Tudor Potteries operated in Los Angeles between 1927 and 1939. They produced a wide range of decorative tiles in Spanish, Moorish, and Persian designs. Their catalog from June 1931 lists corner, center, and border tiles that could be combined to create an "endless variety of patterns." Tudor is known for brightly colored tiles: orange, yellow, turquoise were commonly used.
This 8-tile table with its darker glazes - terracotta, muted brown, darker green, pale yellow, dark blue - has a less common color pattern. The design for the center tile, but in a different color combination, appears on page 189 of the California Tile, The Golden Era 1910-1940 (vol. 2). The corner tile, yet again in different colors and with fewer glazes, is shown on page 277 of the Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 6. A couple of tiles with different designs but the same color combination used on my table are also shown on the same page.
Finally, both designs appear in the 1931 Tudor catalog: the corner tile is marked QDA, and the center is QEA. I believe, however, that "A" specified a particular color pattern, so these specific tiles might have had a different designation. In any case, they only cost $0.25 each back in 1931.
- Dimensions: 24 3/4" x 12 1/4" (not including the wooden edge), eight 6" x 6" tiles
- Acquired: San Francisco, California, October 2013
