded traditions of manufacture, and so this pilot project aims to advance interpretations of social identity of medieval tile makers by investigating the technological traditions of decorated floor tile production.
Figure 1: Encuastic floor tile
Figure 2: Compositional image of the cross section of an encaustic floor tile showing the three structural layers of the lead glaze, inlaid white slip and red body. This image illustrates the fine-grained nature of the slip, together with the parallel orientation of the clay filaments, in comparison to the clay in the tile body