Portugal: Tile Museum Part 1

We weren't going to go to the tile museum. When I found it in the guide book and told Tutty about it, she seemed as excited as me until she started to enthuse with equal vigour about the electricity museum and I realised she was ribbing me. I was told, no tile museum. But then the open top bus tour stopped there and she couldn't refuse! I have a soft spot for ceramics, especially tiles, which I trace back to my GCSE ceramics course and the project I did on the tilework of a Spanish artist, Amparo, that we stayed with one summer.

There was a LOT to see. Here are some of the more traditional tiles that were on display.









There was a lot of repetition on the blue and white theme. I wish I knew more about it, or that the captions were more detailed: I'd love to know why and how it fits in with the other blue and white china that has been made in Europe.



A hint of the Moorish influence there, maybe.





Quite a lot of religious artwork here, too. I guess maybe some of it had been rescued from churches.





This might have been my favourite. I appreciated the simple colours and the bird and leaf motif.



This looked like the sort of patterning that might appear on the outside of some of the buildings in Lisbon. That dark pink colour was quite common, too.

Next: the more modern designs.

(No judgment if you don't love looking at these. Afterwards, Tutty remarked that she felt she had to thank me for taking her there, because she'd spent all the time wandering around thinking, "This is an hour of my life I will never get back" and it encouraged her to be a bit more carpe diem in life. She doesn't hold back, that one.)