Rare and Interesting Plaques

The Baptistry holds some rare treasures. 

Mr Thompson Yates had an interest in the Della Robbia pottery works of Mr Rathbone, of Birkenhead (1894 - 1906). 

On his death, his sister Miss A.M. Thompson donated in memory the plaques, frieze cherubs, and the oak panelling and screen that separates the Baptistry from the Nave. 
 

More about Della Robbia

Della Robbia


The Della Robbia Pottery was a ceramic factory founded in 1894 in Birkenhead, England.

The business was started by Harold Steward Rathbone and Conrad Gustave d'Huc Dressler (1856-1940).

Rathbone, son of a wealthy local business man, Philip Rathbone, had been a pupil of Ford Madox Brown, who was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Dressler was a sculptor, potter and also inventor of the continuous firing tunnel kiln.

The pottery was established as a true Arts & Crafts pottery on the lines advocated by William Morris, using local labour and raw materials such as local red clay from Moreton, Wirral.

The firm specialised in tiles, earthenware and, particularly, relief plaques inspired by the work of Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia.

Also of great interest, is the tablet erected by Henry Yates Thompson in memory of his father Mr Samuel Thompson.

This may seem to be of simple marble – however, it is a slab of porphyry, which is of so large a size that it only has one rival in the world – the slab on the grave of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.