ORIGINAL DESIGN MATERIAL

A large collection of original design work, including material from the hand of George Maw himself as well as other Company artists, namely Owen Gibbon, Charles Temple, John Windsor Bradburn, Walter Crane and, in later years, Mr Harper and Mr Scott who developed the silk screen printing of decorative tiles as well as the many un-named but highly skilled draughtsmen employed by the Company during the years 1860 to 1960.

The changing tastes in decoration and the different methods of production become quite clear. Some designs are for named contracts and signed by the artist, and many carry a Company Code number. The Co-operative Society commissioned many decorative shop fittings, as did Hospitals, Town Halls, Public Baths, Schools and Colleges, ships and canteens, for which tiling proved not only hygeinic and hardwearing but the height of interior fashion.