A Minton floor rediscovered at Cliveden

The Entrance Hall at Cliveden was, until 1904, embellished by a pair of Minton encaustic tiled floors. The Duchess of Sutherland was presented with the earlier floor by Herbert Minton in 1851, when the mansion was being rebuilt. A photograph was taken of this floor in 1889 (Fig. 1). The second floor was laid for William Waldorf Astor in 1895 when the Entrance Hall was enlarged, but it is virtually undocumented, a mere footnote in the decorative history of the room. The floors were both removed by Nancy Astor in 1904, (1) who considered them to be too oppressive, and the tiles were carefully removed and stored on the Cliveden estate, where they still remain. A description of the second floor has emerged, which for the first time allows us to visualise the appearance of the enlarged Entrance Hall, as well as providing clues as to the size and colour scheme of the earlier floor. It also raises important questions about the possible designer of the second floor.

Herbert Minton presented the first floor to the Duchess of Sutherland, 'as a token of his appreciation of the constant interest she had shown for the Welfare of the Staffordshire Potteries.' (2) The relationship between Herbert Minton and the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland was a fruitful one. Minton had already carried out extensive works for the couple at Trentham, Staffordshire, from 1837. (3) They in turn introduced Herbert Minton to his most prestigious clients, (4) and lent him maiolica from their collection for him to copy. There can be no doubt that the floor at Cliveden would have been of the highest quality, and the most modern design, perhaps reflecting work exhibited at the Great Exhibition.

The indistinct photograph of the first Minton floor in the Entrance Hall was taken in 1889 (Fig. 1). The floor was of a handsome design radiating out from a central boss (obscured by a substantial jardiniere), with spandrel sections filled with arabesques, and additional roundels. Decorative borders are used to articulate the overall design. The floor acts as a foil to a bronze statue of Joan of Arc (c. 1838) by Princesse Marie-Christine d'Orleans, which was placed there at vast expense by Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860), between 1852 and 1855. (5) This suggests that the Entrance Hall was designed by Barry to provide a suitable setting for what has been described as the 'Doric grandeur' of the floor. (6)

However, the physical evidence afforded by the tiles does not correspond entirely with the photograph. At the top of the stack may be found tiles of cherubs holding wreaths and fountains, in white with grey-green and buff highlights, against a jasper blue ground (Fig. 2), together with fragments of arabesques in buff on a purple ground, and numerous border designs. Whilst some of the border designs are recognisable, the cherubim are not visible in the photograph, and it is hard to see how they would have been incorporated into what is an essentially geometric design.

This discrepancy is explained by a 'Specially Contributed' description of an extended floor, entitled 'A Millionaire's Encaustic Floor', which was published in the Pottery Gazette for November 1895.

Some years ago, the late Mr Herbert Minton presented to the then Duchess of Sutherland an elaborately manufactured encaustic tile floor for her residence at Clevedon, Bucks, and the property having passed in the possession of Mr Astor, the American millionaire, that gentleman has recently ordered a counterpart of it from the present firm of Messrs. Minton, Hollins, & Co., of Stoke on Trent and which we have had the privilege of seeing. The floor is 25ft 8 in. by 23ft 8 in, and is of a most artistic character and wonderfully displays the high manufacturing powers of the firm. The whole floor has been specially designed and modelled, and is undoubtedly the finest of its kind ever produced. The Corinthian form of design is mainly adopted. On the outer border of the floor are cupids allegorically drawn. The base of the ornament on the outer edge is of jasper blue colour, the figures of the Cupids being white, and in their hands they hold a wreath, the ends of which are attached to a vase in the form of a fountain. A scroll and key border is also effectively introduced. At the top of the columns or plinths in the centre of the floor are allegorical figures in white upon a jasper ground, the figures being relieved by touches of green. The elements are represented by four allegorical pictures and in the centre of the pavement the mask of Medusa is portrayed. The colours of the tiles used in the construction of this beautiful work of art are blue, white, grey, buffs, black, green and purple. The Entrance Hall to Clevedon when this pavement is laid will consist of 60 ft by 25 ft of Messrs Minton, Hollins and Co's tiles. (7)

Cliveden had been acquired by William Waldorf Astor in 1893 from the Duke of Westminster. Astor altered the Entrance Hall, the Library and the Study to create a series of suitably 'masculine' spaces for displaying his collections of antique and renaissance art, which would be in harmony with the exterior of the house, and consequently in the Italian style of the sixteenth century. The architect John Loughborough Pearson (1817-97) was coaxed out of near-retirement to carry out the job, although the work was largely executed by Pearson's son, Frank. The Entrance Hall, which was originally a small square room, was merged with the Morning Room. The new space was panelled throughout, and fluted Corinthian columns and pilasters were added. The French renaissance fireplace, acquired at the Spitzer Sale in 1892, (8) was incorporated at one end of the room, and at the other, Pearson's newly designed staircase rose beneath a painted ceiling by Hervieu, with a painted surround executed by John Dibblee Crace (1838-1917). The 'mosaic' floor was continued throughout the room, as is revealed by an unpublished typed memorandum. (9)

Until this description came to light, the means by which Astor extended the 'mosaic' floor were unclear. No photograph of the Entrance Hall with the extended floor has been unearthed, and the only clue was the stack of five thousand or so tiles in the Fernery, most of which are inaccessible. Now it is possible to gain an idea of the appearance of the floor, and of its colour scheme. The existence of the tiles depicting the cherubim is fully explained. In addition to this, two sets of dimensions are given, the first being the dimensions of the new floor on its own, and the second being the dimensions of the new floor and the earlier floor together. This implies that the earlier floor was not replaced, and moreover suggests that the colour scheme of the new floor may have conformed to that of the old.

There is an element of risk in assuming that what is essentially a publicity exercise in a trade journal should be regarded as entirely trustworthy, and one wonders why descriptions of the floor do not appear elsewhere. This may be explained both by Astor's excessive desire for privacy, and also by a caustic comment in the Art Journal of 1895 reporting that Minton, Hollins and Co are 'lagging behind in the matter of art' in spite of their technical excellence, and that 'they do not point the way to better things in colour, taste and design.' (10) As far as Astor's new floor was concerned, the colour scheme may well have been governed by the older encaustic floor, and the overtly classical design radiating around a Medusa's head could have seemed old-fashioned and perhaps lacking in taste. However, the accuracy of the piece is confirmed not just by the visible tiles, but by the fact that the 'Mask of Medusa' exists in a private collection, with a label on the reverse saying 'Removed 1904 on orders of Lady (Nancy) Astor'. (11)

The designer of the 1895 floor is unknown, but it is tempting to think that John Dibblee Crace may have played a part. He was employed with John and Frank Pearson in 1895 at Lord Astor's London properties, 18 Carlton House Terrace, and the Astor Estate Office, London. (12) He was an accomplished decorator in the cinquecento style, as is illustrated by his work at Longleat and Grosvenor House in the 1870s, and provided a monochrome surround to the painting above the staircase at Cliveden in the same idiom. Furthermore, the distribution of colour on the floor, in particular the use of blue and white is something that Crace specifically draws attention to in his book, The Art of Colour Decoration, (13) the example he gives being the ceiling of the loggia in the Villa Madama, which he attributes to Giulio Romano. Astor would probably have known this building from his ten years as the us Minister in Rome, and this would have been precisely the style he was attempting to emulate at Cliveden.

This description of the second Minton encaustic floor at Cliveden is important: not only does it describe a once neglected floor, but it also provides the basis for future research into this spectacular facet of William Waldorf Astor's re-casting of the interior of Cliveden.

(1) The National Trust, Cliveden, London, 1994, p. 42.

(2) Lord Ronald Leveson-Gower, My Reminiscences, vol. I, London, 1883, p. 24.

(3) Ibid., p. 41.

(4) Minton's most prestigious clients were Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. Minton provided a mosaic tiled floor for the Grand Corridor of Osborne House in the late 1840s.

(5) Stafford, Staffordshire Record Office, D593 K/1/3/43, 18 January 1855, for this statue.

(6) Joan Jones, Minton: The First Two Hundred Years of Design and Production, Shrewsbury, 1993, p. 170.

(7) 'A Millionaire's Encaustic Floor (Specially Contributed)', Pottery Gazette, vol. X, November 1895, p. 856.

(8) Unpublished typed memoranda, 1920, in the possession of Viscount Astor; these refer to the Spitzer sale. A copy is in the National Trust Office, Hughenden Manor.

(9) Ibid.

(10) Lewis F. Day, 'Tiles', Art Journal, new series, November 1895, p. 347.

(11) Photocopy in the National Trust Office, Hughenden Manor.

(12) Megan Aldrich, 'The Victorian Craces, c. 1830-1899' in eadem (ed.), The Craces: Royal Decorators 1768-1899, London, 1990, p. 130.

(13) J.D. Crace, The Art of Colour Decoration, London, 1913.

Hugo Brown has worked for the National Trust for three years. He is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art.

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